FAQs

I started my editorial career at a pharmaceutical publishing house in London. I oversaw the entire editorial and production process for two of its five magazines. That involved commissioning articles from experts, editing them, arranging copy edits and proofreads (and carrying out these checks on my colleagues’ magazines), flat-planning, and working closely with the designer to ensure a high quality final product.

From here I moved into a news copy editor position at a well-known medical news website. I copy edited each news article and special feature, ensuring alignment with our house style guide, SEO best practices, and conscious language guidelines. Following a couple of promotions with this organisation, I became a senior copy editor and took on a leadership role within the team. I took ownership of the brand’s style guides and tone of voice strategy. I was also asked to establish a fresh brand voice strategy and style guide for an existing website our parent company acquired. As a result of this strategic piece of work, I was able to help position the website as a unique but vital stepping stone in the consumer’s health journey.

I then moved to a medcomms agency as an editorial manager, where it was my role to ensure that our small editorial team was positioned correctly and effectively across our clients and their pharmaceutical media and materials. I also completed copy edits, quality checks, proofreads, and fact-checks on materials as diverse as slide decks, patient information leaflets, and videos.

From here I switched lanes to the UK rail industry, acting as an editorial content manager for a central member organisation. It was here that the breadth of my expertise expanded to cover podcasts, social media, research reports, and scripting.

TL;DR: Across my 10+ years in editorial, I’ve overseen the development of pharmaceutical magazines, copy edited thousands of medical news articles, led effective style guide creation and brand voice work, collaborated with countless pharmaceutical clients to deliver top quality patient materials, and produced a popular rail industry podcast. Versatility is truly my forte!

I offer:

• structural editing (also known as substantive or developmental editing)
• copy editing (also known as line editing)
• proofreading
• editorial feedback
• script-writing (for speeches, videos, etc.)
• brand voice consultation and style guide creation

I work with businesses as well as individual authors and creators, so if you have need of any of these services, please send me an email at jasmin@caret-and-compass.com to enquire.

My process differs depending on the type of service I’m providing for you.

Structural editing:

While the core goal of structural editing (also called developmental editing) is always to ensure a logical flow, clarity, and impact, the actual execution looks vastly different depending on whether I’m editing a book for an author or material for a business.

Here’s the breakdown of my process for both scenarios.

Structural editing for authors (books, fiction and non-fiction)

When editing a book, the structural edit focuses on narrative arc, pacing, character development, and thematic consistency. It’s a deep dive into the soul of the manuscript.

1. The initial read-through (no editing): I’ll read the entire manuscript from start to finish without making any changes. The goal here is to experience the book as a reader and grasp the big picture.
2. Creating an editorial letter and style map: I’ll create a comprehensive diagnostic report (often 5–15 pages long) detailing what works and what doesn’t. For fiction projects, this means analysing plot holes, character arcs, pacing, world-building, and point-of-view consistency. For non-fiction projects, this means assessing the central argument, chapter progression, redundancies, and the flow of information.
3. Chapter-by-chapter structural breakdown: I’ll provide inline comments on the manuscript, focusing only on macro-level issues. This may mean: moving, merging, or completely deleting entire chapters or scenes; identifying where a scene needs showing instead of telling; or suggesting character rewrites or sub-plot integrations.
4. Author revision: I’ll send the manuscript back to you. You’ll use my editorial letter to rewrite, flesh out weak areas, and fix structural gaps. This step can take months and may require multiple collaborative passes.

Structural editing for businesses (reports, articles, marketing copy, etc.)

In a business context, time is money, and clarity is king. Structural editing here is about maximising efficiency, maintaining brand voice, and driving the reader towards a specific action (conversion, comprehension, or compliance).

1. Aligning with the strategic objective: Before looking at the text, I’ll establish the business goals: who is the target audience, what is the desired action or takeaway, and what is your brand’s established tone of voice?
2. Evaluating the information architecture: Business readers skim. So, I’ll usually apply the pyramid principle by placing the most critical conclusion or recommendation at the very beginning, followed by supporting arguments, followed by data. This means shifting key takeaways from the conclusion to the executive summary and breaking up dense blocks of text into digestible, scannable hierarchies.
3. Streamlining and fact-checking: I’ll cut bureaucratic fluff, corporate jargon, and repetitive information to ensure your document is punchy and direct. I’ll also ensure that data tables, charts, and callout boxes align logically with the surrounding text.
4. Final sign-off and implementation: Depending on your preference, I can either do the structural rewrites directly or work closely with you or a project manager to implement changes quickly, ensuring the document meets its deadline.

