Why work with a professional editor?

You put a lot of time and effort into making sure your documents are technically accurate and complete. As your on-call professional editor, Dorothy P. Craig & Associates can look at your material with a fresh eye and concentrate on making sure it is well-organized and clearly written, so it communicates your ideas and information. If needed, we can also help with research, production, and other time-consuming, nitty-gritty tasks, freeing valuable time for you or your staff.

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Why choose Dorothy P. Craig & Associates?

You'll experience editing at its finest:

• Editing as an art form - a sculpting away of unnecessary words to reveal underlying ideas and information.
  
• Editing as alchemy - transforming the dross of awkwardness and jargon into gold so the ideas shine forth with clarity and vigor.
  
• Editing as precision tuning - honing the writing to perfection in syntax, grammar, punctuation and spelling.

 

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Can I work with you in person or on-line?

From her location in Seattle, Washington, Dorothy can work in person with clients in the Puget Sound area, the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, and farther afield if needed. Thanks to the wonders of telecommunication, many projects can be done online with little or no in-person contact.

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Where can I find another editor if my needs don't match your experience or schedule?

The Editorial Freelancers Association is a national, nonprofit, professional organization of self-employed workers in the fields of publishing and communications. Members are editors, writers, indexers, proofreaders, researchers, desktop publishers, translators, and others who offer a broad range of skills and specialties. They are located in 42 states in the U.S. as well as Canada, Belgium, France, India, Israel, Japan, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

In the Pacific Northwest, contact the Northwest Independent Editors Guild. You’ll find a directory of over a hundred editors in Washington, Oregon and Idaho to choose from.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, contact the Bay Area Editors’ Forum, an association of in-house and freelance editors. Members edit books, magazines, computer documentation, multimedia presentations, scientific journals, educational materials, and business communications, and they work at every stage of the editorial process.

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What's the difference between content editing, copyediting, and proofreading?

Editors, copyeditors, proofreaders and indexers all play a role in the editorial process - and on some jobs a single editor does it all. Click here for a useful summary of what's involved in different types of editing, compiled by the Bay Area Editors' Forum

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What are the best resources for correct punctuation, style and other editorial esoterica?

The Chicago Manual of Style: The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers. This is the bible of book, magazine, and business editors.

Strunk & White's The Elements of Style. Your English teacher was right: buy this and use it.

On Writing Well: An Informal Guide to Writing, by William Zinsser.

Woe Is I: the Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English, by Patricia O'Conner. A clear, simple guide to good usage with great chapter titles ("Comma Sutra, "Plurals Before Swine").

The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: The Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed, by Karen Elizabeth Gordon. Very funny and useful too.

*Thanks to Lisa Gluskin at Ampersand Editorial Services for this compilation.

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