Terms and conditions – proofreading for PhD students

Because your academic work is being assessed, some special conditions apply. This page explains:

• what is and isn’t included in the proofreading service;
• what permission you will need to provide;
• how to get a quote and book in your work; and
• timings and payment.

What is included

I will help you improve your text by making the following types of language corrections.

• Correcting spelling, grammar and punctuation in the main text, tables, figures, footnotes, endnotes and appendices (if agreed). This may include rephrasing part or all of a sentence to correct your English.
• Correcting typographical errors (typos).
• Correcting or highlighting incorrect word use (for example, their/there/they’re).
• Correcting occasional inappropriate word use (for example, informal language, gender-biased language).
• Removing occasional inconsistencies in spelling (if two alternatives are correct), punctuation, formatting and style that you have otherwise applied consistently.
• Splitting up sentences that are too long.
• Removing inconsistencies in the formatting of your citations and your reference list.
• Removing unnecessary repetition at sentence level.

I will also highlight other language points so you can improve the text further.

• Inconsistency in the tenses used within particular chapters.
• Parts of the text where the meaning is not clear or is ambiguous.
• Repeated content that you might choose to delete.
• Repeated inconsistencies in spelling, formatting and style (for example, use of Fig. and Figure throughout).
• Obvious mistakes in quotations so you can check the original and make amendments.
• Inconsistencies between tables and text.
• Long paragraphs that need to be split.

I’ll make amendments using tracked changes in Microsoft Word so you can accept or reject each change individually.

What isn’t included

• Checking the accuracy of the content (for example, checking content against the literature, checking figures in tables are correct, checking your argument is sound).
• Major rewriting.
• Adding, removing, restructuring or reordering content (for example, helping you to reduce the word count).
• Checking whether calculations and formulas are correct.
• Checking references and citations against external sources; adding missing information to your reference list.
• Applying formatting guidelines (for example, heading styles, margins) from scratch.
• Creating the table of contents or the reference list.
• Checking for plagiarism using detector software.

Proofreading policies do differ between universities. If your university’s policy allows any of the work not included in the standard service, you will need to send me the policy to prove this or ask your supervisor to contact me to provide confirmation.

If you’re not sure whether something is included, please feel free to ask.

Before sending me your work

• Please send me a sample of text that accurately reflects the quality of your work. If the full text is of a much lower standard, I may increase my fee or withdraw from the work.
• You must check that your university allows you to use a professional proofreader. Some universities do not allow this, and others have very strict rules.
• You will need to confirm to me that your supervisor knows that you are using a proofreader. You must also send me a link to any rules your university expects proofreaders to follow.

Sending me your work

• You must send the work on the date we have agreed.
• If you send me your work later than the agreed date, I may need to return it to you later. If I have a lot of work booked in, I may not be able to fit the work in at all. If you realise you will need longer to complete your writing, please let me know as soon as possible so we can arrange new timings.

Payment

• You must pay for the work in GBP by bank transfer or PayPal within 14 days of my invoice. If you would like to pay by PayPal, you must pay all the fees and make sure that I receive the full invoiced amount.

Important

• You are responsible for keeping to your university’s guidance on proofreading. If you do not keep to these rules, there could be serious consequences.
• The proofreading service aims to improve the language, but you are responsible for the academic content of your work. The mark you are awarded by your academic institution is not within my control, and I am not legally responsible if your mark is lower than you expected.
• I will not carry out substantial editing or restructuring to your text, add text from anyone else’s work into your document, paraphrase anyone else’s work or make any other changes that would be considered to be plagiarism.
• I will keep your work confidential. However, if your university asks, I will send a copy of the proofread document.

If you have any questions about these terms and conditions, please contact me and I’ll be happy to help.