GradeDraft
Copy Editing and Content Editing Services
- Price from
- $0.018/word proofreading, $0.028/word copy editing, $0.045/word line and substantive editing
- Turnaround
- 14 days, 7 days, 3 days, 24 hours or 6 hours
- Revisions
- free for 14 days after delivery
- Originality report
- included on every order
- What arrives
- a tracked-changes redline, a clean copy, and a style sheet
This page covers copy editing, content editing and rewriting for reports, proposals, web pages and other business documents. For the full menu, see academic editing and proofreading services; for how these levels stack up, see the six levels of editing, compared.
Copy editing, content editing and rewriting are three different orders
Can you state what the document is for in one sentence? If not, you need a content edit, not a copy edit.
Copy editing works sentence level and keeps your words: grammar, punctuation, consistency and house style, checked against Chicago 17, AP or the Microsoft Manual of Style. Content editing works on structure — order, argument, what to cut. Rewriting builds new sentences from your material when the ideas are right but the prose isn't salvageable. Most business documents need copy editing; most expert drafts need a content edit first.
What a content editor changes that a copy editor leaves alone
A content editor reorders sections, cuts redundancy, and fixes tone drift between paragraphs written by different people — a different sense from "content editor" as a CMS job title.
| Category | Decision |
|---|---|
| Terms | "email" not "e-mail"; "website" one word; "sign-in" (noun/adjective) vs. "sign in" (verb) |
| Capitalization | product name capitalized every instance; job titles capitalized only immediately before a name |
| Number style | spell out zero through nine, numerals from 10 up; numerals with units ("5 kg") |
| Serial comma | yes, always (Chicago 17 default) |
| Product-name forms | version numbers as "v2.3," never "V2.3" or "Version 2.3" |
Every order ends with a style sheet like this one, delivered alongside the redline in Word Track Changes and consistency-checked with PerfectIt.
One executive summary, edited — with the numbers
A 300-word executive summary from a consulting-style report, before and after a copy edit. The numbers below are measured from this pair, not estimated.
Executive summary: original, redline, and clean copy
Before
Following stakeholder interviews across four departments, a review of twelve months of support-ticket data, and a competitive assessment against three platforms, this report presents findings on the ongoing underutilization of the Nexora customer portal and recommends changes ahead of the QBR.
The implementation of self-service password reset was completed in Q2, yet the utilization of this feature has remained below the 40% target set at project outset. The team attributes this to low awareness, unclear placement of the reset link within the nexora interface, and insufficient prioritization of the onboarding sequence intended to drive adoption.
An evaluation of support-ticket volume indicates that password-related tickets account for 18% of total volume, representing an estimated 220 agent-hours per month. This has shown minimal decrease since launch, despite an expected 50% reduction. Analysis of CX scores among affected customers shows a downward trend, though the relationship to this issue has not been isolated from other factors, including the recent NexOra pricing change.
Buried in the appendix, the team's recommendation is to redesign the reset-link placement and shorten the onboarding sequence from nine emails to three — estimated to recover roughly 100 of the 220 monthly agent-hours. Further recommendations are detailed in Section 4.
After
Redesigning the password-reset link and shortening the onboarding email sequence from nine emails to three could recover about 100 of the 220 agent-hours our support team spends on password tickets each month.
That's the headline finding from a review of twelve months of support-ticket data, interviews across four departments, and a comparison against three competitor platforms.
Self-service password reset launched in Q2. Adoption has stayed below the 40% target because the reset link is hard to find in the Nexora interface, and the onboarding sequence meant to drive adoption in the first 30 days runs nine emails deep.
Password-related tickets are 18% of total volume — about 220 agent-hours a month, barely down since launch despite an expected 50% drop. Customer-experience (CX) scores among affected customers have also dipped, though we haven't isolated how much traces to this issue versus the recent Nexora pricing change.
Recommendation: redesign the reset-link placement and cut the onboarding sequence to three emails. Section 4 covers timeline and staffing. The next quarterly business review (QBR) is the right forum to approve it.
