Services

On its own, my formatting fee is charged per day. Most documents, including long and complex documents, take 1 to 3 days to fully format. I usually charge around $300 per estimated day, but this may change depending on the document. When combined with my other services, formatting is included in the general fee and not charged separately.

Yes, I can follow any formatting guidelines you might have. This includes any university or departments style guides you may have to follow to submit a thesis, journal styles, publishing house styles and formal published styles (e.g. APA, IEEE and AMA styles).

Microsoft Word has powerful formatting tools that can be translated to other design software such as Adobe InDesign. The cleaner the formatting is in Word, the smoother the transfer to other software will be.

Word is the industry standard for editing, so almost all editors prefer to work in it. Other word processors such as LibreOffice Writer and Google Docs can be used, but they are not nearly as well integrated in professional publishing workflows.

Journal and book publishers often have Microsoft Word templates that authors must use when submitting their manuscripts, so it makes sense to work in it where possible.

Both InDesign and LaTeX (and related software like Overleaf) are, at their core, typesetting programs rather than word processors. Typesetting and graphic design are separate professions; my formatting service will ensure your document is ready for typesetting. For this, Word is the industry standard.

If you are planning to print (to PDF or otherwise) directly from Word rather than having it typeset, a clean and professional format is absolutely essential.

On its own, I usually charge per day for reference editing at $300 to $400 a day. Substantive reference edits take longer than copy-level reference edits. How many days it takes depends on your document and the current state of the referencing. In my experience, substantive reference edits in 100,000 word documents (not 100,000 word reference lists!) take a business week or less, though this does vary. Please see more about my policy on urgent or weekend work here.

If you choose the full service of formatting, reference editing and language editing, the reference edit is included in the final fee and not calculated separately.

I can edit your references in any style that has a style guide. The most common published style seems to be APA 7th edition, but I also regularly come across Chicago 17th, AMA 11th (similarly, Vancouver), IEEE and AGLC 4. Harvard style is less common, especially because there is no one standard for Harvard referencing; it varies per institution and is typically not very detailed. The Australian Government’s official style guide, the Style Manual (now exclusively online), has its own referencing style guides for author–date, documentary–note and legal styles.

And, of course, there are many and varied house styles for publishing houses and journals. As long as there is a detailed style guide, I can use it to edit your references.

As a student (and even beyond), I thought referencing software would automatically produce flawless references, but you might be surprised at how inaccurate your referencing software can be.

Referencing software is only as detailed as the information it is given; as imperfect humans, we tend to enter the details incorrectly, inconsistently or incompletely from time to time. Unusual sources also pose a problem, and duplicate entries are common. Sadly, downloadable citation formats are also notoriously inaccurate and inconsistent.

Even if you input all the data perfectly and consistently throughout your project, the output of the software rarely perfectly matches the style guide and the grammar and punctuation conventions of the language you are working in (e.g. Australian English, US American English).

No matter what, having a trained and experienced expert review the reference list or bibliography and the in-text citations is the best way to ensure that your sources are accurately referenced and up to the professional standard.

Unfortunately, no. I am unable to financially justify subscribing to and training in all the referencing programs my clients might be using. For students, this would also certainly go against the ethical principles of the Guidelines. However, you can take your edited reference list and use that information to update the sources in your referencing software. I have been told by my clients that this is helpful for future projects.

This is different per document. Once I have the chance to review the most current draft of the document, I will give you an estimate per 1000 words and an approximate turnaround time.

Absolutely, especially Australian English and US English, but also British English and NZ English. I can also follow any specific style guides if you have them.

I take great care to engage with the cultural elements of your document and ensure that I edit as sensitively as I can. Where I am an outsider, I research these elements to better inform my editorial decisions. When I am unsure whether these decisions will conflict with a cultural aspect of the document, I will give you some options so you can use your knowledge to choose the best edit for the situation.

Truthfully, I take this approach to every document. I routinely do research to ensure I am making the best decisions for the document and am constantly mindful of the lens through which I am editing. I am especially mindful when the document is focused on a culture that is not my own.

This depends on your document.

For students, I will not be able to perform a language edit in other programs because it is essential that the changes I make are tracked precisely and comprehensively. Students must carefully consider then accept or reject every change for the work to be considered their own. The Track Changes function of Word is essential for this. If you are using a different word-processing program, I will likely have to copy it into MS Word to perform the edit.

For professionals, this is less strict. Some documents are processed in content management systems online, some are already PDFs, some are in non–word processing programs (such as PowerPoint), and so on. I am happy to be flexible depending on the needs of the document.

In general, I much prefer to edit offline. Version control much simpler, and my workflow is designed to work this way. Editing is often a non-linear process, so when someone is able to review my work as I go, this can create some confusion. Working offline then returning the full edit to you un-complicates the process.