Working with an experienced editorial professional makes sense if you are producing any sort of written text. This free booklet will show you why. Learn what editors and proofreaders do and how they can help you produce clear and consistent communications.

• Use our ‘who does what and when’ chart to find the right person to work with you.
• Apply the tips and proofreading checklist to help check your own writing.

PDF download, 24 pages

Do you need proofreading or copyediting? This fact sheet summarises some of the differences to help you find the right kind of editor to work on your text. Editors may find it a useful resource to pass onto clients.

This fact sheet lists some of the skills and knowledge you should learn to work as an editorial professional. There’s more to it than being good at spotting typos.

The CIEP’s honorary president, David Crystal, puts the case for using the services of a professional editor. A good editor, as he makes clear, is not a pedant or a self-styled member of the grammar police, but someone who reads the author’s work carefully, objectively and sympathetically; points out ambiguity and lack of clarity, checks references and cross-references for accuracy and consistency, and ensures that the style follows the stylistic norms of the publisher. Someone, in other words, who can keep the author ‘linguistically and creatively safe’.

Professor Lynne Murphy questions whether a worldwide standard English would help us communicate, or whether there's value in retaining the distinct voices of the many different Englishes across the globe.

This fact sheet summarises some good practice tips on writing queries to authors, gleaned from the CIEP's experienced trainers and mentors.

This infographic has some top tips for building good working relationships between client and editor.

This infographic sets out the ideal stages in the publishing workflow, for all sorts of texts from documents to books, and highlights where editors and proofreaders can help.

Academic clients include academic publishers, packaging companies, academic institutions and independent authors. This fact sheet looks at the general considerations when working in this area, and how to get started.

Language can sometimes perpetuate unconscious biases, stereotypes and unfair assumptions. It’s our professional responsibility to advise the authors we work with if their use of gendered language is problematic and to help them to find inclusive alternatives. This fact sheet summarises some of the main points to look out for and how to sensitively raise issues with your author.

Scope creep happens when a project’s workload expands beyond what was originally agreed between the client and the editor or proofreader. This fact sheet will help you learn strategies for identifying and dealing with scope creep to avoid negative consequences for you, your client or the project.

Experienced editors use a range of tools and techniques to achieve greater efficiency, making their work more financially viable. Here we look at some timesaving tools for working in Word, which is the program professional editors use most often to edit text.

Efficient editors use macros in Word to speed up repetitive tasks or carry out several actions at once. This fact sheet will introduce you to macros, step you through creating and running a macro and get you thinking about how they can make your editorial practice more efficient.

This fact sheet gives some useful tips for getting those all-important first clients when you are starting an editorial business.

There are very many books and resources on the English language, but you can't (and shouldn't) buy them all when you're starting out. This sheet highlights some of the essentials and priorities for supporting your editorial practice.

It is good professional practice to plan how your business matters will be dealt with after your death. This fact sheet looks at what to consider when drawing up a succession plan.

In this discussion paper, Sarah Grey looks at recent changes around gender and language. She starts with a quick review of how language change works, looks at some specific examples of recent changes, and ends with tools you can put to work in your editing to make sure that you stay up to date with language usage.

In this entertaining and erudite focus paper, Jeremy Butterfield considers what editors should do about the whom vs who debate.

A practical tool for recording your editorial jobs, including hours worked, word counts and fees earned. It's also a great tool for recording your experience for upgrading your CIEP membership.