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Editing

I've been editing for eight years. During that time I have edited at least fifty books and thousands of articles, poems, blogs, websites, meditations, and more. I am extremely thorough, and I can lend a hand with not just grammar or punctuation, but also content, line, organization, flow, character and story development, and formatting.

Laptop Work

Basic Editing Guidelines

(These can be altered based on your preferences.)

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  • Formatting and capitalized special words, terms, or phrases are 100% consistent throughout.

 

  • Bold is not popular anymore, so I don't use it, although your formatter can help you discover what will look best with the finished product.

 

  • All numbers under 100 are written out alphabetically. Years are 1900s, 2000s, etc.

 

  • All words such as TV, AM, and PM will be uppercase. 

 

  • I like to italicize words to encourage the reader look at a statement delicately and more deeply (or when referring to an inner thought). All titles of books, movies, magazines, etc. are italicized also.

 

  • Three commas are utilized when separating three or more of anything. E.g.: I love the movies World War Z, Zombieland, and 28 Days Later.

 

  • The em dash is used to separate long sentences and to make the reader pause longer than they would with a comma or semicolon. 

 

  • The ellipsis (…) is never used unless it in quoted material (from an outside source) that cuts sentences out from the overall quote to shorten and highlight main points. Technically, it should only be used to omit something. The em dash has been used more recently and more appropriately for dialogue/content pauses or interruptions instead.

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  • New topics are centered on the page. Subtopics are on the left without indentation (this is rare and is more for academic writing). Both are underlined.

 

  • Indentations include sentences that end with a colon before bullet points or lists, as well as the beginning of chapter paragraphs.

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  • I prefer to use Calibri or Times New Roman, this can be changed to your liking by your formatter.

 

  • Left-aligned indenting and some centered will be used. Justified alignment and indentation will be added by your formatter depending on the book’s presentation, either electronically or printed.

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