If you’re a full-time writer, you probably know that editing and proofreading are actually tougher tasks than writing your first draft.
Editing and proofreading your own work is even harder whether you have other engagements like school or work. But if you don’t edit and proofread, your work will likely be littered with impurities.
Whether you are a native English speaker or not, you cannot write a long read without committing a few mistakes and inconsistencies in spelling, punctuation, grammar, and formatting.
Bottom line? You need your work to be edited—by yourself or someone else.
That’s why there’s a growing demand for editing and proofreading services, and Scribendi is one of the proofreading and editing service providers who are doing quite a lot. They are famous and have been in the game for more than 20 years which might imply that they mean business.
The question is: are they really legit?
Read on to find out.
A Brief Overview of Scribendi
Scribendi is a well-known Canadian proofreading and editing service provider which assists its clients with editing and proofreading many types of documents—books, school assignments, business plans, résumés, personal documents, et cetera.
It’s a reputable agency that offers premium quality editing and proofreading services, and the services are high-priced (as is the case with any premium thing).
Scribendi was founded in 1997, and for over 20 years it has been serving its clientele—which includes academics, students, professionals, authors, and individuals from around the globe—and has delivered more than 400 000 proofreading and editing orders.
The agency offers 1 free revision, but they haven’t specified whether there’s any money-back guarantee which is a problem because you can’t get your money back if they do a poor job.
Scribendi Pros
- Vast Experience—Scribendi boasts over 20 years of experience in the editing and proofreading business.
- Perfect Team—Scribendi has a highly organized and educated team.
- Good with deadlines—they don’t miss deadlines and offer shorter timelines at an added cost.
- A Straightforward Ordering Process—the process is flexible, straightforward, and speedy.
- Positive testimonials—Scribendi has many current and former clients who speak highly of their editing and proofreading services.
Scribendi Cons
- High prices—for documents with small word counts, Scribendi’s pricing is okay, but if you are going to ask them to edit a 200k-word novel, be ready to pay up.
- No money-back guarantees—they haven’t specified any money-back guarantees so be all-in when you solicit their services.
- Only 1 free revision—Scribendi only gives a single revision and no more. They are either that confident or just not helpful.
Scribendi Editing and Proofreading: Who needs it?
Scribendi caters to almost everyone who’s got a document to be edited and proofreading. Scribendi actually claims to be the industry leader in the quality editing and proofreading niche. Their clients include academics, students, professionals, authors, and other people from around the globe who need editing and proofreading services.
They have a team of editors and quality assurance specialists who ensure that the different types of editing are handled professionally and within deadlines.
What Does Scribendi Offer?
Services
Scribendi categorizes its services according to the needs, genre, and profession of its clients. There are six categories in total.
1. English as a Second Language (ESL Services)
If English is not your first language, Scribendi can edit and proofread your work to help your writing read like that of a native speaker. The Scribendi team comprises native English speakers only, who also have experience in editing and proofreading documents in your niche so they know what your writing is missing or needs.
2. Academic
Scribendi can help you with your journal articles, dissertations, admissions essays and proposals, et cetera.
If your documents need comprehensive edits for consistency of voice, tone, and organizational structure, Scribendi is the right service.
They also check for clarity, organization, references, spelling, grammar, or typographical errors in dissertations and other academic documents.
3. Author Services
Author services include critiquing, editing, copy editing, proofreading of your novel, manuscript, play, or eBook.
They cater to all forms and genres, whether it’s poetry, screenplays, or fiction. Most authors that I have had a conversation with don’t like editors tampering with their dialects, voice, or vision, and it’s wonderful that Scribendi promises not to tamper with any of those.
They rather want to place their focus on helping writers communicate their ideas with high clarity and conciseness.
4. Business or Corporate
The editing and proofreading services for business or corporate are for those who require editing and proofreading for white papers, reports, manuals, press releases, marketing materials, and other business documents.
If you’re a professional, then your workdays are usually filled with memos, reports, presentations, manuals, and a bunch of manual work-related but time-consuming documents. With all that work piling up, you’re bound to make some mistakes and if you don’t have them checked, those mistakes could bring you some damning consequences.
To save you some time and reputation, Scribendi will help you make sure that your web copy is “relevant and attention-grabbing,” edit different kinds of business documents, check your copy and markup on your website, and eliminate spelling, grammar, and typographical errors in your professional documents.
5. Student Services
Scribendi also gets your essay, project, assignment, or term paper edited and proofread.
The Scribendi editors will check your spelling and grammar, word choice, typographical errors and help you improve the structure, clarity, style, organization, clarity, tone, and flow of your admissions essay, final paper, et cetera.
They also look at in-text citations and references and make sure that they follow the given style guide.
6. Personal Editing and Proofreading Services
The personal services handle personal documents including resumes, letters, emails, and others.
The editors at Scribendi edit these documents to sound professional and increase the chances of getting hired (for the writers).
In the corporate world or professional sphere, a good first impression is always important. This service helps you attain that professional edge whether in application letters, social media posts, or business emails.
