Conscientious and thorough academic proofreading and proof-editing…
If you are preparing a journal paper, thesis or dissertation for submission, I can work with you to help you be confident that your final draft is as good as it can be.
Bringing the training of a qualified proofreader together with extensive experience of working with academic language, I can identify and either correct, or highlight for you to correct, the errors, ambiguities, repetition and inconsistencies that can distract from the quality of your content. I will also check for consistency in layout and formatting, and for conformity with relevant style guides.
As part of my service, and in order to ensure consistency over the whole document, I will compile a style sheet that is specific to your work, which I will return to you along with your proofread document; students and writers have found these very useful in improving the consistency of their writing.
Contact me for help with:
- dissertations and theses
- essays
- journal articles
- reports
- books – chapters or whole publications
I will give your work the personal attention to detail that makes the difference.
My special areas of interest and experience include:
- social sciences and humanities
- South Asia studies – India in particular
- peace studies
- cultural studies
- sustainability studies
- comparative religion
However, I can work in most areas except maths and science subjects.
Please Note:
Where your work is an examined text, you will need to check your university’s policy in relation to proofreading and obtain the permission of your supervisor. My work will remain within the ethical boundaries expected in an examined context – in other words, the dissertation/thesis must remain, in all respects, your own work. While I will identify and correct errors and inconsistencies in spelling, grammar and punctuation, and will improve formatting, I will not be able to undertake any rewriting. Where I find that a passage or sentence lacks clarity or needs rephrasing I will highlight this and explain the problem so that you can make the improvements yourself.
How do I work?
I can work on Word documents, using the track changes facility that enables you to easily accept/reject each amendment and using comments to make suggestions and queries; or on PDFs using inbuilt tools for amendments and comments. I will check and correct typos and errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation, and check for consistency in spelling, abbreviations, capitalisation and usage of terms and formatting. I will highlight instances where I think you need to clarify your meaning and resolve ambiguities, explaining the problem. Where your work is not an examined text I can additionally draw your attention to areas where you can improve the logical flow or connection of ideas.
You will need to factor in time before your submission deadline to go through my amendments and suggestions individually, accepting and/or acting upon them.
Rates
As every piece of writing is individual in terms of the amount of work needed and level of intervention, it will help me to see a sample of your work (ideally around 1000 words) before giving an accurate quote and agreeing upon a timescale. I will proofread the sample for free and return it to you without commitment, so that you can see the quality of my work before you decide to proceed.
Please note, the minimum fee payable is £15.00.
What I need to know from you:
- the subject, title, estimated final word count and format (Word, PDF)
- submission deadline
- when the work will be available for proofreading
Contact Me to have a short sample of your work proofread for free, and find out how I can help you. Send an email to: rachel@duncanproofreading.com
Here’s what one client said about my proofreading service:
You unearthed grammatical issues that I did not have time to think about when writing my paper and also raised queries that made me express myself better. … You made me rethink the vitality of proofreaders before publications. I truly recommend writers and academics to use your expertise for them to fully grasp why I am over-excited talking about your help.
Fr Evangelos Thiani, Kenya
View my Recommendations page to find out what other previous clients have said about my work.