Academic Editing

It’s a fact of life that university supervisors and examiners are over-worked and often impatient. When presented with an essay, report or thesis chapter that is in poor English, their response is often to mark the paper down or return it, as they simply don’t have the time or inclination to sit and puzzle out what the writer meant to say. This can result in students who have worked hard getting lower grades than they deserve – a discouraging situation that can be prevented with professional editing help.

Academic Editing is our most popular service. Our typical client for Academic Editing is from one of these categories:

A. Non-native English speakers.  Students and researchers travel from all over the world to study in the UK and many of them find that, although their English is good, they appreciate having a professional, native-speaking editor to check their work before they submit it.  

B. Smart people who find it difficult to write well in English.  This may be a result of poor teaching at school, slight or serious dyslexia, or just having a brain that doesn’t work that way, but some people find it hard to express themselves well in writing, even though they are studying at a high level. A good editor can correct the language and allow the content to shine through.

C. Postgraduates. Researching and writing up a Master’s dissertation or PhD thesis involves a lot of work over a period of time and the resulting text may contain repetition, inconsistent terminology or badly constructed paragraphs that you meant to come back and revise but then forgot about. A professional editor – who has a doctorate already – is invaluable for highlighting the areas you need to revise and correcting the minor glitches that have got through while you were doing your research.

Our expert academic editors have years of experience across a wide range of subjects. All hold PhDs from the world’s top universities and all have English as their first language. Many are currently lecturing or actively involved in research. 

Our Academic Editing service is straightforward, yet in-depth. Once a paper is submitted, it is allocated to the most appropriate member of our academic editing team. Following a thorough Proofread, we carry out a full review of the paper – checking and, where necessary, revising the language used throughout the document. This review includes both sentence and paragraph structures as well as an in-depth check of the terminology used. Your editor will remove repetition, check for correct word choice and clarity of expression and make sure the language is academic in tone. 

Two versions of the completed document will be returned to you: one with Track Changes to allow you to review the changes your editor has made and a Final version with these removed and ready for submission. 

We do not alter the content of your work. Our job is to make sure that a reader will fully understand your intended meaning and that you receive the credit for the work you have done.