Editing and Proofreading

How to Establish Proofreading Rates

A short guide to proofreading rates and the methods for determining them

A question that weighs heavily on the minds of novice freelance proofreaders is how to set a fair rate schedule for their services.

There is no short answer to this question. In theory, as a freelance proofreader, you can set your own hourly rates which, according to the 2013 guidelines of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP) in the UK, should be a minimum of £21.40 (US$33.29) for proofreading. Copyright restrictions prohibit any further disclosure of SfEP guidelines here, but you can view them online. However, theory does not always correspond with practice. Proofreading rates vary from company to company. Most publishers have their own set rates for freelance work, and it’s up to you to accept the rates or simply decline the job.

Experience is key

When you’re first starting out, gaining valuable proofreading experience is the most important factor. You should think about landing proofreading jobs to beef up your portfolio, even doing volunteer jobs or working for free. Experience and good references are important to potential clients and will allow you to reasonably ask more for your services. This is not the time to be concerned about whether you’re getting the recommended proofreading rates. Charging lower rates now will pay off in the future; it will allow you to attract new clients and eventually be more particular about who you want to work for, what type of work you would like to do, and what rates you’re prepared to accept.

Some special considerations

Before signing a contract or agreeing to a rate or fee for a job, make sure your client is clear about what a proofreader does; you don’t want to agree to proofreading rates only to find out the work actually requires copyediting. Many proofreaders offer per-word or per-page fees, as well as options for hourly or flat rates. You can offer higher rates for weekend work or a faster turnaround time, or you can offer discounts for lower income groups, such as students or people on benefits.

How much?

Most people prefer to know exactly what proofreading services will cost before making a commitment. Base your per-page or per-word proofreading rates on earnings of $15.00 to $40.00 per hour. (Calculate how many pages or words you can read per hour.) Charging by the page is often preferred. The established industry standard for a “page” is 250 words. To figure out your exact page count, divide your word count by 250. Remember that hourly proofreading rates do not include expenses such as postage and telephone charges, which you should figure into your expenses.

Pricing a job depends on several factors: the breadth of the assignment; the type of work to be done; the discipline (general, scientific, legal, etc.); the type of employer (magazine, tech firm, nonprofit, etc.); and your experience with the topic. These factors will determine where your fee for a particular job will fit within the $15.00 to $40.00 proofreading rate range mentioned above. Clients submitting science, technical, or medical material prefer proofreaders with backgrounds in these fields, and the level of technical expertise required drives proofreading rates for these types of documents to the higher end of the spectrum. Social sciences documents tend to draw lower proofreading rates, and work from the trade publishing sector rarely returns the standard recommended rates (however interesting these jobs may be).

Your own business

As a freelance proofreader, you are effectively a small business owner. The proofreading rates you choose to accept or the jobs you turn down are up to you. Think about your goals and how important a particular client is to you and your business. Negotiation is always an option. But remember that accepting a lower rate for a client who promises regular work in the future might be more profitable in the long run than holding out for top dollar on a single job. Think about what you might earn from this client over the course of time or the value of the experience you might acquire. Remember that repeat work also means you won’t have to spend time and money marketing yourself; repeat work makes for a sustainable business.

So there you have it—the many components you need to consider when establishing freelance proofreading rates.

How Can I Learn English Grammar?

The key to good communication is good grammar; that applies to any language, not just English. If you want to expresses yourself clearly and limit the chances of anyone misunderstanding your intentions, you need to have good grammar.

“Great,” you say. “I understand that. But how can I learn English grammar?”

The task of learning English grammar might seem daunting, especially since the language has so many rules and just as many exceptions.

A few simple tips can help you learn English grammar in the course of your daily routine.

The answer to the question “How can I learn English grammar?”

Communication has four key elements: reading, writing, talking, and listening. If you take a little time every day to concentrate on each of these elements, you will quickly improve your grammar.

How can I learn English grammar through reading?

Reading is a great way to learn more about a language. Try to read as much English text as possible in as many different forms as possible. Look at how recipe instructions differ from sentences in a sales brochure, or how the language in a news item differs from that of a gossip column.

Often when we read, we skim over text looking for specific information. You might look over a leaflet from a museum, for example, to find the opening times, or scan a newspaper weather forecast looking for specific words, such as “sunny” and “warm.”

The next time you pick up a magazine, newspaper, or other piece of printed text, slow down and take a few minutes to look at how the sentences are constructed. Look for commas and see where and how they are used. Try to find the more unusual punctuation marks too, such as exclamation points (!) or semicolons (;), and work out where they occur in the sentence and the kind of information these sentences try to convey. Ask yourself whether the meaning of the sentence changes if the semicolon is replaced by a comma or if a period is used instead of an exclamation point.

