How To Choose the Right Proofreader for Your Thesis or Dissertation
Completing the research and writing required for a thesis or dissertation is an enormous undertaking. Whether it is considered in terms of time, effort or tuition, the investment of the postgraduate student is significant. Success is therefore essential, but only a well-written and carefully edited thesis or dissertation will stand up to the rigorous assessments and examination procedures of most supervisory committees and ultimately achieve the desired result.
Whenever an academic or scientific document is so very important, it is an excellent idea to seek professional assistance in the form of a qualified proofreader or editor. This is usually the case even if a student possesses strong English writing skills, because one fact is always true – errors creep into complex documents with frightening frequency. Authors should always proofread and edit their own writing with care, of course, but it can be especially difficult for the author who knows what he or she intended to see clearly what actually appears in the text when there are errors. For students whose first language is not English or who struggle to produce prose of the high standard required for a thesis or dissertation, engaging the services of an accomplished proofreader may be absolutely necessary to success. Whatever your situation may be, the following suggestions might therefore prove helpful when seeking and choosing the right proofreader for your thesis or dissertation.
Asking a mentor or fellow student whether they use a professional proofreader and are pleased with the service is a good place to start. Be sure to approach a scholar whose writing you admire or whose work receives high praise and grades from instructors. If the specialisation of the person you choose is similar to your own, any advice you receive will generally prove more useful, but more general information about proofreaders and proofreading services, prices and what to expect can be discussed with any academic or scientist who has his or her writing professionally proofread before submission for publication or grading. Searching online for proofreaders and proofreading services will turn up many, many options, so do have all your critical skills on high alert and remember that a service that cannot write a web page clearly and correctly is unlikely to provide a proofreader who can edit your prose effectively. If you cannot determine the quality of the prose, have a friend, colleague or mentor who can make a sound judgement take a quick look at the site for you.
Any proofreader or editor you choose for a thesis or dissertation should certainly specialise in working on academic or scientific documents, whichever is most relevant to your research. One who has achieved a postgraduate degree in the same general area and certainly the same field as your research will be able to understand your writing best. There are also proofreaders who work particularly on theses, dissertations and other student documents. If you approach a proofreading service, the match between your work and your proofreader will be made for you; if you are choosing an individual proofreader, you will need to consider your options carefully and pick a professional who will be equipped to understand your research and help you improve your writing. A good match is not always achieved on the first try, so if you are unhappy with the initial results, you may want to iron out the problems and try the same proofreader again, or you may prefer to try another proofreader or perhaps another proofreading service until you find the perfect fit for your writing.
Why Our Editing and Proofreading Services?
At Proof-Reading-Service.com we offer the highest quality journal article editing, dissertation proofreading and online proofreading services via our large and extremely dedicated team of academic and scientific professionals. All of our proofreaders are native speakers of English who have earned their own postgraduate degrees, and their areas of specialisation cover such a wide range of disciplines that we are able to help our international clientele with research editing to improve and perfect all kinds of academic manuscripts for successful publication. Many of the carefully trained members of our manuscript editing and proofreading team work predominantly on articles intended for publication in scholarly journals, applying painstaking journal editing standards to ensure that the references and formatting used in each paper are in conformity with the journal’s instructions for authors and to correct any grammar, spelling, punctuation or simple typing errors. In this way, we enable our clients to report their research in the clear and accurate ways required to impress acquisitions proofreaders and achieve publication.
Our scientific proofreading services for the authors of a wide variety of scientific journal papers are especially popular, but we also offer manuscript proofreading services and have the experience and expertise to proofread and edit manuscripts in all scholarly disciplines, as well as beyond them. We have team members who specialise in medical proofreading services, and some of our experts dedicate their time exclusively to dissertation proofreading and manuscript proofreading, offering academics the opportunity to improve their use of formatting and language through the most exacting PhD thesis editing and journal article proofreading practices. Whether you are preparing a conference paper for presentation, polishing a progress report to share with colleagues, or facing the daunting task of editing and perfecting any kind of scholarly document for publication, a qualified member of our professional team can provide invaluable assistance and give you greater confidence in your written work.
If you are in the process of preparing an article for an academic or scientific journal, or planning one for the near future, you may well be interested in a new book, Guide to Journal Publication, which is available on our Tips and Advice on Publishing Research in Journals website.
