Red Pen

Specialist legal and academic writing, editing and proofreading

Hello! I am Philippa van Aardt, the proud founder of Red Pen. I am a specialist legal and academic publisher, writing coach, editor and proofreader with over thirty years' experience. I am also a published author.

I have worked on hundreds of texts as an editor, journals' manager and publisher at the University of South Africa, Pearson Education and Juta and Company. I began my career as a law editor and translator and then worked on content and publishing across all academic disciplines. For the last eight years, I have once again been focusing on editing and publishing law, and writing for my own pleasure.

Specialist legal and academic writing demands absolute precision and clarity of thought and expression. I understand the challenges you face. Whatever the field or format, I can help. Whether you need coaching, over-writing, pre-submission manuscript screening and remediation, editing, proofreading or anything in between, I can help.

 

Journals

Specialist coaching, screening and remediation of manuscripts in advance of submission for peer review Professional editing of papers in line with the journal requirements Proofreading of papers

Textbooks and other academic texts

Coaching, screening and remediation of manuscripts in advance of submission Specialist editing Proofreading

Dissertations

Coaching Editing Proofreading

Plain language

Plain language for legal and other texts

Instructional design

Instructional design for texts

Writing and development

Content writing and development as required

A light edit

A light edit looks at the usual grammar and punctuation issues and makes relatively minor changes to the text, including occasional rephrasing for clarity. If the editor identifies structural issues, a lack of logic and cognitive gaps, she will recommend a medium or even a heavy edit depending on the extent of editing required. A light edit does not include working on references and bibliographies or doing any kind of reference checking. Price is R0.25 per word.

A medium edit

A medium edit comprises more intervention than a light edit and may include rephrasing and reworking of parts of the text in order to achieve a clearer and more elegant flow of thought. Such an edit may involve limited restructuring and rewriting of sentences. It may include editing references and bibliographies. Price may range from R0.30 - R0.35 a word

A heavy/substantive edit

At this level the editor engages deeply with the meaning and intention of the text in addition to the usual grammar and language edit. The editor may offer guidance on restructuring the text and offer a level of over-writing, which is the process of rewriting quite extensive parts of the text where required. Price may range from R0.40 - R0.55 per word

Content development

Any brief that includes services such as repurposing the text, rewriting it in plain English, developing an instructional design or engaging in any other kind of deep intervention will be subject to a discussion with the client after which a quotation will be prepared.

Customised writing coaching

This option is also available and will be structured after a discussion with the client to ensure their needs are met. An appropriate fee will be negotiated.

Proofreading

Proofreading is the final stage of the writing process when the text has been typeset and it is checked for things like spacing and format, the odd grammar or punctuation error that has slipped through and typographical errors. Price is R0.20 per word