Readability Check

Your copy may be grammatically correct, with a copyedit – but how’s the readability? For improved readability you may need a line edit, as shown in these before and after edits. See Services for more informamtion on our Combination Edit.

How's your length?

Before edit — The situation in France, complicated by the existence of the Vichy regime, was very different from that elsewhere in western Europe.

After RKedit — The situation in France, complicated by the Vichy regime, was unique in western Europe.

Before edit: — Walt Disney is cryogenically frozen and awaiting the day that medical science can survive him. A Neiman  Marcus customer who was tricked into paying $250 for a cookie recipe is sharing the department store's prized recipe with the world as retribution. While these stories are fun to relate, what they share in common is that they are urban legends.

After RKedit: — Walt Disney is cryogenically frozen and awaits revival by medical science. A Neiman-Marcus customer who was tricked into paying $250 for a cookie recipe takes revenge by sharing the department store's prized recipe with the world. These stories are fun, but are urban legends.

Before edit — In order to arrive at meaningful statistical comparisons, it is first necessary to ascertain whether the figures for different countries were compiled on the same basis and indeed whether they can be considered reliable.

After RKedit — For meaningful comparisons, we first need to know whether the statistics for different countries were similarly compiled and, of course, whether they can be considered reliable.

Before RKedit — for reprint of published article:     

The article has been edited in order to provide a shorter and more appropriate length for classroom use, but without losing the sense of the original article.

After RKedit —

The article has been edited to provide a more suitable length for classroom use but without losing the sense of the original.

How's your diction?

Before edit: … a cheerful blond woman.

After edit: … a cheerful blonde.

How's the flow?

Before edit: Nevertheless, by New Year's Day, my resolutions would dissolve into an untidy heap ….

After RKedit: Nevertheless, by New Year's Day my resolutions would dissolve into an untidy heap….

Before edit: The director was there, but true to his promise, watched the dress rehearsal and said nothing.

After RKedit: The director was there, but, true to his promise, watched the dress rehearsal and said nothing.

How's the impact?

Before edit: It was already midnight, but I was strung with nervous energy, having failed to recover from the dreadful news of the day.

After RKedit: It was already midnight but I was strung with nervous energy, having failed to recover from the dreadful news of the day.

Before edit: On top of everything else, she demanded the truth, certain that she was right and I was wrong.

After RKedit: On top of everything else she demanded the truth, certain that she was right and I was wrong.

How’s the ambivalence or confusion?

Before edit: — Maureen Dowd:

He [Rumsfeld] suggested invading Iraq the day after 9/11.

As RKedit prefers:                

The day after 9/11 he [Rumsfeld] suggested invading Iraq.

[Or did he really want to invade on the day after 9/11?]

Where do you want your emphasis to fall?

Before edit: For several minutes, I sat there appalled by what I'd witnessed.

After RKedit: For several minutes I sat there, appalled by what I'd witnessed.

Before: During the flight from Paris to London, I steeled myself against the sensation of being airborne, concentrated as the bright clouds floated past my window. [Here the area of emphasis pulls the sentence backward.]

After RKedit: During the flight from Paris to London I steeled myself against the sensation of being airborne, concentrated as the bright clouds floated past my window.  [Here the emphasis moves the sentence forward].

Before edit: Deer grazed on the meadow, in splotches of sunshine and shade, a scene straight out of a Mary Stewart novel. 

A smooth read – “Katrina changed everything. Life here is different, every face altered. Yet we feel and sense the landscape not only in its hurricane-leveled sodden depressions but—perhaps even more so now in the strangely comforting depths of our shared history. Even in the worst hit areas, not all is dissipated. Dense intricate attachments burrow too deep to underestimate or overlook. This is no featureless town to be rubbed off the map and cast aside. Here the band plays on.…”

Excerpted from Part 1 of Ben Franklin 2007 gold medalist “Best New Voice nonfiction” TJ Fisher’s narrative portion of the award-winning Orléans Embrace with the Secret Gardens of the Vieux Carré.” Ron Kenner, editor.

Another smooth read —

Excerpted from — Hearsay from Heaven and Hades: New Orleans Secrets of Sinners and Saints.  TJ Fisher’s latest published work. —

“…Yes, we have artists and the card readers in Jackson Square, ghost tours, carriages, second-line parades, street entertainers, formality and debauchery cohabiting; in my block I like seeing a miniature horse, an alligator-size lizard, a guy with a snake draped around his neck, and costumed people rubbing shoulders with those cloaked in black-tie attire (with requisite drinks in hand) as they saunter beneath my balcony. I like Theatre d’Orléans. It would not be the same if recreated in suburbia. It is not the same at (the French Quarter of) Disney World or Las Vegas. We love the French Quarter precisely because it is the Quarter, not prissy and perfect. A place where blemishes and imperfections are welcome. Applauded. We rebel against gentrification and homogenization. Frankly, most of us here prefer a little poison in our paradise.…” Ron Kenner, editor.

A smooth read by Olympic gold Medalist Derek Parra. — Parra, selected along with seven other athletes to carry the flag at the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, would recall in his book, Reflections in the Ice: Inside the Heart and Mind of an Olympic Champion (with Patrick Quinn):

 “When it came time to begin the procession I touched the flag for the first time and felt a physical sensation unlike anything I had ever experienced. If it’s possible to feel your soul being touched then that is what I felt. As we carried the flag out before the capacity crowd and a worldwide television audience, the silence was deafening. I’ve never before heard such stillness. I was some place emotionally I had never been before; some place spiritually I didn’t know existed. While in this instance that flag representedf so much death [following the events of 9/11] it seemed also to stand for life, love, and the hope of a nation.”

The book, edited by Ron Kenner, also won a Ben Franklin gold medal in 2004 in the category of Autobiography/Memoir.