Copy editing:

I’ve honed my copy editing process over my years of performing this type of review. My typical process is to first read through the content to get the gist of the message, style, and overall tone. 

I then begin by correcting basics such as spelling, grammar, and syntax and ensuring consistency throughout the text. 

Next it’s time to go back through the copy to ensure style guide adherence, if we’re working to one. 

I’ll then do another pass to check a) that the flow still works following the initial two passes, and b) that your original authorial voice has been preserved throughout my edits. 

Finally, I’ll do one final pass to double-check that the copy is flawless and still sounds like you.

I can either make my edits directly in your text or provide a version with my tracked changes in place for full transparency.

Proofreading:

Proofreading is the final safety net of the editing process, taking place only after all major rewrites and copy editing are completely finished. Its sole purpose is to catch mechanical errors and formatting glitches before a document goes to print or gets published online.

The process begins with preparation, where I’ll review the required style guide and any project-specific notes to ensure absolute consistency regarding spelling preferences, capitalisation rules, and industry terminology. With those guidelines in mind, I’ll conduct a meticulous, slow-paced reading of the text. I often isolate one line at a time to force my eyes to catch subtle typos, missing punctuation, homophone errors, and minor grammatical slips that automated spell-checkers inherently miss.

Once the text itself is clean, I’ll shift my focus to the layout and visual presentation. During this pass, I’ll examine the document’s formatting rather than its language, checking that page numbers are sequential, headers and footers are accurate, and fonts remain consistent throughout. I’ll look for visual flaws like awkward line breaks or isolated words stranded at the top of a page, while also verifying that charts, captions, and tables are correctly aligned and numbered.

Finally, I’ll perform a quick quality assurance check to test hyperlinks, confirm cross-references, and ensure that no new errors were accidentally introduced during the cleanup. I’ll then return these final corrections to you using clear digital markups or tracked changes, delivering a polished, flawless product that protects your credibility.

Scripting:

• Coming soon

Style guide creation:

The first step in any kind of brand voice/style guide work is to conduct a 1- or 2-hour interview with you to learn everything I can about your business, including its history, values, and mission. 

When I have this information, I’ll begin thinking about the best and most effective way for you to present yourself to your target audience. I’ll think about language to use, language to avoid, your ideal tone of voice, and other ways to encapsulate your unique identity and communicate with your desired audience. 

When I’ve presented these ideas to you and I have your approval (and I’m open to a few rounds of this process), I’ll begin to pull your bespoke style guide together. This will be a one-of-a-kind document created especially for you. It will include sections such as: preferred spellings; grammar rules and common pitfalls to avoid; conscious and inclusive language guidelines; formatting rules; banned words; styling numerals; how to communicate via social media; and much more. 

Following feedback and approval, this will be delivered to you in your preferred format, which may be a Google doc, a PPT file, or a PDF.

Editorial feedback:

Before I start working on an editorial feedback project, I’ll ask you if there’s anything specific you’d like me to check or look out for. If so, I’ll factor that in. I’m typically checking for factors such as: overall sense; consistency of characters, arguments, plots, etc; flow; impact; logic; pace; audience alignment; and more. 

I can either deliver you a personalised summary report that outlines the strengths, areas for improvement, and next steps or a version of your text marked up with my feedback or queries in the specific places they’ve arisen. 

If you agree with my commentary, I would then be more than happy to work with you on some structural editing and/or copy editing to polish your project ready for publication.

My rates reflect the minimum recommended rates in the UK as of June 2026, my years of editorial expertise, and the quality I commit to delivering. Here they are, broken down by service type:

• structural editing: £45 per hour
• copy editing: £40 per hour
• proofreading: £35 per hour
• script-writing: £50 per hour
• brand voice and style guide work: £2,000 to £5,000 for the entire project, depending on scope
• editorial feedback: £20 per hour

The caret is a type of proofreading mark used to indicate that a new insertion is required in a text. And, well, you know what a compass is. 

Bringing the two together in my business’s name seeks to portray that, when you work with me, you’ll get valuable input into your project as well as the benefit that my clarity and direction will bring.

If that’s intrigued you, please reach out at jasmin@caret-and-compass.com to see how I can help you.