Review the manuscript very carefully. Just because you have the wonderful gift of storytelling or the ability to commit your research findings to paper does not mean that you are also gifted with great command of the English language. Be honest with yourself and ask if there are grammatical errors, spelling errors, punctuation errors or word choice errors that you just don't have sufficient skill to correct? If you feel that there might be sentence level problems, find a former English teacher and ask that person if he or she will read your manuscript and mark it up. Explain that you want your manuscript to be free of basic writing mistakes before you move to the next steps. The best professionals to ask are retired English or reading teachers or librarians, but other professionals with good written English skills can also be very helpful. Ask if the person is willing to perform this task for a minimum fee such as a gift certificate to a restaurant or a book store. If you have no one willing and able to help you clear the manuscript of basic grammatical errors, consider hiring a writing consultant. You can jump directly to a professional editing service such as BookMakers, but it will add more rounds of edits to your overall costs.

 

When your manuscript has been marked up and returned to you, make all of the necessary changes.