How to communicate with a proofreader or editor

When you use a proofreading or editing service as a student, you want to ensure everything goes right the first time.

However, if things go wrong when you’re using editing services, what’s the best way to communicate with your editor and let them know?

Professional editors and proofreaders are usually very busy, which means that they do not necessarily read correspondence or instructions carefully. This may also be true if you are criticising their work, or letting them know you were not satisfied with some aspect of their writing or proofreading.

It is worthwhile to note that this is the case with all professionals who are dealing with multiple tasks from day to day, and it is valuable to have the communication skills to deal with such situations.

Therefore, in order to communicate smoothly with your proofreader or editor on any matter ranging from low-quality work to arranging a deadline, this article highlights a few tips you can use for your next proofreading or proofreading service.

Image: A lot of the time, communication lies at the heart of good editing

Stay on track

Keep your communications with your proofreader or editor light, quick, and to the point.

If you’re contacting to enquire about a proofreader’s availability, do it in a precise and quick way. Say, if you want to know ifthe proofreader will work with you on an upcoming project, you can write that in the subject line of an email: “New Proofreading Task, 24 hours, 8,000 words.”

Then, in the body of the email, you can attach the document with other details about the proofreading task.

This type of clean and to-the-point communication is useful not only for proofreaders or editors but also for the users of editing services.

Image: Keep your communications quick and light

Bold and underline

When you write emails to proofreaders and editors to enquire about services, availability, and lodge complaints, styling your email can help you get a quicker response.

For example, if you use bold text, italics, and underline – don’t overdo it! – this can draw the reader’s attention to key parts of your text. If you use too much of either one, this can ruin the effect altogether.

If you’re trying to work with a popular and in-demand proofreader, for instance, you can embolden text in your email such as the word count, document type, or subject area.

This will help the proofreader navigate your email, which will increase their likelihood of responding.

Image: Format your text to have a strong impact

Don’t be afraid to phone

Proofreaders and editors are good writers and preparers of files and documents, but they are also usually well-spoken and good communicators, too.

For this reason, you should never be afraid to call your proofreader if there is anything you’re unsure about. Whether you are considering making an order or whether you’ve already ordered an editing service, your editor should always be happy to offer advice over the phone.

Editor-author communication in book editing

When students use editing and proofreading services, long-winded discussions and communications are rarely needed.

By contrast, when editors and book authors collaborate on book proofreading services UK, it is vital to have clear, sharp, and effective communication between authors, editors, and proofreaders.

This article highlights three reasons why sustained and long-term editor-author communication in book editing is essential.

 

Length of books

Compared to student essays, most books are incredibly long.

This is the same for research papers from academics, press releases from commercial organisations, and other types of content. They are almost all considerably shorter than most fiction or non-fiction books.

The long length of books means that proofreading and editing them also takes longer.

For this reason, it is usually important for the editors, proofreaders, and authors of the book to get to know each other better. As the project they are working on is long term in nature, it is worth developing a closer collaborative relationship.

 

Author-specific details

Mostly for the editor’s sake, knowing the author is hugely worthwhile. Understanding the author’s writing style, for example, and their idiosyncrasies can save substantial time and guide the editing process.

It can also lead to the avoidance of misunderstandings, such as when an editor overwrites too much of a writer’s authorial voice.

Consider how today’s editors and proofreaders – usingchecklists and modern techniques – would find it difficult to work with authors like Cormac McCarthy, who wrote No Country For Old Men (2005), without communicating beforehand.

In the following sentence, McCarthy shows an example of polysyndeton.This is when an author deliberately inserts conjunctions into a sentence in order to slow the rhythm of the writing, create a stream of action, or convey a solemn tone.

The deputy left [a person] standing in the corner of the office with his hands cuffed behind him while he sat in the swivelchair and took off his hat and put his feet up and called Lamar on the mobile.

Cormac McCarthy – award-winning author and screenplay writer –has technically written an incorrect sentence that all trained proofreaders would change and correct. They would write these sentences with polysyndeton (Ancient Greek: meaning many bound together) out in proper, grammatical sentences!

However, in book proofreading services UK, as well as in good editing and proofreading services, there should be “synergy” and knowledge between the author and editor, which depends on precise communication.

 

Developmental editing

For books, especially works of fiction, editing is usually a developmental process.

For this reason, if the author and editor are to work together more closely than they would in a smaller-scale project (e.g., a thesis, corporate press release, or other short files), it is important for them to develop a more robust editor-author relationship.

This assists the openness and productivity of the developmental editing process, enabling each party – the editor and the author – to bring their ideas to the table.