How can I learn English grammar through writing?

Next, try to apply the patterns you saw when reading to your own writing. You can find complex or difficult sentences and use the same structure to write a sentence of your own.

If you find any specific grammatical topics difficult to grasp, look for sentences in your text where those tricky constructions might appear. Has one sentence been written in the passive voice, for example? Look at ways you can turn the sentence around and make it active.

How can I learn English grammar through talking?

One of the best ways to test if your writing is clear and understandable is to read it out loud.

You can put a lot of thought and effort into writing a difficult sentence. Your main focus is often to make sure the sentence contains the information you need to get across. But is it grammatically correct?

Read the sentence out loud a few times. Did you stumble over the same words each time or run out of breath before you reached the end? If so, your sentence probably contains bad grammar. Take a closer look and try to rewrite your sentence until it flows smoothly and fluently.

How can I learn English grammar through listening?

It is important to pay attention to detail when learning English grammar.

A great way to learn is from other people’s mistakes.

Spoken English is often very different from written English. Even native speakers make grammatical errors, especially in casual conversation.

Take a few moments each day to listen to people talking and try to pick out their mistakes. Did that sentence end in a preposition? Did the pronoun agree with the antecedent? Perhaps it wasn’t even a complete sentence, but it was just a fragment instead.

You don’t need to correct the speaker; you only need to listen and remind yourself of the rules.

If you’re still asking yourself, “How can I learn English grammar?”, one other easy answer is to take an online course.

Editing as a Career

A guide to help you choose editing as a career

Deciding if you want to pursue editing as a career can be a difficult decision, especially if you don’t know all the inner workings of the profession. This article is about editing as a career—what editing is, what editors do, and how editors get to be editors. Interested in a career as an editor?

What is editing?

Editing means different things to different people, so it is important to note the differences between editing and, for example, proofreading. We define “editing” as making revisions to and suggestions about the content of a document, focusing on improving the accuracy of language, flow, and overall readability, as well as checking for spelling, grammar, clarity, and consistency. “Proofreading,” on the other hand, involves correction rather than revision. It is the process of correcting spelling, grammar, and typographical errors, and is undertaken only after a document has been edited.

Levels of editing

There are different types or levels of editing, and there are as many answers about what each level consists of as there are editors. Because there is considerable overlap, there is no broadly accepted definition for each level. However, editing can be categorized into copyediting, line editing, and substantive or developmental editing.

Copyediting is rule-based and very mechanical. It involves checking a document for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, and applying style. Line editing is the process of checking a document line by line, not only for the criteria just mentioned but also for appropriate word choice and phrasing, conciseness, inconsistencies, smooth syntax, and readability. Substantive editing is analysis-based, particularly at the document level. It involves looking at the big picture and examining the organizational structure of a document. This includes determining the correct order of sentences, paragraphs, and chapters; questioning meaning; identifying gaps; ensuring the logical development of ideas and clear connections between those ideas; and ensuring audience appropriateness. These tasks must all be accomplished while retaining the author’s voice. No matter what level of editing you are undertaking, it is important to make several passes. You never know what you might have missed in the first go-around, so a second pass is essential to catch errors you didn’t see the first time and/or errors you may have inadvertently introduced. The ultimate goals are usability and readability.

Becoming an editor

To have a successful career as an editor, you must have an excellent understanding of grammar, strong analytical skills, sound computer skills, a working knowledge of various style guides, good people skills, strong organizational skills, the ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines, and an overwhelming desire to help people communicate as clearly as possible.

There is no single educational or occupational path to becoming an editor, but those who ultimately realize editing as a career tend to have a number of things in common, such as a love of language and reading, attention to detail, the desire to improve communication, and qualification in a subject such as English, journalism, technical communication, or teaching. Due to the increasing use of representational design in developing technical documentation, a background in web design, computer graphics, or other technology field, is also useful. There are a number of educational institutions that offer editing programs, and this kind of academic training is certainly a good place to start. In terms of obtaining a professional designation as an editor, some professional editing associations offer certification, a process that involves testing individuals in the different levels of editing.

Editing as a career

You can work as an editor in many different industries, such as the publishing, education, scientific, and medical fields. Editors can be generalists who deal with a wide variety of subjects or they can be specialists who deal with certain subjects. Editors can work alone or in collaboration with others, such as writers, publishers, or project managers. An editor’s life is never dull. Editing as a career is an educational adventure. You will learn something new every day!