Academic
workwisewords is a specialist in academic editing. As an accredited editor I work with students, researchers and academic authors in Australia and internationally to prepare essays, theses and dissertations for submission and journal articles, books and chapters for peer review and publication in line with Australian and international publishing standards. Whether you need thesis editing, quality assurance for a journal article or book chapter, or assistance with a research proposal or grant application, workwisewords provides timely, high-quality support to ensure all work is error-free, properly referenced and professionally presented in time for research milestones, final submission or publisher’s deadlines. All editing covers:
Language: typography, syntax, punctuation, grammar etc.
Style: length, terminology, tone, consistency with style guides etc.
Consistency: citations, abbreviations, cross references etc.
Accuracy: contents, indexes, charts, symbols etc.
Format: headers/footers, fonts, pagination, captions etc.
Editing for graded work (e.g. theses) must comply with the requirements of university policy and Institute for Professional Editing’s Guidelines for Editing Research Theses. For non-graded work (e.g. articles and monographs) workwisewords can also assist with pre-planning, structural editing, and preparation for printing/publication.
Thesis Editing
One of the problems with work that is poorly presented is that the examiner tends to lose confidence in the candidate and can become suspicious that there are deeper problems of inadequate and rushed conceptualisation.
– Johnston, S. ‘Examining the examiners: an analysis of examiners’ reports on doctoral theses’, Studies in Higher Education3 (1997), 345.
Thesis editing includes comprehensive copyediting to ensure a professional academic style and writing that is clear, consistent and complies with university style requirements and word limits. In addition to copyediting and proofreading, we fully format your thesis in compliance with the relevant university or faculty submission guidelines: we will create your preliminary pages, ensure tables and figures are properly presented and consistent, edit and format bibliographies and appendices, and ensure referencing is complete, accurate and complies with the required citation style (APA, Harvard, Vancouver, IEEE, MLA etc). All thesis editing complies with university policy and the Institute for Professional Editing’s Guidelines for Editing Research Theses to ensure your thesis or dissertation meets the highest standards of academic integrity and is ready for submission.
Personalised expert editing from a qualified and accredited editor and experienced academic marker.
Professional editorial support that meets national industry standards.
Experience working with over 30 universities and tertiary institutions in Australia and internationally.
Written confirmation with every thesis that editing complies with university policy and the Guidelines for Editing Research Theses.
Ongoing support for changes until thesis submission.
Clear costs based on word count and a range of payment methods.
Confidentiality and security, with secure offline storage and options for password-protected file sharing.
One of the most common descriptors of a poor thesis, across all disciplines, was ‘sloppiness’… demonstrated by typographical errors, or mistakes in calculations, referencing and footnotes… examiners considered it was an indicator that the research itself might not be rigorous and the results and conclusions could not be trusted.
– Mullins, G & Kiley, M. ‘It’s a PhD, not a Nobel Prize: how experienced examiners assess research theses’, Studies in Higher Education 4 (2002), 378.
Books and Articles
workwisewords has helped numerous academic writers, in Australia and internationally, succeed in publishing research in peer-reviewed journals and in other formats. For researchers and authors we provide tailored structural editing, copyediting, proofreading and formatting for scholarly journal articles and other monographs to produce a rigorous, professionally presented work that is ready for peer review and meets publishing standards. We can assist with identifying publishable material from previous research – such as a thesis – and developing your publication plan. We also provide professional editing, proofreading and drafting assistance with a wide range of other materials for academic clients, including research proposals, grant applications, conference papers, training material and curricula vitae.
Personalised expert editing from a qualified and accredited editor and experienced academic marker.
Professional editorial support that meets national industry standards.
Experience working with over 30 universities and tertiary institutions in Australia and internationally.
Certification of professional editing where requested by the journal or publisher.
Ongoing support for changes until thesis submission.
Clear costs based on word count and a range of payment methods.
Confidentiality and security, with secure offline storage and options for password-protected file sharing.
For many journals, papers that do not follow the author instructions carefully in terms of format, word count, number of figures and tables, and reference style will be rejected immediately.
– Sullivan, G. ‘What to do when your paper is rejected’, Journal of Graduate Medical Education (March 2015), 1.
Accredited Academic Editing
There are many businesses offering thesis editing services. While their websites may appear professional, for Australian postgraduate students and researchers choosing an editor accredited under Australian editing industry standards is always a safer choice.
International (and some Australian) businesses often work by farming theses and dissertations out to subcontracted editors. In most cases these editors have no training, qualifications or accreditation in editing, and very few have backgrounds in evaluating or grading academic work.
More importantly, these businesses and their editors are not bound by the Australian Standards for Editing Practice or the university-endorsed Guidelines for Editing Research Theses, which set the boundaries between editing and plagiarism for Australian higher research students. Many of these companies offer to improve the structure or reasoning of your thesis – which violates the rules for academic editing in Australian universities.
To avoid risking years of research; to ensure the intellectual ownership and rigour of your work cannot be called into question; and to be guaranteed the services of a qualified professional, you should always engage an editor accredited under Australian standards by the national industry body, the Institute for Professional Editing.
Every thesis edited by workwisewords is returned with a letter confirming that it has been professionally edited by an IPEd-accredited editor, and that all editing has complied with university policy and the Guidelines for Editing Research Theses.
Over the past decade especially, the editing industry has burgeoned in the wake of an ever increasing globalisation of research and of academia in general. However, this industry is insufficiently (if at all) controlled, and is often seriously problematic.
Five myths about academic editing, Time Higher Education, 30/10/2015