What Will You Get?
When you send us a document, our initial reply will estimate the level of work we believe the document needs. If the document looks clean and well written, we'll tell you so right off the bat. If it looks hopeless, we'll tell you that, too. On very rare occasions, we will turn down a job if it's good enough or bad enough that we don't think we can provide a reasonable level of value to you.
When your job is complete, you will probably receive at least two files from us. We normally send files as e-mailed attachments, but we can mail your files on a disk or CD-R if you need.
The first file will be a corrected copy of your document, with changes tracked if you desire and your software supports change tracking. If you have requested changes to be tracked, we normally also provide a "clean" copy of your file with changes accepted. We can also provide your corrected copy as a text file or as HTML.
The second file will be a critique of your document. The level of evaluation we provide in the critique varies with the services you have requested and the length of your document. Proofreading jobs usually get a fairly cursory critique that will mention any significant problems that would have required more work than simple proofreading. Large jobs that require significant amounts of editing usually receive more thorough critiques. In the critique, we normally discuss the strengths we noticed, as well as any weaknesses. There’s no set formula for a critique. We tailor each one to the needs of the document. Some sample critiques can be seen here.
The critique will also contain a discussion of what we did and why we did it, focusing primarily on changes that you might not understand or that might not be readily apparent. For example, if we reorganized an article, moving material from the body into the introduction or conclusion, for example, we will tell you why we chose to do that. If we change the order of your main points, we'll explain why we feel that the new sequence is more effective. As we mentioned in our Editorial Philosophy page, everything we do is done "on purpose." We want you to know what that purpose was.
Payment must be received or an arrangement for payment must be agreed upon before files will be returned.