Publishers require professional editing of any peer-reviewed journal article or monograph.
Dissertations are published and must meet the strict guidelines and requirements of your dissertation committee, the university, and the dissertation publisher, such as Pro-Quest. While committees and advisers may tell grad students that they can and should do it all themselves, that is wishful thinking. Being so close to the project, no writer can spot all the problems in their own writing. At least half of the dissertations I’ve edited were rush jobs because the writer, in panic mode with a deadline looming, realized there was just too much detail and too many guidelines to take care of.
First, I read the entire ms checking quality of writing and formatting throughout. I usually edit a few pages to calculate the time required. If you’ve submitted a sample edit, I also use that. I also determine the level of editing needed. I estimate my fee to edit the whole ms and present that to you in a range of low to high, for example $350 to $400, because it’s impossible to estimate the time required exactly. Next, I’ll send you an email with this information and a request to schedule a phone call so we can discuss the agreement, negotiate the scope of work and the fee. It also gives us a chance to learn a bit about each other, your career, your field. It helps develop a more personal connection, which I’ve found is essential to a successful edit.
After this, I write up a detailed agreement with payment terms. At the same time, I’ll send you an invoice for 50% of the lower fee. Upon receipt of the payment, I can begin the edit.
Yes. Call me (Steve) at (1) 267-335-7343. I’ll be glad to answer questions, talk about your ms, and how my editing services can help. It’s free.
If there are any major unexpected problems with your ms that I find during the edit, I will reach out to you by phone or email to discuss the problem and a suggested course of action to solve it. Thoroughly pre-reading your ms before we reach an agreement usually prevents such situations.
It varies. Well-written, well-structured mss, especially those with approaching deadlines, require at least two passes: a copyediting pass that takes care of any problems with grammar, word choice, transitions, flow, and formatting. Then a second proofreading pass ensures no lingering typos and inconsistencies in spelling or spacing, and last-minute fine-tuning of all formatting of headings, references, citations. I will spell this out in our agreement. But please be aware that I normally run into issues in the first pass that require the attention of the writer, especially awkward, unclear passages or an incomplete citation or reference. After those issues are cleared up, I can do a final proofreading pass.
However, it is not uncommon that two or more rounds of editing occur. If the ms requires substantive or developmental editing, two rounds are minimum. The first and maybe further rounds expose the need for substantial rewriting and revision of structure and writing that only the writer can make. After the writer revises, those revisions will require the trained eye of an editor to edit and proofread.
If you hire me to do a substantive or developmental edit, my initial estimate will specify in detail what work the fee will cover. In substantive edits, it will normally estimate three passes: A first editing pass to suggest major revisions for you to make, then a copyediting pass through the entire ms, and a final proofreading pass to ensure flawless copy and formatting. Because revision in developmental editing is more extensive, the number of rounds cannot be predicted beforehand and my assessments and subsequent rounds of editing will be separately negotiated, estimated, and invoiced.
But no matter what level of editing your ms requires, you and I will communicate back and forth regularly throughout the editing rounds. My editing process and fees are completely transparent. At each stage, you will be informed about exactly what changes I think are required with suggestions. We’ll discuss this and fees, after which I’ll issue separate invoices for those fees.
See ‘Editing Levels‘.
It varies. I make every effort to meet your deadline. I will tell you in our agreement phone call when you can expect to receive it back.
Close, regular collaboration is vital. If I encounter a passage that’s unclear, a fact that seems wrong, a sentence or phrase that requires a rewrite, or a sentence or paragraph that I think needs to be moved or deleted, I leave a comment in the right margin for you with suggested solutions. This leaves you in full control of your ms.
When you download your edited ms to Word on your computer you will see something like the ‘After’ image—red lines and red type throughout crossing out words, adding words or punctuation, and so on. Each of the changes is linked to a box/bubble on the right margin. Right-clicking the change in the text or the right margin box will give you the choice of accepting or rejecting the change. Rejecting the change will bring your original writing back. Accepting the change will leave the change as is. In addition, comments in the right margin indicate a word, passage, or citation problem you need to address. After addressing the problem, you can right click the comment box in the right margin and delete it.
You can access Track Change features in the ‘Review’ tab. There you can select ‘All Markup’ so you can see each and every change and comment I made, or ‘Simple Markup’ so you can see only the comments I made, which allows you to more easily read the document without seeing all the distracting red lines and type. You can also select ‘Accept All Changes’ or ‘Reject All Changes’. Most clients go through the text and reject any changes they don’t want one-by-one, then click ‘Accept All Changes’ to save time.
I follow standard US editing rates as suggested by The Writer’s Market and the Editorial Freelancers Association. Proofreading and light copyediting rates: $30–$35/hr; Standard copyediting $40–$45/hr; Line editing $45–$55/hr; Developmental editing $65–$75/hr. (The rates for Line and Developmental editing are for first and possibly second rounds. When copyediting rounds are required, the rate is lowered to Standard copyediting.) Grad students always get lower rates.
Because I do not have access privileges to most journal and reference databases, checking references will be difficult and time consuming. I can assure consistency of formatting according to university or style (APA, MLA, Chicago) guidelines. If you do not want to get your references in order, I will do my best to get them in shape (at $40/hr).
I ask all writers to save themselves hours of drudgery. While writing and researching your first draft, take the time to carefully enter all your references in drop down forms using MS Word’s References tab or apps like Endnote. Then,with a single click, citations can be dropped into the text and your reference list or bibliography can be laid out in entirety in alphabetical order, accurately formatted according to the style guide you’re following.