What changed
- The recommendation moved from the buried final paragraph to the first sentence.
- Nominalization chains ("the implementation of," "the utilization of," "an evaluation of") became verbs.
- The 41-word opening sentence split into two sentences.
- CX and QBR defined on first use; "Nexora" capitalized one way throughout.
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Word count | 213 | 172 |
| Average sentence length | 27 words | 17 words |
| Reading grade (Flesch-Kincaid) | 15 | 11 |
| Edits by type | — | 6 nominalizations cut, 2 acronyms defined, 1 capitalization fixed, 4 sentences split or reordered |
Document types we copy edit
GradeDraft provides professional business editing services for reports, proposals, newsletters and annual reports — any company document that needs a subject-matched editor.
- Reports and whitepapers: inconsistent terminology between authors, a finding buried instead of led with.
- Proposals and RFP responses: unanswered evaluation criteria.
- Newsletters and internal communications: tone that swings formal to casual, paragraph to paragraph.
- Annual and sustainability reports: three voices — finance, communications and legal.
- Academic prose that is not a graded assignment: working papers, conference submissions, grant narratives. For coursework, see editing for graded academic assignments instead; for a dissertation chapter, see dissertation and thesis editing. Check a draft first with the free essay grader and checker.
Website content editing: copy that has to survive a CMS
Website copy editing services differ from single-document editing one way: a style-sheet decision has to hold across dozens of pages. A digital content editor catches what a document-by-document edit misses — the same product described three ways across your pricing, About and blog pages.
Landing page copy: before and after
Before
Our platform helps your team manage projects better and get more done every day. We know that managing projects can be really hard, especially when you have a lot of moving parts and a lot of people involved, and that's why we built a platform that makes project management easier for everyone on your team. Our platform includes task tracking, so you can track your tasks, and team messaging, so your team can message each other, and reporting, so you can see reports about how your projects are going. Getting started is easy — just sign up, create your first project, and invite your team members, and you'll be up and running in no time at all.
After
Manage projects without the busywork
Task tracking, team messaging, and reporting in one place — built for teams juggling more moving parts than people.
Get started in three steps
- Create an account.
- Start your first project.
- Invite your team.
What changed
- Cut the throat-clearing intro and the "X, so you can Y" redundancy pattern repeated across three features.
- Added heading hierarchy so the page is scannable and each heading can rank as its own snippet.
- Word count: 150 words to 45 words.
Every project ends with a style-sheet handover so your in-house team stays consistent after we're done.
Editing AI-drafted copy: what a human still has to fix
AI content editing is now routine: a client hands us a language-model draft and asks for it publication-ready. Content editing tools are useful for speed, not judgment — an editor still catches four recurring tells.
The four tells: hedging stacks, list-shaped prose, false specificity (a precise-sounding number with no source), and register drift (plain sentences swinging into stock marketing voice).
AI-drafted copy: eight sentences, marked and fixed
Before
It is important to note that our software can potentially help streamline your workflow in a variety of ways. Generally speaking, users may find that task completion times improve, sometimes by as much as 47%, depending on a range of factors. Additionally, it could be argued that our platform offers a seamless experience across devices. Furthermore, the tool is designed to be highly effective for most teams. However, it should also be noted that results may vary. In today's fast-paced business environment, staying organized is more important than ever. Our solution offers a comprehensive suite of features. To summarize, this platform is built to help your team succeed.
After
Teams using this software cut task-completion time by an average of 12 minutes per task in our pilot with 40 users (methodology in Section 2). It works the same way on desktop and mobile. Results vary by team size and how consistently the team adopts it — we say so upfront rather than promise a number that won't hold for every customer.
What changed
- Hedging stack removed; replaced with one sourced, specific number and its methodology.
- The unsourced "47%" replaced with an attributable pilot figure.
- Filler transitions ("Additionally," "Furthermore," "To summarize") and the register-drift sentence cut entirely.
