Proofreading home

Summary of high-quality proofreading and editorial services from freelance Stephen York, working with publishers, students, writers, and companies

Welcome to the homepage of Stephen York Editorial Services.

If you are looking to give your documents and publications a final check and ‘polish’ for accuracy and consistency, find out how I can help you to make a clear-reading and quality final product. Remember: first impressions count with readers. You might believe you have spotted every last error but it is surprising what a fresh pair of objective eyes looking through your document can reveal. I might also be able to suggest ways to improve word flow, clarity, and presentation.

Proofreading service includes

• correcting spelling, punctuation, grammar, typos, and sentence structure
• checking consistency of capitalisation and formatting
• checking for missing words, incomplete sentences or overlong sentences and paragraphs, and suggesting improvements where required
• identifying and querying unclear text
• checking the sequential numbering of lists, tables, figures, and pages
• looking out for slang and colloquialisms.

My experience

I have over 30 years’ freelance proofreading experience in academic, business, educational, private and trade publishing and have worked with a wide variety of of clients in those fields in a wide range of subject areas, especially astronomy and space exploration, business, cultural and social studies, education, finance, marketing, philosophy, real estate, and theology. That’s over 2,500 publications and documents containing millions of words.

Media handled

I have worked as a proofreader in a variety of media, including but not limited to:

• advertising literature
• books
• brochures
• CVs, letters, and applications
• handbooks
• distance learning materials
• journals
• magazines
• reports
• students’ assignments, dissertations, essays, and theses.

I have also worked with a wide range of clients over the years and a few of the more recent ones are listed on the Clients page.

Here is what one client has said:

“When it comes to proofreading – the last line of defence for catching errors – publishers want a safe pair of hands, and Stephen York’s are the safest of all. Whether it’s applying a specified style guide, ferreting out inconsistencies, or catching an elusive orphaned citation, Stephen’s work is of an exceptional standard, and the reports he supplies with each completed job, specifying the standards applied and the outstanding author and publisher queries, are a model of clarity and thoroughness. No one hiring Stephen will be disappointed.” (Jonathan Dore, Production Manager, UCL Press)

See what other clients have said on the Testimonials page.

I offer proofreading and other editorial services to the following client categories (click on the relevant button):

Recent work

Check out some of my recently completed projects by clicking on the following button.

You will also find there links to my portfolios of older proofreading projects.

Why you should choose Stephen York

• I am methodical with a good work ethic and pay attention to detail
• I offer competitive rates, with discounts for some classes of clients such as students, academics, and charities
• I thoughtfully report corrections and queries.

A downloadable CV is viewable on the About me page.

Affiliations

I am an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading.

I am also a member of the British Astronomical Association and the Society for Popular Astronomy.

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