E D I T O R S

Proper words in proper places,

make the true definition of a style.

Jonathan Swift, 1667-1745

There are a few writers in the world who produce perfect prose in the first draft. Unfortunately, they are incredibly rare, or dead. That is what makes editing so vital to any process involving text. Good editors improve pieces of writing without destroying the feeling or the message of the text, and RED SLAP creatives only work with the best. More important than avalanches of certificates proving that they can spell is the attitude or empathy of the editors. Our editors are not frustrated writers, they are wordsmiths dedicated to the art of extracting the best from the written word. EDITING SERVICES Style Editing: This is the full-on, make it work sort of editing, the transformation of raw ideas text into a flowing, beautiful piece of prose. Clumsy, confused sentences are reworked to make sense. Editors working on style check for things like consistency (making sure the heroines hair stays short), continuity (making sure that if the school is at the top of the hill at the start its still there at the end) and voice (the main character, if a gangster, should talk like one all the way through, not slip into schoolgirl language). Generally this sort of editing is immediately followed by...

Copy Editing: By now, the text is flowing, and has consistent style and voice. Then the copy editor gets to work, and checks for grammatical correctness and spelling accuracy. This can be quite involved, and result in whole sentences being changed, but is far better than your carefully planned presentation on TQM starting with a page that talks of quailty!

Proofreading: All right, were satisfied that the text is as perfect as it is possible to be, and we give it to production to layout. Very often, disaster can strike at this point. Mistakes creep in every time a piece of text is put through a new process, which can result in poor documents. This is why a prudent organisation will employ a proofreader to check every single print mark on a proof, before committing the document to printing thousands of copies. Ideally, the proofreader should be entirely independent of the writing and editing process, so that they look at the document with entirely fresh eyes.

How it works: 1. Have some text. ...Ive got this leaflet... 2. Know where its going and when. ...thats going out next month... 3. Know what stage its at, and what needs done. ...its just rough, but it is on floppy... 4. Contact us.