Services

I provide professional proofreading and copyediting services specializing in the earth sciences. I edit manuscripts in many fields of science from an international community of authors, both native and non-native speakers of English.

Standard Editing

With Standard Editing, documents are checked for spelling, grammar, punctuation, clarity, word choice, syntax, paragraph structure, logical flow of ideas, organization, section structure, and format. Your document is matched to the editorial style of your target journal. Most documents only require Standard Editing.

Heavy Editing

Some documents require more than editing. They require language assistance. In these documents there are many sentences that require rewriting, and there may be sentences where I cannot determine the author's intended meaning.

Style Guides, Dictionaries, References

I use the in-house style sheet of your chosen journal, if it has one, and the style guide(s) recommended by the journal, usually one or more of the following: The Chicago Manual of Style; the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association; Scientific Style and Format, the CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers; and/or another style guide, such as the AMA Manual of Style. At the least, I use some published articles as guides.

For spelling, usage, hyphenation, and word division of Earth science terms, I use the American Geosciences Institute Glossary of Geology. For chronostratigraphic units, geochronologic units, and geochronometry, I refer to the International Stratigraphic Chart, published by the International Commission on Stratigraphy.

For UK English I use the University of Oxford Style Guide.

File Types

I accept the following file types: doc, docx, odt. Please see the FAQs for more details.

Evaluation

Before work starts, I evaluate your document to determine the level of editing required (standard or heavy). Ideally, I would like to receive the entire document for evaluation, but one or more sample pages are sufficient. We agree on pricing before work begins.

Tracking and what to expect

Virtually all editing today uses the tracking feature in word processors. With tracking, all changes to your document are recorded and clearly visible. You can accept, reject, or modify any change.

Additionally, I use the comment feature to leave explanations about the changes I make and the changes I suggest you make, including samples of rewritten sentences. You will also receive a separate document of notes about your manuscript where I may evaluate the writing, clarity, and structure of the sections. Please be ready for constructive criticism.

Privacy

Your document is safe with me. The contents will never be disclosed to anyone. When the job is finished I will destroy all my copies using a file-erasing program. You are responsible for maintaining backup copies. Please review my Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.