Business and government projects

Writefish has provided writing, editing and proofreading services to small, medium and large businesses and corporations for many years. If your document needs to be polished, then engaging a professional communicator provides cost and quality benefits. Mistakes and inconsistencies are distracting and undermine your message. Professional input adds considerable value.

He handled the management of the project to meet some difficult client requirements with an extreme level of professionalism and with a very calm and level head.

Working with Writefish

Writefish has the knowledge and experience to process and improve diverse, complex and lengthy communications.

There are two big advantages to working with a communications professional. The first is fresh insight into your content, alongside the in-depth knowledge to prepare it according to established guides. The second is resourcing – developing quality content is time-consuming, so engaging specialist help is an efficient strategy. Remember that:

  • Business experts aren’t necessarily communication experts

  • Subject matter experts aren’t necessarily language experts

  • Editors consider content from the readers’ perspective

  • Specialist terminology might make sense to you but not your readers

  • Over-familiarity causes you and your teams to miss obvious mistakes

If you read some of the many client comments on my feedback page, you’ll see that working with Writefish is easy and productive. Clients benefit from:

  • Transparent quotes that factor in a range of outcomes

  • Clear communication and regular updates

  • Flexibility around shifting project demands

  • Fast turnaround and an appreciation of inescapable deadlines

  • Collegiate feedback that develops your in-house capability

Types of editing

There’s more detail on the services page, but as an overview there are 3 levels of editing that apply in particular to business clients:

  • Substantive editing takes the broadest view and considers information design, structure, logic, flow, navigation and tone, alongside getting small details right and making content easier to read and appropriate for its audience.

  • Copyediting focuses on style, consistency, grammar and expression. While any one copyediting change might seem trivial, the combination of thousands of small improvements makes content easier to read and absorb.

  • Proofreading means finding the final mistakes or inconsistencies and checking that everything is present and coherent. I rarely run across a proofreading request that isn’t instead a copyediting task. That is, I’ll find and fix much more than you’re aware of.

Business and technical writing

I can also write new and engaging content. I’ve worked on major reports, articles, white papers, complex forms, checklists, help sheets, inductions, worksheets, manuals, procedures, wikis, product guides, style manuals, templates, website dashboards, work instructions and more.

Accessible documents

Accessible Word and PDF files are technically well set up and use heading hierarchies, list styles, tagged tables and alt text, among many other strategies, to make sure that they’re easily readable and navigable by a wide range of users. I can help you to create new or convert existing information into clear and functional Word or PDF documents that consider the latest Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.2).

Estimated project costs

As explained on the services page, there’s no simple answer to how much a project will cost. It’s a balance of complexity against word count. For fairly standard editing, anywhere from 6 to 10 cents per word is normal. You can do a quick calculation based on your word count to establish a ballpark project estimate.

Plain language editing is more complex, as it’s a blend of in-depth copyediting and rewriting. While plain language is easier to read, it can be harder to write, especially if your documentation has particular meanings that need to be preserved. About 15 cents per word is a broad but useful estimate.

Costs for business and technical writing are harder to estimate, as writing can involve research, interviews, meetings and multiple passes through content. Around 30 cents per word is a good rule of thumb, but every project is different.

Some tasks are instead charged by the hour at $140 per hour + GST. This is in line with the recommended rates for a highly experienced generalist editor like me. For example, accessible document projects are usually charged by the hour rather than by word count.

My rates page goes into further detail.

Turnaround times

Professional editing is labour-intensive. An average project might be 30 hours. To fit your 30-hour project around other projects means planning and workflow management so that I can hit everybody’s deadlines. The more lead time you provide, the better I can manage my calendar. Get in touch as soon as you can. Many clients book their projects months in advance.

Disclaimer

Despite best efforts, it’s impossible to guarantee that all errors are eliminated in a copyedit. Eliminating all errors is a different procedure – that of proofreading (and even then most publications still have a background error rate). It’s also worth pointing out that after several thousand changes have been made to your content, any remaining errors will stand out. This isn’t an indication that the copyedit has not been thorough, just an acknowledgement that the copyediting process is not foolproof. Creating error-free content is a difficult goal and a staged procedure.

Next steps

If you’ve explored this page, and the services and rates information, and you’re ready to take the next steps, then I look forward to hearing from you.