Diane Braun

Call me, (928) 442-9291 (Arizona, MST), or email me. Tell me about your project. For example, is it a newsletter, website, article, book, etc.? About how many pages do you need edited or proofread? What format is it (Word, PDF, etc.)? When is your deadline?

Depending on the length of your project, I may ask you to send me a few sample pages.

We’ll discuss price, deadline, and procedure.

If you decide to hire my services, I’ll send you a brief contract that you’ll sign and return with your project to be edited or proofread.

I will contact you, if I have any questions.

I will advise you when the project is complete.

You’ll receive your beautifully edited or proofread work upon payment. (Established clients may set up payment terms.) I accept PayPal and debit and credit cards.

I can edit and proofread your work in three different ways: using Track Changes in Microsoft Word, creating a clean copy in Microsoft Word, or annotating a PDF.

Using the Track Changes function in Word maintains your original version but shows my recommended edits. You, the client, can then go through the document and accept or reject each change with a simple click. I can also use the Comment function to make suggestions or ask questions.

In a clean copy, I edit the document as needed, leaving no trail of changes. You receive a clean, ready-to-go text.

If I receive a PDF, I indicate edits in call-out boxes. You then make the appropriate changes to the original document based on my input.

When I edit your work, I will verify the following:

Spelling -- Spell Check programs can't tell whether you meant to write "there," "their," or "they're" and don't know if you intended to use "by," "buy," or "bye." Only a human editor can make those distinctions. In a published book, I once saw "Indian Jones" instead of "Indiana Jones."

Grammar, Punctuation, Usage, and Style

Consistency -- Are all the verbs in the same tense? Have you inadvertently switched between first and third person? Are the names of people and places spelled consistently? Are footnotes, endnotes, and bibliographies in the appropriate standardized form?

Substantive Editing Option -- If you prefer, I can also edit for clarity and flow, poor transitions, clumsy wording, confusing sentence structure, etc.