Our Editorial Services
We offer a full range of editorial services, each tailored to your organization’s needs, industry, and style. Click each service on the list for a full description.
SUBSTANTIVE (DEVELOPMENTAL) EDITING
Goal:
To help you develop, support, and organize your ideas for an effective presentation
Managed Editing …
• works with you to reorganize and rewrite your manuscript.
• helps you develop content that is logical, accurate, complete, and appropriate for the intended audience.
• on request, develops a full document using your boilerplate text or bullet points, fitting the content to a format such as a grant application form.
Words/hr. (approx.):
Depends on scope of work
How it works:
• You supply a Word document.
• We make corrections using Track Changes.
STANDARD COPYEDITING
Goal:
To make the document clear, concise, correct, and highly readable
Managed Editing …
• makes word choice more precise, phrasing clearer and more concise, and sentence/paragraph structure more readable.
• corrects errors of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and usage.
• ensures consistency of style—capitalization, number treatment, hyphenation, acronyms, serial comma preference, etc.
• ensures the desired level of formality throughout the piece.
• queries you about any content that may be unclear.
• on request, condenses text to fit word or character count limits.
Words/hr. (approx.):
800–1,000
How it works:
• You supply a Word document.
• We make corrections using Track Changes.
LIGHT COPYEDITING
Goal:
To correct true errors and ensure consistency in style choices
Managed Editing …
• corrects true errors of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and usage.
• ensures consistency of style—capitalization, number treatment, hyphenation, acronyms, serial comma preference, etc.
• queries you about any content that may be unclear.
Words/hr. (approx.):
1,000–1,200
How it works:
• You supply a Word document.
• We make corrections using Track Changes.
PROOFREADING
Goal:
To clean up errors in any material added after our copyedit and check for errors and inconsistencies in layout and design
Managed Editing …
• takes a final look at an already copyedited (and if applicable, laid-out) document, usually as a PDF file.
• focuses on layout and design matters—headers/footers, page numbers, table of contents, photo captions, widows/orphans, text consistency, design alignment, etc.
• makes necessary corrections to any text that may have been added or revised after our initial copyedit.
• finds and marks any remaining errors or inconsistencies.
Words/hr. (approx.):
1,200–2,000 (with prior copyedit)
800–1,200 (without prior copyedit)
How it works:
• You supply a PDF document.
• Your choice: We indicate changes using Acrobat insertion tools or mark up with standard proofreaders’ marks.
Our Portfolio
If it’s in writing, we can handle it!
We’ve edited an amazing array of document types. Here are some examples of our published work.
SOME RECENT HIGHLIGHTS
- Variance, journal, Casualty Actuarial Society
- CASE Currents, magazine, Council for Advancement and Support of Education
- Higher, Farther, Faster, technical blog post (translation from German), Siemens
- Peterson’s test prep books, including GRE, PSAT/NMSQT, and others
- Annual reports, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
- Annual conference brochures, National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems
More
- Bridging the Gap: The Role of Multilateral Development Banks in Latin America’s Mixed-Migration Response, report, Refugees International
- The Future of Official Development Assistance, book, Center for Global Development
- Advancing Crisis Care and Beyond, compendium of technical assistance papers, National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD) for federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
- Modeling the Impacts of a Federal Baby Bonds Program, report plus fact sheets, Urban Institute
- Liquefying the Gulf Coast, book, Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at Texas Southern University
- The Hidden Costs of Pension Reforms, policy paper, National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems
- Aeris® Rating Reports on community development financial institutions
- Annual Trends and Outlook Report, International Food Policy Research Institute
Your Needs
Editing goes beyond style sheets and grammar books. We tailor our services to your needs, specifications, and circumstances.
You have to fit your organization’s boilerplate text into a funder’s required format and length limit?
We can reformat your text, tighten it up to fit word or character count limits, and still bring out the message you intend.
You need to use UK spellings?
We speak Brit on demand.
Your references or footnotes have to be in a certain format?
We know all of the commonly used styles, but we can also follow any style sheet your document requires.
Your document has many contributors?
We ensure consistent writing style, tone, spelling, use of terms, treatment of list items and acronyms, and all the other details.
English isn’t your writers’ first language?
We make your documents read as if native speakers wrote them.
Some of your document was written by AI?
We know how to “humanize” AI-written text. At Managed Editing, we are all human editors. We specialize in not just correcting grammar and spelling but actually elevating the English expression of writers, whether human or machine.
You write for an international audience?
We root out idioms that may be confusing to nonnative English speakers, and we simplify the expression without losing the meaning. We also look for U.S.-centric language and propose alternatives that non-U.S. readers will understand. And we take care of the little things: currency designations, internationally recognized spellings, and so on.
You just want all the t’s crossed and the i’s dotted?
We’ve got you covered!
Any special requests?
We’ll do what it takes to get your document up to your standards and ready to use for your intended purpose.
Your Industry
We’ve gained a wealth of experience over the past 25+ years by editing tens of thousands of documents in a wide variety of fields, sectors, and industries.
A SELECTION OF THE INDUSTRIES WE SERVE
Government • Nonprofit • Philanthropy • Think Tanks • Agencies
Energy • Environment • Agriculture • Sustainability
Finance • Economics • Statistics • Insurance • Employee Benefits
More industries
Education: Pre-K • K–12 • Public, Private, Charter • Postsecondary & Professional
Arts & Culture • Recreation • Spirituality • Crafts & How-To
Housing • Construction • Trades • Home Lending
Health Care • Mental Health • Public Health • Health Messaging & Education
Technology • Industry • Engineering • Logistics
Associations • Unions • Conferences • Annual Meetings
Your Style
We’re experienced with the most commonly used style manuals and citation formats. If you don’t know what manual or style may be right for your document, we’ll recommend one.
Our Approach to Style Manuals
We follow your in-house style guide, if you have one, as well as the standard style manual of your choice.
We add value by creating our own client-specific style sheet containing your specialized terminology, your spelling and typographic preferences, and all of the specifications that apply to your work. In this way, we ensure consistency across all the jobs we do for you.
Some of the manuals we use
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- American Medical Association (AMA)
- American Psychological Association (APA)
- Associated Press (AP)
- The Bluebook (legal citations)
- The Chicago Manual of Style
- Harvard citation style
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
- U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO)
- Vancouver referencing style
Your Security
The documents you send us contain privileged business data, intellectual property, or other sensitive information. You can be assured that from the moment you send work to us, we are the only ones who see your materials. We’ll sign a nondisclosure agreement if you need one.