My Process
Over my 20-plus years of editing and formatting academic theses, journal articles, and book chapters, it has been demonstrated to me repeatedly that all writers differ in terms of their writing styles, English language fluency,* academic tone, attention to detail, word-processing skills, and document formatting abilities. Additionally, the standards and requirements of clients' universities, journal and academic publishers vary. Consequently, each client requires a unique blend of editing and formatting services.
Inkdrop editing's strapline, "A boutique editing service," came into being as a result of my understanding of the need to tailor my services to meet the individual needs of each of my clients. A boutique business is one that is "small-scale and specialist in its operations" (Macquarie Dictionary), which is a perfect fit for a freelance editor specialising in providing editing and formatting services that meet the unique needs of academic writers.
There's a detailed account of the copyediting and formatting services provided elsewhere on this site. This current page provides information on the process of editing and formatting, and attempts to provide answers to some of the questions I'm frequently asked.
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What fields of research do I edit?
If you've already discovered the page that details my past experience, you may think that I only edit music-related texts. While I edit a lot of music-related theses, journal articles, and book chapters, the rest of my editing and formatting experience is in educational research. This includes, for example, topics associated with educational leadership and principalship; initial teacher education; literacy and mathematics education; STEM; physical education, human movement, and sports programs; teacher beliefs, self-efficacy, and pedagogy; rural and remote teacher recruitment and retention; excellence; psycho-social development; visual arts and artistic practice; place and identity, intercultural awareness, and foreign language teaching; social capital; and hospitality management; to name a selection. Most of the work I do is with qualitative research, but I have also worked on quantitative research.
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How much will it cost to provide editing and/or formatting services?
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One of the most frequently asked questions I receive relates to the cost of editing and/or formatting services. Typically, a doctoral candidate (or one of their supervisors) will email me to ask, "How much will it cost to edit my thesis?" or "My thesis is 74,000 words. Can you quote me a price for editing and formatting it?" or
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A note.
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How long will it take to edit and/or format a document?
It is best to allow up to 3 weeks ​
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What do you need to provide?
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* This applies to both native English writers and writers whose first language is one other than English.
