I’m an author, editor, proofreader, researcher and consultant in matters geographical, historical, linguistic, scientific and technological. I’m now offering my skills as a copy editor, continuity editor and proofreader to the public at large.

Spelling and grammar checkers are now built into most word processing software, but there’s still no substitute for the old Mark I Eyeball of a professional wordsmith. The problem is that it’s easy to make a typographical error that also a valid word (“of” for “if” or “is” for “it” or “in” for “on”) that the spelling checker will ignore and the grammar checker might also miss

Then there’s the misuse of language (“which” and “that” are used incorrectly more often than most people would care to admit, if in fact they’re even aware of the errors) or the substitution of a similar sounding or similarly spelled word for the one actually intended (“team” and “teem” and the misuse of the plural form for the possessive form and vice versa). Some high-end software will flag these errors but most won’t or, at least, not consistently.

I’ve provided proofreading, editing and fact-checking services to Fortune 500 companies and professional authors whose names I’m not at liberty to disclose, but then my name is never on the byline and rarely in the credits. I just help the author of record get everything right BEFORE the work is published.

Perhaps I can help you the way that I’ve helped them.

You can contact me via FB or more directly through the e-mail links on my Dyar Straights Home Page ( http://www.DyarStraights.com/ ). My rates are based on the publishing industry standards but are negotiable and may be based on the document’s total word count, total page count or hourly editing turnaround time.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating, but the read of the writing is in the proofing….