So, you want to eliminate the endless pressure that your budget puts on you? Do you fear the piling of student debt? You are looking for jobs but they don’t offer flexible timings that fit your educational schedule. If you don’t possess the best English writing, editing, and proofreading skills, you shouldn’t worry. With some serious commitment to learning this craft and some help with an online writing and editing course, you will be up for these services in no time. Let’s dive into this transitionary career path and find mental peace during your college years.
The Skills of Editing and Proofreading
You must have heard a lot about editing and proofreading in your academic life. If you are like most students, you must have considered the two skills to be the same. Note that editing and proofreading aren’t two different names for the same skill. Instead, they are entirely different skills with diverging scopes.
Editing is changing, adding to, or deleting from the text to improve it. editing can have many goals and these goals determine the type of editing you will do. For example, copy editing aims to improve the text to enhance its understandability. Content editing is concerned with improving the presentation and flow of ideas. Another type of editing is developmental editing which looks at the presentation of ideas to improve their flow and understanding.
Proofreading only cares about the grammatical structure and spellings used in the text. So, if you are tasked with proofreading a document, you must only identify flaws in its grammar and spelling and change them for the writer of the document. For some mistakes, you will change the sentence to make it flawless. However, there will be some sentences that will require you to suggest changes for the writer to enforce them.
Finding Online Editing and Proofreading Jobs
Before you even start offering your services, you should ensure the high quality of your English essay writing skills. You may wish to offer services in a language other than English, however, note that most written text is produced in English, so you will get more editing jobs for English than for any other language. If you want to earn a sizeable income, you must choose the English language to excel in your skills.
Once you have determined the language in which you want to offer your services, move ahead and test and build your online editing and proofreading skills. If you aren’t too good, take courses to improve your editing capability. With appropriate knowledge and skill, start offering your services.
Most proofreaders choose online marketing routes to gain clients because this route is effective and successful. In the digital world, you can go the long route of establishing your business through your website and lots of marketing to gain visitors. You can also choose an easier route that is taken up by most beginner proofreaders and editors. These skilled professionals use online job and gig platforms to search for relevant work.
It is witnessed that finding work across these platforms is easy. However, if you want to carry on working on this skill even after graduating, you should consider building your reputation and directing it to your website for lasting business opportunities.
Tools to Set Up Your Editing Business
Mostly editors and proofreaders work individually as freelancers. However, you are free to build your agency to offer these services. If you go the most popular route which is doing it alone, you will need a computer to serve your clients. As these services are mostly offered via the Internet, you will need an Internet connection.
You can use Google Docs or Microsoft Word for viewing and editing documents. I would suggest that you learn and use both tools to allow your clients more ease and flexibility. Next, you can use some online tools to make your work easier. These tools include Grammarly and Spellchecker. As the names suggest, the former tool checks the grammar of the document while the latter focuses on spelling mistakes.
Note that the use of these tools is meant to make the process easier for you. No proofreader relies entirely on these tools to serve their clients as these tools can leave some errors unattended. You must check the document manually to ensure that it’s free of errors and mistakes. In the end, you need to pay special attention to documents requiring editing. After all, none of these software solutions offer editing help.
Online Platforms for Finding Work
Now, many skilled editors will go with building their website and agency right away. However, if you are a student, you wouldn’t want to follow that path. Instead, you will want to join online platforms that connect clients with editors. Here are some quality platforms where you can find work.
Fiverr
This platform supports beginning editors, but the pay isn’t great here. Although you get to set your rates, charging top dollar often repels clients on this platform. If you are only a beginner editor and proofreader, this platform will launch you easily.
Upwork
Upwork is another big name in the freelancing industry. You get better rates at this platform and many contracts are long-term and repeat. It’s another beginner platform that will not only help you sharpen your editing skills but will also teach you business communication and negotiation skills.
PeoplePerHour
This platform takes professionals with intermediate experience and pays a reasonable hourly rate. Although the offers are fewer here, you can find quality clients who can turn into repeat business opportunities.
Final Thoughts
Higher education can cost a fortune. If you don’t manage your budget during your college years, you can end up with soaring debt that will take years to repay. Engaging in a job along with your college is an absolute way to ease your financial burden. Online editing and proofreading services are the best for students who cannot commit fixed hours for full-time or part-time jobs. This blog post tells about the best route to building a reliable income stream with proofreading and editing services.