ACADEMIC WRITING SUPPORT

For over ten years, I have provided academic writing assistance to students, postdocs, and professors. As a native English speaker and multilingual translator, I specialize in enabling talented academics to express complex ideas clearly.

My Master’s degree is in Linguistics; you are welcome to read my Master’s thesis here. (Note that I was studying at a French-language university so the landing page for the link and some preamble in the thesis are written in French; the thesis itself is written in English.)

I offer proofreading, editing and writing support for all academic texts, including grants and conference applications. I have experience in fields such as: engineering, sociology, psychology, law, history, economics, physiology, medicine, philosophy, literature, and linguistics.

See here for information on academic writing classes. These classes show how to analyze and structure sentences so complex thoughts can be clearly understood.

How do I prepare for the session? I have trouble getting started.

As far as how much time each text will take, it depends on how much help you need. The more you can get done yourself or even outlined, the faster it will go. I discourage students from getting me to read other texts; I can do it but that is more expensive.

It's best if you've done the readings and then we can work together to express your ideas or even figure out what your ideas are.

Once the ideas are organized, the writing will go much faster.

If you haven't gotten started yet, I suggest taking some notes on each of the readings and highlighting interesting passages. Mark notes that are in your own words clearly and accurately so you know what they were referring to; if you copy any interesting passages into your notes, be very clear that they are copied and from where. When you refer to these, you will need to be clear where they are from. You would be surprised: when you look back at your notes, it is not always possible to remember what are your notes and what are quotes you've collected. Then we can go from there. If you have a draft or any kind of work done already, so much the better.

If you want to work together from the beginning, we can do that but it will take longer of course.

How many hours will it take to revise my text?

How long a review takes depends on a few factors:

1) what kind of feedback you want,

2) how clear the text is and how clear you want it to be,

3) your budget.

As a rule of thumb, for an average text, I estimate about three pages an hour for a thorough review, i.e. 750-1000 words an hour. If there is a lot that needs work, it can take longer, and vice versa. 

For proofreading, my preferred method of working is to work at the level of the sentence, to make sure that each sentence is clear and unambiguous. If I happen to notice any gaps or unnecessary repetitions in the flow of ideas, I can mention these as I go, but the focus is on the language. If you want detailed feedback in terms of structure or order of ideas, I can offer this too but I prefer to do that as a separate reading, usually once the language has been cleaned up. 
I generally prefer making proposed corrections in a program compatible with Microsoft Word with a "track changes" function so that you can see exactly what I have done (e.g. MS Word, Google Docs, Libre Office, Apple's Pages). I can also review texts in LaTeX. For proofreading, PDFs make the work a little slower.

Depending on what you prefer, when I find a problem in a sentence, I can simply correct the grammar but, more usually, the problem may be that the sentence is not clearly written. In those cases, I offer a suggested reworking of the sentence. If I cannot understand exactly what you mean, I flag the sentence in a comment so we can discuss it together or you can rewrite it on your own.

All of that said, if you have a particular budget in mind, I can keep to that and only address or flag the most serious problems.

We can also work on the text together by Zoom and Google Docs, discussing the text as we go. That's to say, with Google Docs, you can see my proposed changes as I make them and we can discuss these by Zoom or another VoIP option (FaceTime, etc.).

What is developmental editing?

Developmental editing for includes everything that touches on "big picture" elements. In a rhetorical essay, is the theme clear? In a personal essay, it may be a question of how the story elements relate to any rhetorical elements.

For simple developmental editing, I charge 1.6 cents American a word. (Multiply your word count by US$0.016.) For this I give feedback on aspects of the text, from the point of view of a careful reader, noting many of the same elements that the target audience might experience when reading the text. My feedback is made in the form of an email; no notes are made in the body of the text itself.

What is language-level editing?

Language-level editing includes anything that touches directly on the text itself, sentence by sentence, including copy editing, line editing, and proofreading.

Here I will make notes or suggestions in the text using comments or a track changes function (as found in MS Word or Google Docs). I will comment if the tone is consistent, if certain passages are hard to understand, and if there are errors or irregularities in terms of grammar or punctuation. These notes are conditioned by the objectives of the writing. If you like, I can also offer suggested rewrites of some of your sentences; this is only done if I am charging by the hour and best if we are working together on Zoom or in person.

For standard language-level editing of academic texts, I charge 4.5 cents American a word for the first read. (Multiply your word count by US$0.045.) This assumes that your text is written at or about the level of an English native speaker; it also assumes a non-urgent turnaround, i.e., something on the order of two or three weeks from the time I receive the text and I return it to you. If you need a quicker turnaround, I have to charge extra. Likewise, if your text is not written at or near the level of an English native speaker, it is often best that I charge by the hour, at least until we have established a working relationship. For this and certain other projects, it might be best to work together (in person or via Zoom, etc.); this will ensure that I do not misunderstand your intentions with the text. My basic rate is US$50 per hour; this may be lower if you hire me for more work and may be higher if you need the work to be done urgently, i.e., if you want me to prioritize working with you over other work I must do.

What do you charge for revisions?

For all lengths of text, if you want me to take a second look after you have made relatively minor corrections, I charge one cent a word. (Multiply your word count by US$0.01.) The original rate applies for new sections or if you add substantially to it in a further version. If you ask for me to look at further revisions (i.e., 3rd or 4th), I charge 0.5 cents American a word for each reread. (Multiply your word count by US$0.005.) The lower rate applies if you have added sentences here and there but the higher rate applies where you have added whole paragraphs or have substantially changed what I've looked at before.