What is Comprehensive Editing at Kibin?

At Kibin, we believe all writers deserve to “sound good,” and we do this through comprehensive (or substantive) editing, which has long set us apart from services that focus on proofreading. As described on the editing service hub page, we promise, 

“detailed editing, error correction, and feedback to communicate more effectively at school, at work, and everywhere in between. … Sure, we correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling -- but we don’t stop at basic proofreading. Logic, flow, word choice, and sentence structure matter, too. We'll guide you to clear, concise writing suited for your audience and goals.” 
Through customer feedback and 11 years of providing editing services, we’ve identified six elements that writers expect in a Kibin edit, which are reiterated on the “What to Expect” sections of Kibin’s editing service pages and in the quality assurance evaluation sheet. To ensure that we’re meeting authors’ expectations consistently, the following six criteria should be present (or addressed) in almost all documents:
  1. All spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors are resolved
  2. Correct referencing and consistent formatting
  3. Personalized feedback 
  4. Edits for concision (when applicable)
  5. Edits for fluency and word choice
  6. Edits for logic, organization, and/or clarity

Think of these elements as selections from your spice rack to use “to taste” as you’re cooking up a great edit. Some edits need more cuts and word choice changes, while others need more help with logical arguments. Sometimes these issues simply aren’t present in a document, which means you don’t need to address them at all. If you haven’t already, you’ll develop a natural feel over time for how much “seasoning” a document might need. Your revisions should aim to guide the writer to a more polished draft, not necessarily to polish an extremely rough draft to absolute perfection.

Essential Elements

These six elements can be separated into two categories. The first three can be evaluated more objectively, meaning they have specific or inarguable rules or clear parameters, and are essential expectations in every Kibin edit.

  1. All spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors are resolved
    • A document should always be returned without any English language errors.
  2. Correct referencing and consistent formatting
    • The document adheres to style guide rules (when applicable).
    • Formatting/style is consistent throughout the document.
  3. Personalized feedback 
    • Editorial comments on structure, organization, tone, clarity, and/or flow are reasonable in scope and number given the type of edit and user note.
      • Example: A Final Cut document is not expected to contain the same level of commentary as a Stylistic edit.
    • The feedback is responsive to the author’s help requests/questions (within reason/scope).
      • Example: “Does my conclusion make sense?” “I thought your conclusion was spot on, save for this part here about XXX. What do you mean by this?” 
    • Closing comments and feedback are professional, polite, and generally helpful. 

Comprehensive Editing Elements

The comprehensive editing criteria are more subjective, simply because no two editors have the exact same approach to balancing commentary, feedback, and editing. That’s okay! We encourage diversity in editing styles since Kibin serves a diverse range of authors with different needs and preferences. At the same time, we need to ensure that we’re providing a consistent service. 

With six different editing segments, you’ll encounter a range of documents with varied purposes and audiences. You should be able to assess the document’s intended audience/purpose in conjunction with the segment, edit type, and author’s note to inform your approach when it comes to the next three elements:

  1. Edits for concision
    • Authors who need to be more concise often indicate how much editing they want on this front by providing a word count or asking directly in their note; not all documents will need many concision edits. Edits for concision will not be possible in some cases (e.g., an author is struggling to reach or maintain a specific word count).
    • Most authors welcome phrasing edits that make their writing more effective, especially if you make your reasons known. Concision editing for effectiveness might include 
      • sentence-level edits for phrasing that could be shortened, 
      • removing passive voice in favor of stronger verbs, and/or 
      • eliminating unnecessary detail/wordiness. 
    • Final Cut documents are often great candidates for concision edits for more effective writing. 
  2. Edits for fluency and word choice
    • Authors want their writing to flow smoothly and without repetition. Fluency and word choice edits might include
      • edits to sentence structure for correct clause placement, 
      • replacing clunky language that trips up readers, 
      • removing repetition in word choice and sentence structure,
        • Example: You might make edits if almost all sentences start with an introductory phrase, the same verb appears X times in close proximity, or the last X sentences in a row have similar structure.
      • correcting ESL word choice and phrasing errors, 
        • Examples: words that are spelled extremely similarly (“messengers” instead of “messages”), phrasing that sounds “unnatural” in spoken/written English (“I would like to compensate your assistance”), or a word that has a close-but-not-right definition (“unswerving” instead of “unwavering”) 
      • more appropriate word choices for audience and tone.
  3. Edits for logic, organization, and/or clarity
    • This element addresses an author’s Higher Order Concerns (HOCs). These edits might look like 
      • comments on sentences, phrases, or ideas that are illogical or need more context, 
      • creating or suggesting a more logical flow of information, 
        • Examples: Reorganizing sentences in a paragraph, moving information from one sentence to another, or moving a sentence to a more appropriate paragraph
        • rephrasing unclear language,
        • suggesting larger organizational changes, 
        • comments on the overall structure and clarity of the ideas in the text. 
      1. Stylistic and Clarity documents will likely need more/heavier logic, organization, and clarity edits, though it’s good to address these elements when necessary in Final Cut documents.

    Final Thoughts

    Ultimately, your goal is guiding the author to a clearer and more effective next draft -- whether it's a second draft of a personal statement or the final draft of a cover letter -- using your unique editing style and perspective. Keep this in mind when you come across messier drafts that might need a lot of clarity or organizational work. Unlike actual cooking, the author can ultimately decide how much of your “seasoning” to keep by accepting/rejecting changes -- so nothing is truly “baked in.” If you’re on the fence about an edit, it’s typically better to present the author with the option than to not make the edit.