Case Study: SpecialGuest
How I helped communications and art company SpecialGuest by doing a substantive website edit
Situation
In May 2023, a colleague I had edited for at The Atlantic and then at Cove emailed me from a new company, SpecialGuest, to ask if I would do a full copy edit of the agency’s website.
SpecialGuest, co-founded by Aaron Duffy, whose name you might know from his work on OK Go’s viral music video “The Writing’s on the Wall,” helps “the world’s most influential brands” create “communications as innovative as their products.”
By chatting via email with other staff members at SpecialGuest, I learned that the agency was balancing quite a few projects and wasn’t ready to dive into a website copy edit quite yet. I checked in a month later, then again almost one year later.
This time, SpecialGuest was ready! The project manager scheduled a virtual video chat with Aaron Duffy and one of the agency’s designers, during which we hashed out the goals and details of the project.
SpecialGuest didn’t want just a copy edit to remove errors, it wanted consistent, simplified, optimized language from the Home, About, and Contact pages to the Our Clients page and case studies, to bring the copy up to date with what is true for the agency now. In other words, it wanted a substantive edit.
Over the next two weeks, I created a proposal and project estimate, finalized the contract with the agency, and received the 50 percent deposit.
Task
SpecialGuest needed to update the case studies featured on its Our Clients page. While the Home page reflected the agency’s current voice, tone, and brand, the case studies, published as long ago as 2015, did not.
“We’re not always speaking the same language project to project,” Duffy said.
Scope of the project
In addition to the substantive edit, I would user-test the website—noting formatting or design that didn’t make sense, repeat images, fuzzy images, etc.—and build an editorial style guide for the agency.
SpecialGuest wanted the project completed by early May 2024, when a forthcoming launch would result in many eyes on the website.
Action
SpecialGuest provided me with a spreadsheet an intern had built to audit the website and note suggested fixes. It also shared its pitch deck for clients as an additional reference for how the agency talks about itself.
Over a week, I copy-pasted SpecialGuest’s web copy into a Google Doc, where I tracked my changes and left comments with larger questions or requests for additional information. This would allow edits to be a discussion: If SpecialGuest wanted to push back on or talk about an edit, it could.
Once the edits were finalized, I entered the changes into SpecialGuest’s content management system.
SpecialGuest did not have an existing style guide, so during the edit, I noted obvious style preferences shown on the website and collected and organized them in a Google Doc.
I also:
Reviewed all case studies to determine a consistent structure, based on the agency’s existing structure, and reorganized the content to suit that structure;
Trimmed or lengthened the case studies so they were roughly the same word count;
Watched every video on the case-study webpages to pull more details about each project;
Made sure each case study addressed the ethos of the Home page;
Copyedited and user-tested the entire website; and
Left comments asking for clarification or additional information.
SpecialGuest reviewed the changes and responded to comments.
Result
In a month, I performed a substantive edit of four website pages and 33 case studies, helping SpecialGuest to present a unified front that powerfully conveyed the pioneering work it had produced for clients.
Besides noting style preferences, the editorial style guide I created for SpecialGuest included a case-study template to help the agency sustain consistency as it published more case studies.
Want to see the finished product for yourself? Check out the website and its case studies here.
Enjoy this post? Buy me a coffee in support.
Hi, I’m Jaime, editor and owner of Pristine Editing LLC. To get to know me better, and for more editing tips, sign up for my quarterly email newsletter! You can also follow me on LinkedIn and Instagram. And don’t miss out on my free style guide template.
Case Study: The Atlantic/Google
How I helped The Atlantic’s creative content studio by copyediting a magazine for Google in a week
Dialogues, a Google magazine produced by ABP
Situation
In October 2023, Atlantic Brand Partners, the creative content studio of The Atlantic,asked me to copyedit a major project with one week from that day: a print magazine on artificial intelligence that ABP was producing for Google. The print magazine would include 16 stories (some interviews, some essays) in total, ranging from about 1,000 to 3,000 words.
Task
But there was an added challenge.
I only had 24 hours to copyedit each story. ABP would send the stories in Google Docs to me piecemeal, and I would edit them immediately: If I received a story by 10 a.m., ABP needed it back by 10 a.m. the next day. If I received a story by midnight, I had to return it by midnight the next day. Designers and other teams were working round the clock on this project.
