FOR BUSINESSES
Why business writing needs a proofreader
Your written content shapes how clients, partners, and stakeholders perceive your business. Whether it’s website copy, marketing materials, or user manuals, polished writing builds trust. Even minor errors can weaken your message and damage your brand’s reputation.
First impressions matter. A misplaced comma or a spelling mistake could cost you a client. Proofreading ensures your content is accurate, consistent, and aligned with your brand’s professionalism.
With over 25 years in technical sales and marketing, I apply a sharp, industry-aware approach to refining your business communications, ensuring they make the right impact.
Understanding the different stages of business content refinement
Content creation and refinement is a multi-step process, and understanding the distinctions helps you choose the right service for your business needs.
| Stage | Focus | Main Tasks |
|---|---|---|
| Copywriting | Content creation | Writing original content (e.g., website copy, marketing materials, user and service manuals). |
| Copy Editing | Refining structure and clarity | Fixing grammar, punctuation, spelling, improving sentence structure, tone, and style consistency. |
| Proof-Editing | Hybrid (Copy editing & Proofreading) | Combines copy editing and proofreading; corrects grammar, spelling, punctuation, syntax, and readability. It also checks formatting elements (fonts, page numbers, references, tables). |
| Proofreading | Final check (After formatting) | Catches any remaining grammar, spelling, punctuation errors. Verifies final formatting (font consistency, pagination, headers, footers) and ensures content is polished. |
Website Proof-Editing
From £75
Ideal for: Businesses of all sizes, from startups to established brands
Format: MS Word document or PDF of pages
Your website is often the first impression potential clients have of your business, and you only have seconds to capture their attention. Typos, poor grammar, or awkward phrasing can undermine trust and drive visitors away. Even a single mistake can leave a lasting negative impression.
This service combines copyediting and proofreading to ensure your website content is clear, accurate, and professional. If your site has been machine-translated into English, I will refine clarity, correct unnatural phrasing, and improve readability. If you provide SEO keywords and meta descriptions, I will check their integration for consistency and relevance to the page content.
If you have a brand style guide, I will ensure all content aligns with your guidelines for terminology, formatting, and other key elements. If no guide is available, I will create a custom style sheet to maintain consistency across your materials.
What This Service Covers:
Text & Language Corrections
✔ Grammar and punctuation corrections
✔ Spelling and typographical errors
✔ Syntax and readability
✔ Homophones and commonly confused words
✔ Elimination of redundancies
✔ Consistency in names, terminology, and branding
Formatting & Layout Consistency
✔ Capitalization and hyphenation consistency
✔ Extraneous letter and line space removal
✔ Paragraph indentation and section break consistency
✔ Consistency in headings, bullet points, and text styling
SEO Keyword & Meta Description Checks
✔ SEO keywords check for accuracy and consistency
✔ Meta descriptions review for clarity and alignment
Structural & Reference Accuracy
✔ Verification of figures, charts, and tables
✔ Cross-checking references and citations
Proof-Editing
(Before Formatting)
From £75
Ideal for: Businesses preparing marketing materials, reports, or technical documents before final formatting.
Format: MS Word doc or PDF
You’re almost there! Your content is written, but now it’s time to ensure it’s polished before final formatting or publication.
This service combines proofreading and proof-editing, focusing on consistency, language, and clarity. It ensures your business materials, whether marketing copy, technical copy, or corporate communications, are polished and ready for the final stages, giving you the confidence that your content is precise and professional.
If you have a branding style guide, I will ensure all content aligns with your guidelines for terminology, formatting, and other key elements. If no guide is available, I will create a custom style sheet to maintain consistency across your materials, recording decisions on spelling variations, punctuation, and more.
