You may need developmental editing if you finished writing a draft of your manuscript but are unsure if your ideas come across clearly. Your words are valuable, but if they are not clear and coherent, their effectiveness will suffer. Developmental editing is used to develop—build or reconstruct—an author’s manuscript. Through a process of revising and rewriting, I will work with you to produce a manuscript that is clear, logical, consistent, and organized, with a suitable tone and format for your intended audience. This level of editing requires innovation and effort from both editor and author, so get ready for some hard work as we walk together through the process of developing your ideas and your writing.
If your manuscript is close to completion—you are confident in your wording, clarity, and organization—and you simply lack a keen eye for those details that make your writing shine, you may need basic copy editing. I will edit your manuscript to correct errors in grammar, mechanics, spelling, usage, and style at a rate of 6–10 pages per hour.
At this level of editing, I will correct grammar, mechanics, spelling, usage, and style, and I will also move beyond the technical details to improve consistency of tone and focus. You may need heavy copy editing if you are satisfied with the overall structure of your manuscript, but you need help tightening your writing, transitioning more smoothly from one thought to the next, eliminating wordiness, clarifying ambiguous or incorrect sentences, and improving your overall phrasing and flow. I will check the text and headers for parallelism, indexes and key terms for consistency, and references for correctness. If a sentence needs to be recast, I will suggest or implement rewording to achieve continuity and readability. Heavy copy editing is performed at a rate of 2–5 pages per hour.
I have fifteen years of editing and proofreading experience in a range of disciplines, starting with a republished nineteenth century British travel journal edited in collaboration with an undergraduate professor. My editing portfolio has expanded since that first project in 2007 to include nonfiction and fiction books, academic journal articles, undergraduate and graduate textbooks, dissertations, theses, short stories, proposals, accreditation reports, application packets, orientation materials, resumes, CVs, and web content. I currently maintain contracts with Ayaana Media & Publishing in Ethiopia, InterVarsity Press in Chicago, and Scribendi in Ontario, as well as private clients.
I hold a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where I graduated summa cum laude, and an Editing Certificate from the University of Chicago. I also studied at the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics in Dallas, Texas, earning a Certificate in Applied Linguistics and training in cross-cultural communication.
With emphasis on accuracy, consistency, and readability, I edit or proofread manuscripts for grammar, mechanics, spelling, and usage according to specific style guides, including Chicago, Harvard, AP, MLA, and APA, in American, British, Canadian, or Australian English. I aim to produce error-free copy in each project, polishing the coherency and clarity of the work while respecting the author’s unique voice.
You are ready to hire an editor for your manuscript, but what process can you expect now? After our initial communication to hear your needs and goals, I will evaluate your manuscript and offer a quote if I think I’m the right editor for your project. I’ll be honest with you about the shape of your manuscript and the quality of your writing, and together we’ll negotiate a contract to clarify the details and schedule of your project. Once author and editor accept the terms of the contract, I’ll get to work and you get to relax.
I typically edit using Microsoft Word’s Track Changes feature so that you can see the corrections in red and any necessary questions in comment boxes. After I finish a thorough first round of edits, you receive the manuscript to review all the changes and answer my questions about any ambiguous or conflicting statements. My goal is to protect and improve your unique ideas and voice, while helping future readers have an enjoyable experience. After your review, I receive the manuscript back from you to resolve any issues and to give your work a final proofread. The product is a clean and polished manuscript and a happy author.
Rachel has been a colleague and editor of mine for over three years now and has helped me edit many different kinds of writing, including general administrative documents, teaching materials, academic writing, and, outside of work, dissertation materials as well as short stories and a novel. She is perspicacious, meticulous, and diplomatic, making her an asset in any project she works on.
Rachel edited my writing in the Introducing Developmental Psychology textbook. Although I write academically often for my profession, as a non-native speaker of English, I know I make mistakes. Rachel helped me clarify what I was trying to say without putting her own flavor in my writing. She is a very conscientious editor who insisted on reviewing repeatedly. As a result, I am very confident about my writing, not just in the textbook, but in general. She pointed out some patterns in my mistakes. Now I know what not to do.
When I look back and consider in its entirety my experience in publishing a book, I can easily say that the editing process was a highlight. Rachel has an incredible ability to point out issues in a manuscript and, at the same time, encourage and edify its author. Her thorough and detailed approach filled me with confidence for the finished product in every step of the process. Without question, I intend to employ Rachel’s literary expertise in all of my future writing endeavors!
editor@rachelcbrown.com
