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Keeping organised

26 Aug

I’ve been having a great week off the day job, doing just Libro work. I’d like to be able to do this all the time, but really late August / early September are my peak time during the year, with loads of Masters dissertations to proofread, all with similar due dates.

Although I’ve had a couple of longer jobs, and one big project from a repeat customer, it’s mainly been 2-4 hour jobs, and lots of them. Two problems – when to do the work, and how to know whether I can take on another piece of work from someone who just emailed me.

Ladies and gentlemen: I give you the Gant Chart.

I haven’t used anything fancy, just Excel. No project management software, although I’m sure you could use that if you want, and that’s where I got the idea from. But one of my rules is to keep it simple. A phone that phones, texts, and yes, now accesses my email. A computer and an email account. A spreadsheet with my accounts. And an easy gant chart.

So – dates across the top, one per column. Customers down the side. And you get to COLOUR IN SQUARES! Yes, it’s like O-level revision all over again – most of the time spent colouring in and underlining, some of it spent working.

When a customer books in, I colour in the squares for the days from when they intend to give me the document to when they need it back. In grey. It’s pending. It’s not here yet. But I can see what I’ve got hovering. The document comes in – and it gets coloured in red. Maybe the submission date gets moved, maybe the end date. Now I know what I have in hand – what I have to do. At this point, I shuffle all the rows round so the clients are in order by due date. This way, when I’ve got a lot of work in, I know what I need to do first.

Work done, I write DONE in the cells for the days on which I actually did the work, and colour it in yellow. Invoice submitted – orange. Invoice paid – green! And I leave it on there, to show me what I’ve been up to.

A hint: freeze the panes on your spreadsheet so you can see all the client names but move across the dates without losing them.

Along with email folders for all my current and completed customers, this has kept me organised over the past few weeks. I hope it’s helped some readers with some ideas. Maybe you’d like to tell me your favourite organisation tip?

 
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Posted by on August 26, 2010 in New skills, Organisation

 

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Now We Are One

01 Aug

I actually did my first piece of work for Libro on 28 August 2009, but I registered the company with the Inland Revenue just before that and had a start date of 01 August. So, Happy Birthday Libro!

What have I learnt in this first year? I’m proud that I’ve done it – I’ve been paid to do what I’ve done for people for free in the past. I’ve been successful in my work and gathered lots of lovely references. I’m confident working in different versions of Word and with pdf annotating software, and I’ve worked on lots of different projects, from Masters dissertations through PhD theses, non-fiction books and articles, novels, marketing materials and websites.

I’m particularly proud that I’ve helped people whose English isn’t their first language to express themselves. I’ve been able to aid the creativity of others by ensuring the infrastructure of language and grammar was there to support their work. I’ve kept to my principles, turning down work that wasn’t right for me, and continuing to do a little bit of free work for charity.

OK, the housework and reading might have suffered a bit, but I don’t think my relationship and friendships have, and I’ve enjoyed what I’ve been doing, which I think is the main thing!

Thanks to all my clients who have sent work my way and given me lovely references. Here’s to the next year of Libro!

 
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Posted by on August 1, 2010 in Celebration

 

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Pet hates and the things everyone seems to do

29 Jul

I put a post up on my facebook page for Libro asking for people’s pet hates in language use, and got a good range of interesting comments, so I thought I’d open it up on here, too.

Personally, I try to stay calm when confronted with errors and irritations – after all, it’s my job to sort them out and help the writer to express themselves clearly and confidently. In real life, yes, I do hop up and down when I see grocers’ apostrophes (however, I did NOT go out with the white-out and amend some signs near the University, contrary to the opinions of quite a few people!) and I’ve been known to mention them to the staff of the shop in question.

In my proofreading life, I come across the same things over and over again. Academics using “… and whatnot” rather than “etc.”. People starting off using “organise” and switching to “organize” and back again, and back again, and back again. The formation of “a lot” into one word.

I do worry that clarity and the wide range of expressiveness held by our language is being lost. OK, so you can understand “There are less people in this queue”, but isn’t it just nicer to know it should be “fewer”? (I have one dear friend who is very keen on that one…) Or maybe I’m just too pedantic.

Well, I’d rather have someone who’s too pedantic as my proofreader, wouldn’t you?

So just to mix it up a little – what language misuse do you own up to? I will admit to being very good at saying “Ali and me went to the cafe” when of course it should be “Ali and I”. I know what to do in my written English, I hasten to add! What about you..?

 
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Posted by on July 29, 2010 in Language use

 

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On (not) crossing the line

05 Jul

I had another learning experience last week. I offer a proofreading and copyediting service to students, but obviously I have to be really careful about authorship and plagiarism. Plagiarism is not just “copying”; it also encompasses “passing off someone else’s work as your own”. Now, I’m sure none of my clients would intend to do this. Usually, I’m tweaking spellings, word usage, the occasional sentence re-write – I do everything in “track changes” in Word so the client can see what I suggest and make their own decision about what to change and whether to change it or not. That means they retain their own authorship. People in the know with whom I’ve discussed it are fine with this approach and it just gently helps the meaning come through.

But just sometimes, there’s a piece of work where I feel uncomfortable with the amount I’m suggesting and working on. For “working on”, read “re-writing”. I did always wonder where the line was drawn; well, it turns out that with this one, I *should* go for gut reaction (unlike in my previous post, where I thought I couldn’t do the work, but it turned out I could). If my gut reaction says that I’m crossing the line where your work is concerned, I will – politely – turn it down and return your work to you without corrections. There are probably people who wouldn’t act like that, but I very firmly believe in doing what is right, above doing what is profitable. Work on which someone is given a grade should be their own work.

Of course, if you’re not a student and you want me to re-write your mangled metaphors, your tortured text, your slippery sentences, then bring it on!

 
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Posted by on July 5, 2010 in Ethics, proofreading, Students, Writing

 

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Learning something new every day…

11 Jun

So I’m a professional proofreader and I enjoy my work and take a pride in it… but sometimes it’s good to expand your horizons.

I’ve taken on a job sorting out the formatting of someone’s thesis this week. Page numbering, chapter headings forming a contents page, figures and tables; all of that stuff. At first I wasn’t convinced I could do it. But I persevered, took out the stuff at the front that had been copied and pasted, reminded myself of the theory (Word 2007 can be quite different from previous versions) and off I went.

Next time, I’ll know how to create separate figures and tables contents lists (ask me if you need to know how), I’ll know that Microsoft online help is a bit better than the help embedded in Word, and I’ll be confident I can do that little bit more to help my clients present the best possible version of their work.

 
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Posted by on June 11, 2010 in New skills

 

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Introduction

14 Oct

Thank you for visiting the Libro Editing Services webpages.

Libro Editing Services was set up by Liz Broomfield in August 2009.

I offer a proofreading and copy-editing service for academic and creative writing, both in print and online. I’m a real person, with an Honours degree in English and plenty of experience, and I undertake all my work personally and by looking at every word, not running your work through a spellchecker and grammar checker and sending it back to you! I’ll make recommendations as required, and always welcome questions and feedback.

Information on my services.

Information on my pricing structure.

And information about my background and references.

Contact me.

 
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Posted by on October 14, 2009 in Business

 
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