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Compassion • Excellence • Integrity

Working with Emma's Word Lab

Working Together

My Core Values

Compassion

I approach both you and your project with the respect you deserve. Warm, open communication is extremely important to me: I want you to feel heard, understood, and supported throughout the whole process.

Excellence

I take great pride in my work and I am deeply committed to quality. Whether you need a careful final read-through to catch any lingering errors or more in-depth support to enhance and refine your text, I put my all into everything I do.

Integrity

I understand how important your work is to you, so I work with honesty and transparency, offering thoughtful feedback and handling your work with complete confidentiality.

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The Process

Before the edit...

These are the things I need to know or assess before I start work on a project:

  • The type of text (e.g., CV, blog post, newsletter, website content, novel).
  • The total word count (excluding the main title but including all headings and subheadings).
  • The language (e.g., British English with -ise/-ize spellings, American English, or other).
  • The target audience and/or the purpose of the text.
  • Your main concern(s) (e.g., native-like fluency, SPaG, structure).
  • Your service expectations, preferences, and needs (e.g., proofread, copyedit).

These are the things we will agree on before I start work on a project:

  • The timeline.
  • The price – see my ‘Services’ page for more information on this.

I will always ask to see the full text (or at least a representative excerpt of the text) before I start work on a project.

During the edit...

I am highly proficient with Microsoft Word and usually use its ‘Track Changes’ feature to edit your document. This way, you can see all my individual changes. I will also add comments to provide more context on certain decisions I have made, make insightful suggestions as to how you might improve upon your work, and ask any questions that I may have about the content. If any questions are time-sensitive, I will contact you directly for an answer.

I often, but not always, provide a separate overflow document I call a ‘feedback report’ that contains more information, suggestions, and queries so that your document is not flooded with an excess of words! I am also able to provide an editorial style sheet as well as a code sheet for a typesetter if needed.

I will often provide two documents:

  1. the original piece of work with all my corrections suggested using Track Changes, allowing you to implement them as you please; and
  2. the edited piece of work with all my corrections implemented, so you can see the final result of my work easily.

I am also professionally trained in markup tools for PDFs and very familiar with the ‘Suggesting’ mode in Google Docs.

After the edit...

After I have completed my work on a text, you can implement the suggested changes and any constructive feedback as you see fit. During this time, feel free to get in touch with any questions you may have – I am only an email away!

Depending on the project, I often offer a free second or final pass. That is, after you have revised your work in accordance with my edits and comments, you can send your text back to me and I can review it another time. This read-through will not be as in-depth as the original, but it is carried out in order to catch any remaining errors, or even errors that have been introduced during the revision process. As a result, we can both rest assured that nothing has slipped through the cracks!

Terms & Conditions

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