Action
My agenda for October was already full, but the project sounded too cool to turn down. (I love copyediting print magazines.) So I rearranged my schedule as much as I could by asking my other clients who I knew might have flexible timelines if they would accept a deadline extension. I worked late and woke up early in order to meet ABP’s grueling schedule.
I also created a project management document in Google Sheets that would allow the ABP team and me to track each piece, word count, and deadline and rely on automatic notifications to reduce emails.
During the copyedit, I adhered to The Atlantic style, made corrections for grammar, punctuation, spelling, and syntax, and left comments with larger questions and concerns, as well as suggestions for fixes wherever possible. I caught mathematical/statistical errors. I communicated with editors to resolve larger concerns in a way that worked for all parties involved.
Result
In one week, I copyedited 44,070 words, allowing ABP to create a gorgeous magazine on a super crunched deadline for a major client.
Here is the resulting testimonial from Elizabeth Haq, who oversees editorial content and brand partnerships for ABP: “Thank you sincerely for the wonderful work you put into it. I think it turned out amazing, and the client agrees.”
Another editor who worked on the project, Gabriel Muller, said, “Thanks for all your great work on the Google Magazine. I’m always so impressed by the details you’re able to catch.”
Want to see the finished product for yourself? Check out the magazine and download it here.
Enjoy this post? Buy me a coffee in support.
Hi, I’m Jaime, editor and owner of Pristine Editing LLC. To get to know me better, and for more editing tips, sign up for my quarterly email newsletter! You can also follow me on LinkedIn and Instagram. And don’t miss out on my free style guide template.
Case Study: Tablet Magazine
How I helped Tablet Magazine by copyediting a longform article in two days
Photo by
on
Situation
In November 2022, Tablet Magazine, whose daily newsletter I edit, asked me to copyedit an unprecedented project: a 24,000-word story that would be published just after the Jewish holidays.
(FYI, that’s the size of a novella. The daily newsletter is 1,300–2,500 words.)
“It’s an incredibly moving and profound piece, and a pleasure to read,” the editor told me. The copy would be ready for me in mid-December, and I would have a week and a half to edit it.
Tablet has talented writers on staff and publishes nuanced, thought-provoking content, so I eagerly added the project to my schedule.
Task
On December 5, the same editor emailed me again: “Can you edit it in two days if I send it to you tomorrow?” Ah, news organizations with their fluid timelines.
It was Tablet’s biggest magazine event of the year. All hands were on deck, and the design team had put in a lot of work to make the digital story look amazing.
The editors at Tablet had been immersed in this story for months and needed fresh eyes.
Action
Because it was the end of the year, when everyone tries squeezing in projects before the holidays, my agenda was packed.
But I rearranged my entire schedule. I burned the midnight oil. And I delivered the copyedit of what was indeed an incredible story to the editor by the required deadline.
I gave this incredible piece justice by removing errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, syntax, and style, and I flagged discrepancies in dates, names, and other details in a story that features a web of many storylines.
You can read the story, “The Rower” by David Samuels.
Result
Here is the resulting testimonial from the editor, Jeremy Stern:
“Jaime ensured that our biggest magazine event of the year — a near book-length essay that was reported over multiple years and continents, and included dozens of well-known and unknown characters and historical events — was as professionally copyedited as a major publisher’s printed book, fulfilling every exacting editor and reader’s expectation of error-free, stylistically uniform prose. She also did so on a brutally short deadline, which made the result even more impressive. I would enthusiastically work with her again on similar projects in the future.”
Why I Loved This Project
The story was incredible. So much time and effort has gone into creating it, and I was able to use my copyediting skills to polish the piece for publication, removing lingering issues that would distract readers and discourage them from reading 24,000 words.
I was able to accomplish that within Tablet’s time restrictions. If you’re considering using a freelance copy editor but are concerned that working with one would delay your content’s publication, know that it’s very feasible to integrate the copyediting step into your process.
As a freelance editor, I have control over my own schedule, with the ability to reorganize my agenda to suite client needs and accommodate their timelines.
Enjoy this post? Buy me a coffee in support.
Hi, I’m Jaime, editor and owner of Pristine Editing LLC. To get to know me better, and for more editing tips, sign up for my quarterly email newsletter! You can also follow me on LinkedIn and Instagram. And don’t miss out on my free style guide template.