nSight Edit Express FAQs

Have a question about Edit Express? You'll probably find the answer right here.

What is Edit Express?
Edit Express is an editing service from nSight designed to help busy professionals ensure that their important documents—proposals, manuals, brochures, speeches, announcements, Web pages—are free of typos, grammatical and factual errors, inconsistencies, and unusual production problems before publication. nSight will take any print or online document, in almost any file format, edit it, and deliver it according to your instructions—on time, within budget, and IMPROVED!

Who is nSight?
nSight is one of the most respected names in communications today. Since 1982, nSight—formerly Editorial Services of New England, Inc.—has been helping clients such as Microsoft, Fidelity Investments, Harvard Business School, Pearson Education, MIT, 3Com, and Time-Life Books ensure that their publications are clear, consistent, and error-free. Now nSight is offering this same high-quality editing service to you—busy professionals who are short on time but know that one tiny typo can ruin a giant sales opportunity.

Why should I use Edit Express?
nSight provides you with one point of contact to a vast network of experienced editorial professionals who can clean up your document in no time. If you want your documents to be clearly written, professional-looking, and error-free—and you don't have an editor on staff or your editor is too busy—you should use nSight.

How much does Edit Express charge for editing a document?
It depends upon the type of edit needed, subject matter expertise required, document length, and completion deadline. Many orders are completed for less than $100 (minimum order charge is $40). Send us your document and we'll provide you with a no-obligation quote.

How fast can you edit my document?
If your document is very short and requires little editing, nSight can complete your job in an hour or less. It could also take several days, depending upon the type of edit and number of pages. Our goal is to edit your document as fast as you need it. Just tell us what you want and we'll do our best to accommodate you.

What documents are appropriate for Edit Express?
Any document that is distributed or presented to a prospect, client, partner, or other key individual to build brand awareness, generate sales, or increase customer satisfaction and loyalty could benefit from an nSight review—in short, any document that is critical to you and your company's success. Documents include but are not limited to proposals, reports, brochures, white papers, user guides, books, training manuals, advertisements, speeches, press releases, presentations, Web pages, and interactive CD-ROMs.

What file formats does Edit Express support?
We can accept PC and Mac files in almost any application: Microsoft Word; Adobe PDF, PageMaker and FrameMaker; QuarkXPress; Microsoft PowerPoint, FrontPage, and Excel; and Allaire HomeSite—whatever format is most convenient for you.

What if my document is confidential?
nSight is committed to protecting the privacy of all confidential and proprietary information submitted to us. As a condition of employment, all nSight employees are required to sign a confidentiality agreement that continues to be in effect even if—for any reason—a termination occurs. If you would like further reassurance, we can even fax you a copy of the agreement signed by the editor or editors who are assigned to work on your document.

How do I review the edits made to my document?
It depends upon the application you used to create your document and the method you choose to receive nSight's corrections and recommendations.

For Microsoft Word documents, we use the Track Changes tool, which allows you to preview and selectively accept changes made to your document. This method saves you time and eliminates errors caused by retyping changes marked on a hard copy.

For PDF files, we use the annotations tool in Adobe Acrobat. We correct formatting errors, grammar, spelling, and punctuation. We create a new text annotation for each editing comment. Documents can have many annotations, and they are always visible. To review the work, you print the annotated document, review the suggested edits, and enter changes you want into your source files.

For Web pages, we will print the pages, mark the edits by hand, and fax the corrections to you. If time is of the essence and you want Edit Express to make text corrections directly to your Web page, we will do so using HomeSite, FrontPage, or another HTML editing tool you specify.

We can work directly in other applications, such as FrameMaker or QuarkXPress, but you wouldn't know what changes we made because they don't have sophisticated editing tools. In these cases, we can print your document, mark it up, and fax it to you for review. Then, you can either make the corrections yourself or have us do it.

How is Edit Express different from using a freelance editor?
We have a large pool of qualified, professional editors with industry expertise available NOW to meet your tightest deadlines. You know what you're getting with nSight—our editors have been thoroughly screened and tested by nSight (the company behind Edit Express) and are already editing documents that have millions of dollars at stake. We exceed expectations under pressure, which is why we've earned the trust of many of the world's leading companies and institutions.

