Editing

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IMPORTANT UPDATES:

My ability to assist with editing is limited at this time. The best way to inquire about services is to email me. You may email me at serriberry [at] gmail.

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What I Do

My work as an editor is to assist authors by proofreading and editing the body of text in a document as well as any footnotes, formatting citations according to the Legal Bluebook. If you would like help with anything else, such as explanations regarding why English is the way it is or compiling bibliographies, I will do my best to assist with those things as well.

However, although the process of editing may include reworking, adding to, or removing some of an author’s text, it is not within my purview to develop concepts into fully-written text for the author. To do this would involve my own original content, and this would be inappropriate for an editor to do in a work that they are not authoring or co-authoring. In other words, and to state it clearly: This would constitute plagiarism. It is not my place to work outside the scope of the contents of a document. **Furthermore, it is your responsibility to ensure the cited material accurately supports your text, absent a separate agreement with me.

In ongoing projects, I continue to review completed work as I go through the remaining portions for consistency and to check behind myself. I try to maintain the author’s voice and see that the same tense is used throughout the entirety of the works. I also like to make sure the numbering for any supras is correct once it all comes together since footnote numbering typically starts from 1 at the beginning of each document. To that end, it helps if the author can confirm whether I will be merging all portions into a final document, or whether they prefer to do that.

**Additionally, due to the amount of work commissioned, I have begun working with a few people who have proven themselves capable of providing quality work to try to ensure expediency and quality. Outside of myself, Gregory Engle is an editor that may review your work by following the same guidelines listed to review your documents.

How I Work

**Typically what I do is turn on the ‘track changes’ feature in Microsoft Word, then read through the document and make corrections or suggestions. In the end, I return two versions of the document to you – one that shows all comments and suggestions, and one finalized version that has all the changes incorporated. There is no extra charge for this; it takes only a moment to complete, and I find it can be very helpful to have both versions. Please note that after delivery of the edited project, any follow-up (beyond basic clarifying emails, within reason) will be billed separately.

Be aware that I will only work on the material provided to me. Should you have additional sections or chapters I would be happy to help with those projects as well, but they will be part of a separate agreement.

Hiring Me

Please provide as much of the following information as possible to better help establish whether I am capable of providing your project the time and attention it deserves:

  1. The date you would like the work returned by.
  2. The approximate number of double-spaced, size 12 font pages in your document.
  3. The approximate number of footnotes in your document.
  4. **Whether your school, advisor, or professor prefers the 20th or 21st Edition of the Legal Bluebook. I was trained using the 20th edition and have not fully immersed myself in the 21st edition.
  5. Whether your project will consist of:
    1. only one review of a single document;
    2. a single document reviewed more than once; or
    3. more than one document to create a whole work (i.e., dividing work into chapters).
  6. The topic of your document, if you are willing to share that with me.
  7. Whether the end result should be written from the first- or third-person point of view.
  8. Whether the end result should be written in the present or the past tense.
  9. Any other requirements you, or the person you are turning this in to, have regarding the work.
  10. Any questions or concerns you have for me.

Cost

**The charge for the first round of edits is typically either an hourly rate of $50 per hour or a set rate of $4 per double-spaced, size 12 font page. After delivery of the final edits, any follow-up (beyond basic clarifying emails, within reason) will be at the $50 per hour rate. When working only on citations, rather than the entire document, the hourly rate may be a more affordable option that still reflects the amount of work done. I typically track my time on each project, unless and until it reaches a point where the set price per page would be cheaper. Upon advance request, I can continue to keep a record of how long I spend on the work.

The time it will take me to complete the work will depend on the amount of text and citations you would like me to work on, as well as their complexity.

If these prices are not affordable, I am always open to talking that out. Most of my clients have been law students, and as someone who graduated from law school myself in 2018, I understand the pressures and constraints that may be faced.

Payment

**I prefer to receive payment through Venmo. Payment is required within 7 days of final delivery.

Tips and Advice

One thing that writing advisors have pointed out to me in the past is that it is preferable to use a single tense when writing a paper. For example, if you are going to write in the present tense, do so consistently – or, if you are going to use the past tense, then do so throughout the entire paper.

Similarly, it may be important to determine whether to use the first person point of view (I, me, my) or the third person point of view (he/she/they, him/her/them, his/hers/theirs). Typically, I see the third person point of view used, and in these instances you would refer to yourself as “the author,” “the researcher,” or something else along those lines.

I typically see works written in the past tense and from the third-person point of view.

Remember to use page numbers!

Other

If you find any errors on my website, in my emails, or in my work, please let me know so that I can learn from them and try not to repeat them in the future! ☺