Thesis editing can streamline the process of submitting the final version of your thesis manuscript. The editing process can reveal minor and major flaws that when corrected can increase the chances of successfully submitting your thesis or dissertation on time.
Editing your thesis manuscript can be done through either one of four options:
Editing by yourself
Using paid AI proofreading software
Hiring a personal professional editor
Contracting from a big online editing company
In this article, I talk about when it is appropriate to use professional editing providers as opposed to editing by yourself. Plus, I explain how the advantages and disadvantages of using each of the four options. Lastly, I describe what goes into editing a thesis manuscript and the various stages or types of editing.
Benefits of professional thesis editing
The benefits of professional editing include 1. A fresh set of eyes; 2. Expertise and experience; 3. Help in becoming a better writer; 4. Ensuring consistency; and 4. Saving time and money. To learn more, please check out the following article: Benefits of Hiring an Editor.
The advantages of academic editing lie in the fact that professional editors can approach your work with a lack of bias. This is due to their extensive experience and expertise.
As a result, professional thesis editing may play a crucial role in ensuring that you can complete your thesis on time and that your thesis meets the requirements of your university. After all, a master's thesis or dissertation may be the most important project in your academic life.
Thesis editing can range from light proofreading of your final draft to heavy restructuring of your content, otherwise known as developmental editing.
First, let's take a look at what is included in professional thesis editing:
Proofreading to fix grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors
Ensuring stylistic consistency to meet the requirements of your target journal or university rubric
Improving clarity, structure, and tone
Improving the language of non-native English speakers
Tightening or strengthening the arguments you make
Most students or academic professionals are advised to edit their thesis after writing it. Such advice often goes something like this. When writing the first draft of your thesis, you should not focus on writing the perfect document.
Instead, the focus should be transforming thoughts into words on the page. Every student and academic should go through this process or heed this advice. However, this type of self-editing may not be sufficient.
Sometimes, you need a fresh set of professional eyes to make sure that you produce the best possible dissertation or thesis. Let’s look at the benefits of hiring a professional editor for your thesis or dissertation.
Hiring an editor for your thesis
There are two main options for professional editing services:
Hiring editing services from an online editing company
Hiring a personal editor
1. Professional editing companies. There has been a rapid increase in editing companies to meet the growing demand for proofreading. There are dozens of thesis editing service companies to choose from. These companies differ in how they operate. However, they have a few commonalities.
Most have headquarters located in a major city. However, they use both in-house and freelance editors. These editors have to go through rigorous and difficult qualifying tests. This is before they undergo thorough training to get them ready to edit your thesis manuscript or other academic document.
This training results in your manuscript or document being edited skillfully and quickly at a relatively low cost. By paying only a little, you can end up with a document with substantial improvement.
Most of these are online companies. They allow you to upload your documents to their websites, pay electronically, and have a fully edited paper returned to you between one week or four hours.
2. Personal editor. A personal editor is in the ideal position to edit your thesis. By personal professional editor, I mean someone who offers proofreading assistance under their own name. That person could be a solopreneur with a professional website, which you could use to contact them for their services. It could also be someone who has been recommended to you because of their past work for others.
Take me for example. I worked for more than five years for several professional proofreading companies. In that period, I edited more than five million words! I now offer proofreading services through my website, EminentEdit.
Types of Thesis Editing
The different types of thesis editing depend on the tiers of manuscript editing: 1. Developmental editing, 2. Copyediting, and 3. Proofreading. To learn more about this, check out this article: Manuscript Editing. For thesis editing, terms like developmental editing and copyediting have a specific meaning. Let's look at what developmental editing and copyediting and proofreading would mean in terms of thesis editing.
What is thesis developmental editing?
Developmentally editing a thesis means hiring an editor to make significant corrections even before the manuscript is completed. This could mean hiring a professional editor to revise and correct your proposal. They would give advice on what is missing in your literature review, whether or not the scope of your study is too broad, or whether or not your rationale or hypotheses are strong and coherent enough.