How can Edit Express help my entire company?
Employees at all management levels and in every department can benefit from having Edit Express edit their documents. nSight's professional editors will help you improve the overall quality and consistency of communication in print or online, resulting in higher sales and greater customer satisfaction. To advocate the importance of editing documents and to make it easy for employees to do so, consider incorporating Edit Express into your company's intranet site. To learn more, send your inquiry to Sales@nSightWorks.com.

What methods of payment do you accept?
We accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover credit cards; purchase orders; and corporate checks. Payment terms are net 15 days.

Types of Edit

1. Proofread/Copyedit
2. Substantive Edit/Rewrite
3. Page Check/Final Review

1. Proofread/Copyedit

When you select Proofread/Copyedit, Edit Express checks your document for grammar, spelling, consistency, and format. The job of nSight's professional copyeditor is to clarify, correct, and standardize your document. It is not to rewrite or reorganize. nSight checks:

Accuracy and consistency of:

• Capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and grammar
• Abbreviations/acronyms; spelled out at first reference
• Treatment of numbers
• Italics, quotes, foreign words, special terms
• Numbering/parallel wording/punctuation of lists
• Figure and table legends, source information
• Anything numbered in sequence: lists, tables, figures, equations, outlines, etc.
• Reference style
• Footnotes/endnotes

• Run-on sentences
• Wordiness
• Sexist language
• Awkward constructions; vague language
• Passive voice

• Misused words
• Inappropriate content or tone
• Missing cross-references
• Major organizational problems
• Awkward or confusing passages
• Uncredited material that may need permission

A substantive edit includes all the Proofread/Copyedit tasks as well as a deeper level of editing to improve the language or organization. It requires greater editorial judgment than a basic copyedit. We retain the author's style unless directed otherwise.

A Substantive Edit includes the following:

• Correct errors of word usage (redundancy, passive voice, wordiness, poor diction, word choice)
• Edit sentence structure (syntax, variety, parallelism, clarity)
• Edit paragraph structure (organization, length, coherence, transitions)
• Check organization (logic and unity, structure, transitions, summaries); query major problems
• Monitor style (appropriateness of tone and voice, level of language to audience)
• Verify that heads reflect text that follows
• Check for too many or too few heads
• Rewrite awkward or confusing sections; query the writer if we are not sure of meaning
• Review manuscript for sentences, paragraphs, and sections that could be cut
• Check math, numbers, problems, and answers to questions in exercises
• Check descriptions of tables/figures in text against information in the tables/figures themselves
• Other specific requests such as reviewing text that may have been written by an author whose first language is not English

When nSight does a Page Check/Final Review of your document that will be published in print or electronically, we scan the final file(s) for editorial and production problems that may not have been caught during final rounds of corrections. Note: Usually, editing and proofreading are done before the Page Check/Final Review stage, so at this stage, we look for the kinds of problems listed below rather than reading word for word. However, if you prefer, we will be happy to read your work very carefully to spot all possible errors at this stage.

A Page Check/Final Review involves checking:

Printed Media

• Cover, title page, and copyright page for consistency
• Front matter for appropriate copyright information and date, acknowledgements, table of contents, list of conventions, and/or trademarks, when appropriate
• Corrections from previous versions
• Table of contents against text to ensure accuracy, completeness, and consistency
• Text flow (spot-check end of one page, beginning of next)
• Unexpected electronic production glitches (word breaks for no reason, poor spacing)
• Art for appropriate reference and labeling
• Page numbers, running heads, and footers for completeness and consistency
• Page alignment as appropriate
• Registration marks if needed
• Completeness of files/project

• Cover, title page, and copyright page for consistency
• Check the site map and its consistency with the button labels and page titles
• Be sure the "big picture" information is at the top of the page with links to the rest of the information below
• Check for navigation feedback or cues for each action a user makes on the site
• Be sure required fields are marked on forms and that the system doesn't accept forms with empty required fields
• Check for appropriateness of ALT tags and that the site can be used by a screen reader for accessibility