 

Using transition words to rewrite a document

The difficulty of paraphrasing means it’s important to make use of every available tool.Some people use professional rewriting services as a tool, but if a rewriting service isn’t available, one of the next best tools you can apply is a good understanding of so-called transition words.

For students of the English language, as well as learners seeking to improve their academic writing and paraphrasing skills, it is also especially important to create a transition list. Transition lists, as discussed in this article, are an essential resource for anyone aspiring to provide rewritingservices.

Therefore, this article defines transition words and explains how to use them not only to improve your writing but also to enable you to paraphrase/rewrite text much more effectively.

 

What are transition words?

A transition word (also known as a transition) is a word or phrase that connects ideas in a piece of writing. In academic writing, as well as other areas, sentence starters increase the cohesion of a document, the sharpness of sentences, and the reader’s ability to follow your logic.

In the following example, the word afterwards is an example of a transition:

“Lightning filled the room, lighting it up, and shortly afterwards it thundered loudly.”

A sentence opener (or sentence starter) is a particular type of transition that opens a sentence. Almost all transition words can be used as sentence starters, and in most cases, transitions read more naturally as sentence starters.

Examples of sentence starters include:

·         In summary, ...

·         In this paper, ...

·         Next, ...

 

What is a transition list?

For students of the English language, as well as learners seeking to improve their academic writing skills, it is also critically important to create a transition list.But what is a transition list?

A transition list is a long list of transition words. Similar to a thesaurus, the items in a transition list can be arranged in alphabetical order and made searchable.

The best transition lists are organised by the nature of the argument you are making. For example, your list could be categorised as follows:

·         Category 1: Words showing contrast 

o   however

o   instead

o   in contrast

·         Category 2: Words that set up an additional idea

o   moreover

o   coupled with

o   correspondingly

·         Category 3: Words for cause and effect

o   accordingly

o   because

o   subsequently

·         Category 4: Words for emphasis

o   chiefly

o   granted

o   ordinarily

 

Value of transition words in rewriting

Whenever paraphrasers provide a rewriting service, using transition words – as well as transition lists – helps to create a unique, cohesive piece of text.

 

Summary

Whether you’re a student, academic, or businessperson, it’s always advisable to work with professional paraphrasers to improve your writing, ensure it’s free from plagiarism, and watch your writing come to life in a better, more polished form.

However, if this isn’t possible, transition words and transition lists are an essential resource – they make your sentences sharp, connect your ideas, and help you communicate more nuanced meanings.

Proofreading and time management as a student

Most students understand the need to proofread documents such as essays, research papers, and even emails. Many people, but significantly fewer, are even aware of the benefits of using proofreading services.

While there is growing recognition of the clear advantages of using a professional proofreading service compared to reviewing your written work alone, very few people recognise the value of proofreading as a time management tool.

Therefore, this article zooms in on the topic of time management among students, showing how proofreading services – among other essential tools – should be on the radar of every student in 2022 and beyond.

 

Why master time management?

At university, mastering the skill of time management should be at the top of your agenda. If you can plan and use your time to your advantage, it will be invaluable in later life.

University is usually the first-time students are required to engage in extensive independent, self-directed learning. This is especially true for international students, many of whom have only experienced a teacher-led (or teacher-dominated) style of education.

For this reason, developing the ability to take hold of your own time, optimising each minute, is something that’s worth the effort of spending time on.

 

General tools to master time management

Useful tools to improve your time management skills include:

·         Scheduling tools

·         To do lists

·         Taking breaks

 

Scheduling tools

To ensure you’re kept up to date about assignments, deadlines, tutorials, lectures, and meet-ups, using a scheduling tool – such as a calendar – is worthwhile. Google Calendar is a simple, freely available digital calendar tool.

 

To do lists

Create a list of all the activities you need to complete. Then, order the list by importance. If necessary, include required completion times in your to do list.

 

Taking breaks

If you study for too long without stopping, the output you gain from the effort you exert decreases dramatically. Taking breaks, on the other hand, offers a chance to recharge, refuel, and refresh your mind. This, in turn, allows you to return to your work with much greater productivity.

 

Proofreading tools for time management

Students need to leave time to proofread their essays, assignments, and other documents. However, for many students, it’s a matter that’s easier said than done.

For students facing time pressure, using a Professional proofreading service is indispensable in terms of enabling good time management.

Clearly, it can save students from submitting unedited text or files that haven’t been proofread. At the same time, though, working with a professional proofreader as a student is worthwhile for time management even if you aren’t running up against a tight deadline.

This is because, as an activity that’s permitted by universities, having your work professionally proofread as a student saves you a massive amount of time. The time you save on proofreading your own work is time you can invest in other essential activities. 

 

Proofreading and other underused digital resources for university students

Some students are surprised to learn that proofreading services are one of the most widely used digital resources today, not only among students. They often think: Who, other than a university student, would need to use a proofreading service?

