Twenty-six Letters: The offer |

Here’s a thought …

Imagine you need to publish something on line or in print. Maybe a leaflet, e-newsletter, annual review or similar – any really, it doesn’t matter for now. But, you’re responsible for it. OK. You’re writing away and you get to a tricky bit; say, you need to explain that one thing is dependent on another, or should that be dependant with an ‘a’? Or perhaps it’s about a change in practice, or should that be practise with an ‘s’? How about: affect or effect, who or whom … and so on? You get the idea, I’m sure.

How do you work out which one is right, or do you just settle for either and hope for the best? After all, you’re up against it and there’s a deadline to meet. Remember, you’re responsible for this project; your reputation is at stake. (Oh, and good luck because you’re on your own.)

Expert know-how

It depends on the context, yes. Then you’d still need to know how to figure out what’s right from wrong to be certain. Ideally, all copy should be vetted by someone who didn’t write it – even copy written by a professional copywriter. And that’s where Twenty-six Letters comes in: professional copy-editing and proofreading for corporate communications projects.

I can work with copy that you supply and edit it as you need, allowing you to give your designers genuine final copy. This should go some way towards reducing the number of proof amendment stages and, hopefully, their associated charges. Besides that, I can check and mark up your designers’ supplied proofs. In both cases, advising you on any proposed changes.

Final ‘final copy’

The same applies if your role is at the design end of a project. I can edit your clients’ supplied ‘final copy’ in Word for you to hand back to get ‘approved final copy’. Then I can crosscheck your typeset proofs against brand guidelines. It’s a slightly different way of working, I’ll admit, but one that reduces the toing and froing at proof stage, which, let’s face it, isn’t always charged for, so projects get turned round efficiently. In fact, your clients may even thank you for it.

E-mail me with a project for a quote or phone 020 3262 3059.

Helping clients say what they mean in written corporate communications.