FAQ

I much prefer to work in Microsoft Word. It allows me to make extensive track changes, which you can accept or reject individually or en bloc. It also has a handy comments feature that enables me to put any observations or queries in the margin. LaTeX usually doesn’t play well with Word, but EndNote and other reference management software packages may. I’ve also worked with files from Apple Pages—after converting them into Word, of course! Let me know if you plan to use any of these tools in your document.

Please don’t send me anything in Adobe.

I accept funds via PayPal, Interac e-Transfer, and personal check. Please ask me if you would like to use another form of payment. I trust my clients and don’t usually request payment up front, but I require an initial 50% deposit for documents over 15,000 words (around 60 double-spaced pages).

As the sole operator of Effective Editing, I need to accommodate multiple projects and commitments, including a non-negotiable eight hours of sleep. However, circumstances permitting, I’d be happy to revise short, urgently needed documents, such as blog posts and e-mails, within a couple hours, especially for regular clients. A surcharge of $3 per double-spaced page will be applied for this service.

Yes. The confidentiality of my clients’ work is sacrosanct and I will do everything possible to protect it. If you wish, I’ll gladly sign a contract to that effect.

We’re all human, even copy editors. If I edited something incorrectly, I sincerely apologize in advance and will attempt to resolve the issue. If I can’t do this on time or if you wish to go elsewhere, I’ll provide a complete refund. However, for longer documents, you should be able to review the first few chapters and decide at that point if you’re happy with my editorial style. In all cases, I hope we can come to an arrangement that is financially fair to everyone involved.

I’ve tutored a few clients via Skype. We can concentrate either on writing methodology (such as researching ideas, clarifying the steps in the thinking process before writing, creating outlines, appealing to a target audience, or improving sentence mechanics) or on polishing a particular document.

Maybe, although these aren’t my areas of expertise. One of my favorite projects was taking transcriptions of lectures given by non-native English speakers and anglicizing them into a book of readable conference proceedings. However, if it’s something I haven’t done before, I may need to learn as I go.

If you need assistance with grammar, word choice, and other stylistic matters, I’d be happy to help. However, I don’t write essays from scratch. Ethics aside, believe me, you don’t want this English major writing about the properties of ions and molecules with covalent bonds. Grammar is grammar in any discipline, but that doesn’t make me an expert in the field in which I’m editing. Most universities have writing centers that will guide you through the process of constructing an argument and finding evidence to back it up.