The A–Z of Dissertation Editing: Standard Rates & Involved Steps

• May 29, 2023
• 7 min read

• Tags: dissertation editing

Your dissertation involves months of intense labor, late-night scribblings, and at least a couple hundred cups of coffee! Naturally, you can’t let grammar errors and typos take away from all this hard work. PhD dissertation editing helps you do this.

Dissertation editing ensures that your work reflects the highest standards of clarity, coherence, and academic excellence. But before you get your document edited, you need to know the corrections made, the steps involved, and the dissertation editing rates. Let’s begin with the basics: What is dissertation editing?

What is dissertation editing?

Dissertation editing is the meticulous process of reviewing, refining, and enhancing a dissertation to improve its overall quality. It involves a comprehensive examination of various aspects, such as grammar, style, structure, coherence, and formatting.

Whether you struggle with organizing your material or the UK/US standard spelling, editing your dissertation takes care of it all. Dissertation editing has a large scope, solving large-scale issues of coherence, structure, and organization as well as small-scale issues of word choice, grammar, and spelling.

Dissertation editing accounts for the following problems in your document:

• Lack of clarity in research objectives and hypotheses
• Inadequate literature review and insufficient references
• Weak organization and structure
• Lack of logical flow and coherence in different chapters
• Failure to address research limitations adequately
• Inaccurate or incomplete data analysis
• Problems with page formatting
• Inconsistent writing style and poor grammar

Let’s take a closer look at the importance of editing a dissertation.

Importance of dissertation editing

Dissertation editing is important as it ensures that your hard work translates into an authoritative document. If language and formatting errors create a barrier for the reader’s understanding of your argument and ideas, your months of research will be rendered useless. PhD dissertation editing helps you avoid this fate.

A well-edited dissertation holds immense significance for your academic success. It reflects your expertise, research skills, and ability to contribute meaningfully to your field of research. By undergoing thorough editing, your dissertation can attain the level of excellence required to make a lasting impact.

Basically, dissertation editing shows that you take your work seriously: It demonstrates your dedication to producing high-quality scholarly work.

1. Enhanced clarity and coherence

An editor helps you eliminate any ambiguities, inconsistencies, or logical gaps within your dissertation. For this purpose, it helps to have your dissertation edited by someone who understands your subject matter to some degree.

2. Improved grammar and language

Editors have the training to rectify grammatical errors, awkward phrasing, and poor sentence structure, ensuring that your dissertation reads fluently. Clear and error-free language adds to your authority as a researcher.

3. Perfect formatting and style

In order to be acceptable, your dissertation must meet the formatting requirements of your department or university. Whether it’s the MLA format or the APA guidelines, an editor ensures that your document follows the stipulated style.

4. Effective organization and structure

Information in your dissertation should be well-organized into different sections or chapters. An editor ensures this and goes on to check the structure within each chapter for a logical flow of ideas and arguments.

5. Thorough proofreading

While dissertation proofreading can be handled as an individual process, it also features as an editing step. Professional editors can catch the smallest errors, typos, or inconsistencies that might be overlooked by an untrained eye.

Should you hire professionals to edit your dissertation?

You must get professional dissertation editing if you want to ensure that your work is received well and scores high. Dissertation writing and editing are two separate processes, and you need expert help to take your writing to the next level. Optionally, if you’re sure of your writing ability, you may skip editing and only get professional proofreading.

While any classmate, friend, or family member can offer you a basic edit and proofread, it won’t be nearly as effective as a professional. Professional editors bring years of experience and expertise to your document, which dramatically increases the quality of your dissertation.

You may hunt for individual editors in your niche who possess subject matter expertise, or you may work with an editing firm. Dissertation editing services employ hundreds of talented editors, so they can pair you up with someone who has familiarity with your subject. With these firms, you can skip the hassle of finding the perfect dissertation editor for you.

But if you prefer individual editors to companies, we’ll help you find the right one.

How to find an editor

Selecting the right dissertation editor is crucial to ensure the success of your editing process. You must be assured of someone’s ability to work within your specific demographic as well as your research area.

Here’s how you can find the right editor for your dissertation:

1. Referrals and word-of-mouth

The most assured and effective way to find an editor is through word of mouth. Ask your classmates or seniors if they got their dissertations edited. If they’ve worked with an editor and found it a great experience, odds are that the editor is right for you! This is because the editor has already worked in conditions that are similar to yours (subject matter, university specifications, turnaround time).