As a result, they risk underusing this important tool.

For many businesses, academic researchers, and university students, digital resources like proofreading services – as well as other digital resources, including databases such as Google Scholar – are unavoidable tools if you demand top-notch writing and research.   

For example, if you need to prepare a literature review for an important journal article, how can you achieve that without a database like Google Scholar, PubMed, or the Cochrane Library?

Similarly, without using a proofreading service, companies and academics will lose valuable time that they could be allocating to some other task.

Given that using a proofreader is a key digital resource available for students today, this article:

·         Defines proofreading as a digital services

·         Discusses the features of the available services

·         Provides a list of other underused digital tools

 

What is proofreading and how is it a “digital resource”?

What is proofreading?

A proofreading service corrects the grammar, punctuation, and spelling in your writing. In other words, a trained professional – rather than you yourself – proofreads your document for a fee.

More in-depth proofreading services, including higher-priced editing services, may also ensure your sentences follow a consistent style and flow naturally.  

 

What is a digital resource?

Digital resources include smartphone apps, databases (Google Scholar), websites (such as blogs, digital magazines, and journals), and digital services (such as web design or proofreading services) 

Digital resources are materials that have been created using digital means, such as a computer, or by translating an analogue material, such as a handwritten document, into a format that is digital.

 

How is proofreading a digital resource?

With the ongoing trend of digitalization, the proofreading industry has gone almost entirely digital. This is true for the document preparation services industry altogether.

That is to say, the vast majority of services for proofreading are delivered online, and most of the essential tools that proofreaders use for their work are digital tools (e.g., Grammarly, Word, etc.).

 

Other underused digital resources

Dragon Microphone

This underrated smartphone app offers university students a good speech-to-text system, available any time on their device for note-taking, writing, and other tasks. 

 

Office Lens

Students can use Office Lens to create an instant scan of an analogue document (such as a business card), converting it into a digital format (e.g., a Word file).

Be sure to proofread the document after scanning it, though!

 

Uni Calculator

This little-known grade-tracking calculator helps you keep on top of your exams and total assessments at university. This plays a key role in coordinating your work for all the modules.

 

Google Drive

Google Scholar is widely used among university students, but Google drive is less popular. However, this file storage and file synchronization system offers incredible value. 

How to paraphrase betterusing sentence openers and transitions

Sentence openers and transitions are words or phrases that help you improve the links between the ideas in your written work. Adept paraphrasers frequently make use of transitions, sentence openers, and other writing techniques to paraphrase quickly, accurately, and using sharp, clear sentences. 

Paraphrasing services can help you to ensure your writing is unique, coherent, and reads smoothly. However, using a paraphrasing service is not a substitute for learning about the fundamentals of paraphrasing. Knowing the basics of paraphrasing can also help you evaluate the quality of other paraphrasers’ work.

Therefore, this article covers one of the most important techniques for paraphrasing a sentence effectively: namely, using sentence openers and transitions.

 

What are sentence openers and transitions?

A sentence starter is a special type of transition. So, first, let’s define what a transition is.

A transition, also known as a transition word or transition phrase, is a word or phrase that indicates how two or more ideas in your writing are related.For example, the word afterwardsfunctions as a transition in the following sentence:

“The drivers turned the bend quickly and, afterwards, started to race.”

A sentence starter (or sentence opener)is a specific type of transition that begins a sentence. Interestingly, most transitions are sentence starters. To give an example, notice how the same word afterwards from the previous example is here used as a sentence starter – not a transition:

“Afterwards, I felt a huge sense of relief.”

Importantly, most transition words work and flow much better as sentence starters. For example, consider the following rewritten version of the previous sentence, where the transition word interestingly is used instead – and more naturally – as a sentence starter:

“Most transition words, interestingly, work and flow much better as sentence starters.”

 

How are sentence openers and transitions useful for paraphrasers?

Simply put, paraphrasing is much easier if you have three essential tools available:

·         A thesaurus (or Google)

·         A dictionary (or Google)

·         A transition list (ideally created by you)

The reason why the first two tools are essential when paraphrasing is fairly clear. A thesaurus helps you find synonyms for common (and less common) words and phrases, while a dictionary provides a useful elaboration of the meaning of specific words and phrases.

The value of a transition list is less obvious. For this reason, it is usually only professional paraphrasers – those individuals who provide proofreading services – who use transition lists and create their own. However, transition lists are just as crucial for paraphrasing better, especially if you’re spent for time.

Transition lists are simply long lists of transition words; having immediate access to these, just as you do to synonyms when using a thesaurus, eases the process of rewriting and paraphrasing a document.