To be honest, a good master's program means that you would not need a developmental editor. Developmental editing would be the job of your advisor. Another closely related service related to developmental editing is academic coaching. This is a type of service where a professional coaches you to become a better academic writer or researcher. Again, a competent advisor would likely eliminate the need for such a role.
The point of a master's program is to ensure that you receive proper training to become a competent researcher or scientist. Such a goal would be achieved through a combination of your own initiative and mentorship from a properly chosen advisor. However, not everyone has the good fortune of being paired with an effective advisor. A developmental editor will help in giving you proper guidance to ensure that your manuscript is on the right track even before you have completed your manuscript.
What is thesis copyediting?
Thesis copyediting would involve correction on a completed manuscript. The depth of correction depends on what you expect from your professional editor. A thorough copyediting service would include:
Align title order and apply consistency in font and headings
Review and correct errors in spelling and grammar
Improve clarity of language
Ensure correct captions for figures, tables, and graphs
Verify the accuracy of in-text citations matched against references
Highlight where jargon is overused or inappropriate
Suggest changes for repetition
Enforce academic style guidelines or other academic rubric
The last part of the editing stage is proofreading. To be honest, there is no clear-cut difference between copyediting and proofreading. Technically speaking, the proofreading stage occurs when correction occurs on the last version of your manuscript just before publication, or in this case, we should say submission.
A thesis editing sample
A thesis editing sample can give you an idea of the level of editing services that we offer here at EminentEdit. I have provided an example of a thesis manuscript from a master's student. Here is a quick summary of what traditional editing involves:
The use of Word's Track Changes function
Commentary to explain the corrections made
Comments for improvement and suggestions
Comments asking for unclear issues to be clarified
A professional editor has to choose between making direct and extensive changes and allowing the author the option to make these corrections on their own. A professional editor who knows how to write clear, polite, and easy-to-read comments makes it easier for authors to make these changes on their own. To get an idea of what thesis editing entails, check out the thesis editing sample below:
What is the cost of thesis editing?
The cost of thesis editing can range between $30 to $70 per 1000 words. At EminentEdit, we charge $30 per 1000 words. However, generally speaking, the charge you pay for editing depends on the choice of services you make.
You could choose between hiring an individual personal editor, or you could elect one of the many online editing companies that offer proofreading services. To determine the price for professional editing services, you can depend on the EFA, known as the Editorial Freelancers' Association, which polls its members to determine the prices they charge.
The other option is examining the prices offered by various editing companies throughout the web, which I have done in the following article: 10 Best Proofreading Services In 2024. The price range for the various online companies is quite high. Therefore, I with the median value as opposed to the average value. In this case, for an online editing company, you can expect to pay about 39.50 per 1000 words.
If you choose a personal editor, then you should rely on rates according to the EFA. The rates below show these rates for the various types of editing. In short, according to the EFA, you should expect to pay between $45 and $70 for line and developmental editing.
EminentEdit thesis editing services
At EminentEdit, we provide premium thesis editing services at a reasonable price. We understand the importance of completing your thesis on time. Some of our editors have published their own theses and are fully familiar with the process.
We know exactly what it takes to get a thesis ready for submission. Our thesis editing services include developmental editing, copyediting, and proofreading. We are there with you every step of the way.
EminentEdit provides editing and proofreading services that are:
More importantly, we are adaptable to your specific needs. | Get in touch with one of our representatives for help in editing your manuscript We know what you want to say. We help you say it better. |
Our thesis editing services don't just include proofreading at the final stages. We provide guidance from the very start, such as editing and double-checking your thesis proposal. Our thesis editing services include:
Developmental editing to make sure your proposal can be transformed into a thesis that can pass your defense or committee review
Substantive editing to improve the quality of your writing on a sentence level
Extensive commentary and recommendations to improve literature review, structure, and arguments
Proofreading to make sure your writing is grammatically correct with proper spelling and punctuation
Assistance in transforming your thesis into a published scientific paper
So feel free to get in touch through our contact page here: CONTACT US AT EMINENT EDIT. Good luck with your research writing!
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2024, July 19). Thesis Editing: A Quick Guide. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/dissertation-and-thesis-editing-a-quick-guide |
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