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Why ask me to proofread your thesis?
I’ve been proofreading PhDs since 2009 and have a huge amount of experience in this area. Academic proofreading is the core of my business and something that I absolutely love getting my teeth into! My clients tell me I provide thoughtful, meticulous, and careful thesis and master’s proofreading, and that’s always my aim. I try to make postgraduate students’ experience of working with a professional proofreader easy and stress-free. And I really care about the work I do.
What other advantages are there of asking me to proofread your thesis? Well, I’m a Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Proofreaders and Editors. This means I’ve had professional training and must abide by the Institute’s Professional Practice Code.
My testimonials should make you feel confident that I’m very good at what I do (https://superscriptproofreading.co.uk/testimonials-reviews/). Several academic clients (university lecturers) have been asking me to proofread and copy-edit for them for over ten years. PhD students who go on to become academics have often asked me to proofread journal articles they’ve written because they were really happy with how I proofread their thesis. And I’ve mainly grown my business by way of recommendations.
What will I do when I proofread a thesis?
My website page about proofreading for students explains what I usually include: https://superscriptproofreading.co.uk/student-proofreading/.
Perhaps the most important task I do in addition to checking grammar, spelling, and punctuation is identifying consistency-related issues. This covers things like consistent spelling of a particular word or term (do you usually write ‘decision making’ or ‘decision-making’?) and capitalisation (Government or government?). The first part of a blog post I wrote in 2017 about consistency in PhDs lists some of the main things I look out for.
A big area of consistency work is tense. The second part of this same 2017 blog post of mine suggests some things to look out for when you’re considering tense while writing your thesis. There are lots of other consistency-related things that I will consider while I’m proofreading, such as are the headings and subheadings numbered sequentially and do they match the headings in the table of contents? Is the font consistent throughout? Are dashes or hyphens used consistently in number ranges?
Another issue that I am alert to is misused words. Some common examples are causal and casual, imply and infer, and principle and principal. When I find a misused word, I’ll suggest an alternative.
I’m a good fit for postgraduate students who have English as a second (or third – or more!) language
I’ve been working for ESL clients since 2009, so I have a vast amount of experience of the types of issues that can be present in clients’ work. One example is how verbs are used, and the difference between what can appear in a thesis and what is probably best can be very minor. For example, a client might mean ‘In this study, the participants look at five types of …’ but phrase it as ‘In this study, the participants are looking at …’. I will spot this kind of thing and suggest a different wording.
I’ll take a sensible approach to the terminology used in your thesis
I’m quick to pick up on a particular subject’s terminology, but if, for example, there is a keyword that I’m not sure about, I’ll email you to discuss it. This will help us both to save time and to achieve the best outcome. However, you should also be reassured that I’ll apply my professional judgement in relation to minor decisions. That’s what you’re paying me for, after all! And all of my suggestions will be made via track changes, of course, so you will have full control over how your thesis is edited.
I won’t change the style or tone of your work
I aim to keep your writing style, voice, and tone intact. My suggestions will fit with them. Proofreading a thesis is not about heavy editing or changing content. It is a detailed check of the language, sentence by sentence.
Potentially problematic language and suggesting alternatives
I will be alert to any words or phrases that you have inadvertently used that some/most readers may find inappropriate, for instance ‘the disabled’ (I might suggest ‘disabled people’ instead). This would not entail me ‘telling you’ that you can’t use your original wording. I’d just highlight the word or phrase, explain why I think it might be problematic, and suggest an alternative.
I am skilled in proofreading the translated words of participants in a thesis
Not all PhDs and master’s dissertations include translations, of course, but many do, and I’ve worked on lots of them. I think proofreading translations is a skilled job that needs a delicate balance to be reached. I tend to take a light touch. You’ll already have produced a careful translation, so I make my main priorities readability and clarity. I’ve written a blog about this, https://superscriptproofreading.co.uk/proofreading-and-editing-translations/, that you might find helpful.
In my opinion, a translation should reflect how the words were said as well as what was said. This might mean having punctuation that isn’t used in a conventional way. I think it’s important to be flexible here, and again my main priorities are readability and clarity. Imposing inflexible ‘rules’ isn’t always appropriate or the best option.
I’m quick to reply to emails
I usually reply within the hour, but I’ll pretty much always reply within 24 hours at the latest. Communicating with me while I’m doing your proofreading is easy, and this helps us to liaise when needed as soon as a particular issue crops up.
Any questions?
I hope that this blog post about my thesis proofreading service has given you a good idea of what I can offer you. I’m aware that writing up a thesis when working to a deadline is incredibly stressful and that putting your final draft into the hands of someone who is effectively a total stranger is a leap of faith. I appreciate that, and I aim to be reassuring and empathetic.
If you’d like to ask me for a quote for proofreading, you can email me at [email protected] or fill in my contact form: https://superscriptproofreading.co.uk/contact/.