The fact that using transition words and sentence starters – by definition – will change the structure of the original sentence is also a key reason why they are valuable in the process of providing a paraphrasing service. 

Essential apps for proofreading and essay writing in 2022

With the growth of web and smartphone applications along with other enhanced digital services globally, a whole host of essential apps have been developed for proofreading and other tasks such as essay-writing.

In professional proofreading services, particularly the general practice of professional proofreading today, experts use these apps – such as Grammarly and Focus Writer – to make their jobs much, much easier. This also improves the quality of the service the client receives, whether that’s a student, business, or researcher, which creates a win-win situation overall.

Students and academic researchers also regularly use today’s smartphone apps, along with other technology, to increase the quality of their work to the level of professional proofreading. In fact, in the case of students, many students find that these apps are essential for their daily life at university, especially in the area of essay-writing.

This article describes several essential apps for proofreading and essay writing. Some of the mentioned apps are popular spelling checkers and style checkers, such as Grammarly, whereas others are less-known but equally valuable resources.

Grammarly

To improve the quality of your essays, as well as your general writing, Grammarly is among the best-available apps. The main use case for Grammarly is that it can prevent your document from being undermined by preventable errors such asstyle and clarity mistakes.

One of the most valuable features of Grammarly is that, as a technology company, Grammarly actually provides multiple apps, all of which work in combination. For example, Grammarly can be used as a:

·         Desktop app (Windows and Mac)

·         Smartphone app (iOS and Android devices)

·         Chrome plugin

Grammarly is an essential choice for people who want a reasonable proof for their files but who are working within a limited budget. Students often fit this category, but when combined with professional proofreading or editing services, tools like Grammarly work much better.

Evernote

Almost all great essays start with the smallest ideas. This is why you need a clean, responsive note-taking app to jot down all your thoughts.

Evernote serves this purpose, but it also allows users to copy articles from the Internet. In this way, it helps an incredible amount when essay-planning and drafting are taking place.

However, at the same time, Evernote is substantially more than a note-taking app. Using the app, you can draw, create checklists, and easily embed other documents.

Focus Writer

When experts need to complete professional proofreading services, Focus Writer is one of the more popular apps they often turn to.

Students regularly use Microsoft Word to write, edit, and proof their essays, but Focus Writer – given its popularity among proofreaders and editors – is another valuable app to use.

The simplicity of Focus Writer is its main charm. If all you need is a blank page with a good spellchecker, which is what proofreaders usually require! Focus Writer is the way to go. 

Should you self-edit your book manuscript?

Learning how to edit your manuscript isn’t always needed if you’re trying to persuade your publisher to turn it into a book. Self-editing is indeed an attractive option due to its affordability, but experts are also available who provide book proofreading services UK, as well as editing and proofreading services.

Using editing and proofreading services, as well as other services (such as ghostwriting), is an easy way to impress readers, even if your manuscript contains typos. Also, even if you haven’t paid attention to formatting rules, structure, or grammar as an author, you can find writing professionals to assist you with all of these tasks.  

Altogether, the question of whether to self-edit your book depends on a number of factors.

This article discusses each of these factors, each of which is phrased as a question. Considering how you, as an author, would answer these questions will help you decide whether you should opt for self-editing or, alternatively, you should work with a professional editor or book proofreading services UK.

Do you like editing?

If you don’t like editing, don’t feel alone. It’s understandable that most book authors, especially fiction writers, would rather spend their time being creative writing new work than editing, optimising, and continually refining their old work.

As a result, using something like a book proofreading service UK, can play a key role in saving you – as a writer – from a fairly time-consuming, analytical, and formulaic task you dislike. What’s more, with the time you save, you might even be able to write a second book!

Do you have any editing training or qualifications?

Formal and informal training is available for aspiring editors. If you lack either formal or informal training in editing, attempting to edit your own book manuscript is likely to end badly.

For example, are you familiar with the value of any of the following?

·         Using a style guide

·         Line editing

·         Consistency

·         Avoiding passive voice

·         Developmental editing

If most of these terms are unfamiliar to you now, looking them up on Google still may not help you to edit your book manuscript with confidence. In such cases, it is usually the best option to decide to work with a trained professional.

How much time is available?

This one is fairly clear-cut. If you lack time, the value and return on investment from editing and proofreading services increases dramatically.

Does your publisher require an editor?

Most book publishers today require a professional editor to review your manuscript before publication – even if they believe it’s gold. In this case, self-editing is still an option, but it just means you can also collaborate with a trained professional.

If you’re committed to self-editing and would rather not work with a publisher-allocated proofreader, self-publishing is always an option. However, self-publishing comes with its own disadvantages, and many of these (e.g., money spent) can counteract, for example, the money saved by self-editing.