2. Client reviews and testimonials

Read reviews and testimonials from previous clients to gauge the editor’s professionalism and reliability. In the absence of a direct referral, online reviews are your next best measure of quality.

3. Experience and expertise

Look for an editor with a proven track record in editing academic dissertations and expertise in your specific field of study. Your dissertation holds significant weight in your academic journey, so you don’t want an amateur to work on it!

4. Qualifications and credentials

Ensure that your editor holds advanced degrees and has relevant certifications in editing or a related discipline. Ideally, your editor should have a master’s degree in your general subject area, if not a PhD. After all, who would be better at PhD dissertation editing than someone who’s already written one?

5. Communication and collaboration

Editing is more than just a simple review. The editor will critique your writing and the arrangement of your ideas. So, you need to choose one who is good at communicating the changes they make to your dissertation. Clear communication and effective collaboration make for a smooth and quick editing experience.

6. Cost and turnaround time

Consider the editor’s pricing structure and turnaround time to ensure they align with your budget and project timeline. This is an important aspect of dissertation editing and will decide who you end up working with.

The best editors and dissertation editing companies offer free samples of their work. You can try some of them out to see if they’re a match for your thesis.

Steps in the dissertation editing process

Dissertation editing is a systematic and layered process. The editor performs several rounds of reviews, considering various aspects of dissertation writing and editing. If you’re editing your own dissertation, these steps may provide a blueprint for the process.

Here are the steps of dissertation editing:

1. Structure and organization

In this phase, the editor ensures that your research is presented in a logical and cohesive manner. They check whether you’ve included all the necessary sections and sub-sections. For instance, your introduction chapter must be comprehensive while the literature review must be an expert synthesis of existing research.

2. Clarity and coherence

Next, the editor examines the clarity and coherence of your dissertation. They assess the logical flow of ideas, the effectiveness of transitions between sections, and the overall coherence of the arguments presented. Any ambiguities or inconsistencies are addressed to improve the reader’s comprehension. The marking schemes for several major universities and departments feature a separate column for coherence, so it’s an important aspect of your dissertation.

3. Formatting and style

The editor checks the formatting of your dissertation, ensuring that it conforms to the specified style guidelines (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.). They pay special attention to your citations, references, headings, and subheadings. Thus, they ensure that your formatting is accurate and consistent throughout the document.

4. Proofreading and Grammar Check

Once the major structural changes are done, the editor moves on to errors in your writing. They focus on correcting grammatical errors, typos, punctuation mistakes, and inconsistencies in spelling or capitalization. This ensures that your dissertation adheres to the highest standards of written English. Your document must follow all the academic writing rules, as there is usually a grade for this aspect of your dissertation.

5. Plagiarism check

To maintain academic integrity, editors employ plagiarism detection software to ensure your dissertation is free from any instances of plagiarism. Any identified issues are addressed and resolved. This is an optional check, so many editors offer it as an additional service, often at an extra charge. Plagiarism can get you suspended or even expelled, so don’t underestimate its importance!

6. References and citations

Editors meticulously verify all references and citations in your dissertation, cross-checking them against the specified citation style. They ensure that all sources are properly cited, avoiding any potential issues related to plagiarism or academic integrity. Like plagiarism checking, this is also often offered as an additional service.

7. Final review and feedback

In the last stage, the editor conducts a final review of your dissertation, ensuring that all revisions and edits have been appropriately implemented. They provide constructive feedback and suggestions to further enhance the quality of your work.

So, dissertation editing is crucial in elevating the quality and impact of your research. By seeking professional editing firms, you can improve your dissertation and achieve a higher score. With an editor’s help, you’ll be able to write a dissertation that has an impact in your field and helps you out in your professional career.

What are the standard dissertation editing rates?

The standard dissertation editing rates are $25–$80 per 1,000 words, with a one-week turnaround time. On a per-word basis, the dissertation editing cost can range from $0.03–$0.12.

The rate of dissertation editing depends on the level of editing you require, the complexity of your topic, and the experience level of your editor. Other factors such as the density of errors in your document and turnaround time can also affect the dissertation editing cost.

To simplify things for you, we’ve prepared a table with the pricing options for some of the prominent editing firms in the industry. Here are the dissertation editing rates you can expect to pay for your document:

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Prasanna

Prasanna is on a little break from academia and spends his time compiling fiction writing tips. He enjoys poetry, mythology, and drawing lotuses on any surface he can find.