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Our Text Minding process and services

What we do with texts

Our Text Minding process and services explained

Mind Your Way takes a holistic approach to writing and editing: we work with the paper and the person. A text may need editing, while its author may require help in spelling out the underlying ideas. We therefore offer a broad range of writing, editing, coaching, and consulting services aimed at meeting clients wherever they are at. As you scroll down this page to peruse the various writing and editing services we offer, you will notice this holistic idea resurface throughout.

Our bestselling product is a case in point: this three-step Text Minding process, outlined in detail below, combines what we call Story Coaching with a Glamour Edit and a Grammar Edit. Sounds mysterious? It’s not, really – we simply use fancy terms to denote the well-known difference between structural and copy editing. If your budget allows and your needs align, we can take you from Glamour to Grammar and beyond, but there are other options too: you can choose a single service, or mix and match services as you please from the list below.

Why Glamour and Grammar?

At Mind Your Way we have coined the terms Glamour and Grammar Editing to demarcate two spheres of textual work: one focused on narrative content (what matter do we depict?), the other on form (how do we depict this matter?). This duality is useful as it lends a language to what we do: a language that we can share internally and with the world. But are Glamour and Grammar, this charming pair, truly distinct? Of course not. Just like Aristotle believed that both matter and form are indivisible parts of material substances, we think that Glamour and Grammar are essentially inseparable. Both serve the same master of persuasion.

Not just India, the whole of humanity has an age old belief in [the] mantic [prophetic] power of language (yes, even now—think of tattoos). In the 15th century, the word ‘grammar’ had connotations of magic, enchantment and the occult. When the word was borrowed by the Scots, R changed to L and the word become ‘glamour’. After evolution on different tracks, they acquired their usual meanings. Now, who would have imagined that grammar is glamour!

Suhas Mahesh, Why Sanskrit Imprints Easily On Your Mind

Our bestseller: the three-part Text Minding process

Bowing to the deep etymological unity of “glamour” and “grammar”, we think our bestselling Text Minding process is something like an editor’s favourite BLT sandwich (and we do have vegan editors on the team, so think TLT instead!). The three-step process will take you and your text through Story Coaching, a Glamour Edit, and finally a Grammar Edit. Here is a graphic of this holistic editing cycle:

Story Coaching

Story Coaching is a phone or face-to-face interview with your Glamour Editor, who will explore your text’s “selling points”, elicit ideas and arguments that are not yet on the page, and clarify content where needed. The focus is on gathering strategic information and developing a story concept for your text – that is, a narrative structure that provides sufficient context and relevance for your readers to buy into your ideas.

Glamour Edit

This is an immersive period where your Glamour Editor utilises the material gathered during Story Coaching to rewrite aspects of your text, with the aim to create a more engaging and compelling case for your work. The Glamour Edit includes a review of structure, pitch, flow of argument, reasoning, and expression. Comments are provided in the margins, and suggested changes are made using Word’s Track Changes function.

Grammar Edit

This forms the polishing stage, where your Grammar Editor thoroughly copy-edits the text to ensure consistency and accuracy of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and style. Again, suggested changes are made using Word’s Track Changes function. Time and budget permitting, this is also a good time for checking any graphics or other visual elements in your text. Should you require more in-depth assistance with graphics as a medium for expressing ideas or conceptual relationships, we recommend you talk to our graphic designer. Read more about this separate service here.

Other Text Minding services

Beyond our three-part editing process that forms the core of what we do with texts, we provide a range of other, specialised services that clients draw on as needed. The two most commonly sought add-on services are shortening and ghostwriting, which we call “Slash and Burn” and “Enhanced Service”, respectively.

Slash and Burn

Are you just that little bit over? Exceeding the word limit in a text of any given format can mean real trouble, making a grant proposal ineligible for consideration, or pushing a journal article beyond the good will of its reviewers. If your text suffers from excessive length, fluffy padding, or tiresome repetition, it’s time to bring in our ninja editors to make sure you come in under the limit while still saying all that needs to be said.

Enhanced Service (aka ghostwriting)

Sometimes you need more than an editor: you need a writer to draft a text from scratch, or to collate snippets from various sources into a consistent and coherent whole. We can do this too, and have assisted many clients with confidential drafting of entire, winning submissions for prizes and awards, society memberships, and more.

Alone we are smart, together we are brilliant: the power of team editing

Why do we put more than one editor to work on most texts at Mind Your Way? The answer is simple: editing is a complex process drawing on a wide range of skills. Some editors are big-picture thinkers who know how to tell a story with strategic punch; others bring meticulous attention to detail, ensuring stylistic accuracy and beauty of expression. Rarely will one editor be brilliant at both – yet you deserve brilliance at every stage!

For this reason, our signature editing process goes beyond the common “solo operator” model. Instead, we match each aspect of the text with an editor most suited to the task. First, a text goes through the hands of our best Story Coaches and Glamour Editors – strategic thinkers with a knack for storytelling. This is followed by a round of loving touches from the Grammar department – editors who pride themselves on their precision, who will iron out clunky expression and ensure that everything is spick and span. This guarantees top performance across all editing tasks you entrust us with.

And then there is our in-house think tank. Even our best Story Coaches and Glamour Editors are not left on their own to select the best strategy for your text. No, we challenge them. We let them run their proposed edits past another Glamour Expert, who joins in the hunt for the strongest selling points and the most compelling pitch for your text. After all, there are always multiple ways to tell a story. We harness our editors’ diverse academic backgrounds and editing experience to craft a robust recommendation for you.

Something funny and remarkable happens in the think tank phase. It’s not just that four eyes see more than two, it’s that two minds think differently once they enter into dialogue about a given text. Newer, better ideas are generated. Creativity soars; metaphors and arguments are explored, discarded, and reinvented – until a suitable one presents itself, for use in your text. It’s this dialogic space, where the two Glamour editors discuss story strategy, that often leads to a qualitative shift in the final edited product we deliver. Now that is brilliant.

Do you have questions about our process or services?

Read our Frequently Asked Questions, or contact us for more information.

Grants and Awards

Why Story?

Frequently Asked Questions

Text Types We Work With

Graphic Design and Branding