Quality of Work
The testimonies are quite positive—most of them. Most reviews express approval and claim that Scribendi offers top-quality editing and proofreading services.
If you’ve sustained an agency for more than 20 years, it means that you’re doing something right. However, I have also seen a couple of negative reviews and, with all those orders and clients, I think a few negative reviews are to be expected.
Some customers have complained that Scribendi provides unsatisfactory quality. But with the amount of work they get and the different classes of clientele, one just has to accept that there will be a couple of negative reviews.
Their Reputation
Quality and reputation go hand in hand, so having looked at the reviews on the quality of Scribendi’s services, here’s what I’d say about their reputation.
If you roamed around the web, looking for what Scribendi’s clients think of their service, you’d find out that most of those customers speak well of the company. The Scribendi website is littered with positive testimonials, satisfied customers showering praise on the agency and the services offered.
You could argue that it’s their website and could erase negative comments or pay people positive reviews.
To make a fair judgment, you’d then look for Scribendi reviews on other websites. Well… I don’t think you’d find anything to the contrary. A lot of Scribendi reviews on third-party websites are as positive as those on the Scribendi website. Some claim to have experienced various problems with their orders, but most claim that Scribendi’s word was excellent and worth the money (which isn’t a lot for a one-time thing).
Most of the negative reviews talk about revisions and the cost (which are also the cons that I listed here in this post) but not necessarily the quality of the editing.
The Ordering Process
The ordering process is easy and involves three stages:
The first stage involves choosing the type of service you’re looking for according to the six categories. You have to specify the word count of your document and choose your expected deadlines, which will also determine the pricing for your order. Scribendi offers quick deadlines at an extra cost. You can even get your edited document back just hours after submitting it.
In the second phase, you specify the particular details of your needs—you lay out instructions regarding the kind of editing you want to be done.
After that, you need to pay up. As soon as you’re finished with the first two stages, you can select a payment method that suits you and pay for the service you ordered.
Scribendi Pricing
Although I have listed Scribendi’s pricing as a con because a lot of people complain that it’s comparatively high, but if you’re looking for professional top-quality editing and proofreading services (not the Fiverr type of editing and proofreading), the prices that Scribendi offers are very low.
The Scribendi pricing system is straightforward, and the calculations are done based on simple criteria. For example, Scribendi uses word count and turnaround time and gives you an above-board price.
For example, you would have to pay around $40 for a 1000-word academic paper that you want to be delivered within 24 hours. You can go to their website to get a quote for your type of document.
Guarantees
This is the part where Scribendi does not excel at. They don’t offer or should I say that there’s no mention of any refunds on the Scribendi site. I don’t think they’ve written it on some paper and stuffed it in their CEO’s office. Somehow, I get their logic. If someone wanted their work done for free, they could just claim that Scribendi’s editing was substandard and they want their money, but they’d still use the “substandard” work; what’d Scribendi do about it? I’m not saying that this is exactly what they were thinking about when they decided not to stipulate a refund policy, but I think it’s close.
Don’t get me started about their stance on revisions. After they edit your document and still want some changes to be made, you can only request a revision.
Top 3 Alternatives to Scribendi
1. Cambridge Proofreading
Cambridge Proofreading service boats of experienced editors who are available 24/7 to provide various reviews and comprehensive improvements to your writing.
Their clients include students, academics, businesses, and private individuals.
2. BookMyEditor
These folks believe that “The pen is mightier than the sword, and professional editors are the army you need for your writing to establish its mettle among your peers.”
They edit Thesis, Dissertations, Research papers, Essay, Journal, et cetera. They cater to academicians, businesses, and authors.
3. Editor World
Editor World is a platform that links writers and editors.
Clients look for professional editors and can choose them based on the editor’s profile—i.e., qualifications, skills, number of pages edited through Editor World, etc.
FAQs
What Is Scribendi
Scribendi is an editing and proofreading agency that assists its clients with all types of documents—school assignments, business plans, books, etc.
Is Scribendi Legit?
As an editing service, Scribendi is very legit. Most orders are delivered on time and most are professionally done.
Is Scribendi Reliable?
Yes, Scribendi is reliable. If you love deadlines, you’ll definitely love Scribendi.
Is Scribendi safe?
You don’t have to worry about your work falling into the wrong hands—this isn’t Fiverr. Scribendi has a very organized and educated team that handles your document and has firm policies in place which prevent above and beyond your document from being stolen or plagiarized.
Is Scribendi plagiarism-free?
Scribendi is not a writing service; they only edit and proofread your work. So, any type of plagiarism originates from the writer, in this case, that’s you.
Final Words on Scribendi
As an editing and proofreading service, Scribendi is an excellent service. I would like to add though, that not everyone shares that sentiment, and their arguments are as valid as mine.
But they’re not going to do the writing for you. So, for example, if you’re writing an academic paper and your draft is good in terms of content, Scribendi is not going to magically turn it into some awesome paper.
I strongly believe that Scribendi is a reliable service, but… I wouldn’t urge anyone to ignore the few negative reviews. Instead, the prudent thing is to look into those cons and see if they’re small enough for you to go ahead and order Scribendi’s services.