What this service covers:
Text & Language Corrections
✔ Grammar and punctuation corrections
✔ Spelling and typographical errors
✔ Syntax and readability
✔ Homophones and commonly confused words
✔ Elimination of redundancies
✔ Consistency in names, terminology, and branding
Formatting & Layout Consistency
✔ Capitalization and hyphenation consistency
✔ Extraneous letter and line space removal
✔ Paragraph indentation and section break consistency
Where Possible
✔ Page number alignment and accuracy
✔ Header and footer format consistency
✔ Widows, orphans, and short lines
✔ Text and image design consistency
✔ Table of contents and index accuracy
✔ Figures, charts, and tables
✔ References and citations adherence to style guide
Pure Proofreading
(After Formatting)
From £75
Ideal for: Businesses with fully formatted materials needing a final quality-control check before publication.
Format: MS Word doc or PDF
Your document has already been through editing, design, and formatting. Now, it’s time for a final quality-control check before publication.
Proofreading is the final step, catching any remaining errors missed during edits or introduced in formatting. I review your document for grammar, punctuation, typographical errors, and formatting consistency, giving you confidence that every detail is in place.
If you have a corporate branding style guide, I’ll ensure adherence to your standards for terminology and formatting. If not, I’ll create a custom style sheet to maintain consistency across your materials, recording decisions on spelling variations, punctuation, and more.
What This Service Covers:
Text & Language Corrections
✔ Remaining grammar and punctuation corrections
✔ Remaining spelling and typographical errors
✔ Homophones and commonly confused words
✔ Consistency in names, terminology, and branding
Formatting & Layout Consistency
✔ Capitalization and hyphenation consistency
✔ Extraneous letter and line space removal
✔ Paragraph indentation and section break consistency
✔ Page number alignment and accuracy
✔ Header and footer format consistency
✔ Widows, orphans, and short lines
✔ Text and image design consistency
Structural & Reference Accuracy
✔ Table of contents and index accuracy
✔ Figures, charts, and tables
✔ References and citations (style guide adherence)
Definitions:
Grammar and punctuation
Identifying and correcting grammar errors, including issues with subject-verb agreement, tense consistency, general punctuation, and dialogue punctuation.
Spelling and typographical errors
Ensuring accurate spelling, accounting for regional variations (such as American vs. British English), and identifying typographical errors, including misspellings and improper word usage.
Syntax and sentence structure
Refining sentence structure for clarity and readability while removing foreign expressions.
Please note: this is a light proof-edit, not a full copy-edit or line edit.
Capitalization and hyphenation
Verifying correct capitalization, hyphenation, and compound word usage, with attention to stacked hyphens often introduced by AI chatbots during content creation.
Homophones and commonly confused words
Ensuring accurate use of homophones and commonly confused words (such as their/there and affect/effect).
Elimination of redundancies
Removing repetitive words, phrases, and unnecessary redundancies to improve clarity and conciseness.
Removal of extraneous letter and line spaces
Identifying and correcting unnecessary spaces between letters, words, and lines.
Paragraph indentation and section breaks
Ensuring consistent indentation, clear idea separation, and smooth transitions throughout the document to enhance readability and organisation.
Widows, orphans and short lines
Preventing single lines of text from being isolated at the top or bottom of a page (widows and orphans) and avoiding overly short lines that disrupt text flow.
Consistency in design of text and image elements
Ensuring consistent fonts, colours, sizes, and spacing, including bullet points, as well as uniform style and placement of images throughout a document or website.
Consistency in names, terminology, and branding
Ensuring consistency in names, terminology, branding, and other specific details throughout the document to enhance clarity and prevent confusion.
Table of contents and index accuracy
Ensuring that chapter and section headings are accurately reflected in the table of contents and index.
Page number accuracy
Ensuring that all page numbers are accurate and correctly aligned with the corresponding content in the document.
Figures, charts, and tables
Ensuring that all figures, charts, and tables are correctly formatted, listed and labelled in the document
Consistency in header and footer format
Ensuring consistency in the formatting of all headers and footers throughout the document, including font style, size, alignment, and content
References and citations adherence to style guide
Ensuring that all references and citations conform to the specified style guide (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago) in terms of formatting, punctuation, and arrangement.
SEO keywords check
Ensures provided keywords are correctly used, consistent, and naturally integrated into the text.
Meta descriptions review
Checks that meta descriptions are clear, well-structured, and accurately reflect the page content.
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English Proofreading and Editing Services 