We verify every number and citation in AI-drafted copy before it ships. What we will not do: launder AI-drafted text to beat an AI detector. We'll edit it until it reads well and checks out — not dress it up to pass as something it isn't. For a single graded essay rather than business copy, our essay editing service covers that instead.
Hire a freelance copy editor, or a managed editing team?
A freelance copy editor's rate varies by experience; a managed team costs more per word but removes the risk of a single point of failure.
- Cost: a solo freelancer is often cheaper per word, but a missed deadline has no backup.
- Continuity: with a team, the style sheet belongs to GradeDraft, not one person.
- Capacity: a managed team absorbs a rush order without renegotiating scope.
- When a freelancer is right: a single short document and a subject you can vet yourself — that's when copy editors for hire on a freelance marketplace make sense.
Every GradeDraft order goes to a professional copy editor matched to your subject. Other copy editing companies — Editage, Scribendi, ServiceScape (editing.services), Stellar, Constant Content, Proofed — mostly compete on marketplace breadth. We compete by showing the edit before you buy.
Copy editing rates: per word, per page and per hour
See the full editing price list for every level and document type across the desk. Copy editing cost breaks down three ways — per word, per 300-word page, and per hour — and most competitors publish only one, which makes copy editing charges hard to compare.
| Level | Per word | Per 300-word page | Effective per hour* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proofreading | $0.018 | $5.40 (300 × $0.018) | ~$27 (about 5 pages/hour) |
| Copy editing | $0.028 | $8.40 (300 × $0.028) | ~$25 (about 3 pages/hour) |
| Line / substantive editing | $0.045 | $13.50 (300 × $0.045) | ~$20 (about 1.5 pages/hour) |
Scroll horizontally to compare all columns.
Pick your level, deadline and page count. The number is the rate above times the pages, nothing hidden.
5 × $8.40= $42.02
Get a fixed quote for 5 pages*We bill per word or per page, not by the hour — this column converts our per-word rate to a comparable rate.
| Provider | Rate |
|---|---|
| editing.services | $7.29/page (1 week), $13.98 (next-day), $16.48 (express) |
| Editage | copyediting services from $0.04/word (no turnaround published) |
| GradeDraft | $0.018–$0.045/word by level, five turnaround tiers at every level |
At roughly 3 pages an hour, a copy edit of 1,000 words (3.3 pages) takes just over an hour. A proofread of the same 1,000 words takes about 40 minutes; a line edit takes closer to two.
Send your draft for a fixed price
Tell us the document type, word count and deadline for a fixed price from the table above, and your editor messages you directly through the order thread.
What buyers ask about scope and style
What does a content editor do?
A content editor reorders sections, cuts redundant material, resolves tone drift between authors, and hands back a style sheet so your team stays consistent. That's different from a copy editor, who works sentence by sentence and keeps your structure and words as they are.
How much to charge for copy editing?
Market rates run from about $0.04 to $0.045 per word depending on document complexity and turnaround, based on published competitor rates recorded 2026-08-15. Rush turnaround (under 24 hours) typically adds 30–40% to the base rate. Our own rates are in the table above: $0.018 to $0.045 per word by level, with no rush surcharge on top.
How do I find a good copy editor?
Ask for a sample edit on one page of your actual document before you commit to the full project. A style sheet delivered with the sample, not just a marked-up paragraph, signals an editor who thinks about consistency across your whole document, not only the page you sent.
What does a web content editor do?
A web content editor edits for scannability across a page set: heading hierarchy, consistent terminology across pages, and copy that survives being read out of order, since most visitors land on one page from search results rather than starting at the homepage.
Is "content editor" a job title or a service?
Both. As a job title, it usually means someone who manages a CMS and publishing calendar. As a service — what this page describes — it means structural editing: reordering, cutting and fixing an argument on any document you send us, regardless of who wrote the first draft.
What's the difference between copy editing and proofreading?
Proofreading catches surface errors — typos, punctuation, formatting — in a document that's otherwise finished and ready to ship. Copy editing goes further: grammar, consistency, house style and word choice, sentence by sentence, on a document that's still being polished before publication. For every level in between, see the six levels of editing, explained.