What does James do?

James Does...
Copy Editing & Proofreading

What I've done: my experience

I'm a native English speaker with years of writing and editing experience in various formats, including academic (writing and marking essays, dissertations and theses), professional (minutes, reports, emails and website content), and creative writing.

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I have carried out research for a PhD that involved transcribing audio recordings of interviews and focus groups, devising an online questionnaire, creating graphs and charts to display my data, and then writing and referencing the resultant thesis. I am also the author of a series of Disney reference books. 

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I began proofreading and copy editing on a self-employed basis in 2016, and since then I have grown my business year-on-year.
I have proofread and copy edited numerous PhD theses, Masters dissertations, articles, job applications and more for postgraduate researchers and academics, as well as works of fiction, museum exhibition texts and professional reports for non-academic clients. I have also transcribed over 60 audio interviews for West Yorkshire Queer Stories.

What I do: my work

I offer a friendly, affordable and personal service that combines elements of copy editing and proofreading. As well as correcting spelling and grammar errors (using Track Changes in MS Word, so you can see the changes made), and checking that references, citations, footnotes and headings are correctly and consistently formatted, I include comments and suggestions about word usage and sentence clarity - my aim is to help you to produce the best version of your work for submission, publication or presentation. I help those who are not native English speakers polish their work so that it reads more naturally to a native English reader. I can also address formatting issues to meet your particular submission guidelines.

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A 10,000 word article can take between 2 and 4 hours to review and format, while a 100,000 word thesis could take 15-25 hours (these estimates are based on previous experience; times vary depending on the writer's standard of English).

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I charge an hourly rate rather than a flat fee, so that you only pay for the time I actually spend on the work. I provide an estimated time up front, and on completion of the work I provide an invoice that reflects the actual time spent on the work, which is payable within 30 days. 

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What I charge: my costs

From 1st January 2020, my standard rate is £20 per hour.

My minimum charge is £10 for any individual piece of work that takes up to 30 mins.
My charging structure works in 15 min increments; for example, work that takes between 61 and 75 mins is charged at 1.25 hrs.
Urgent work, required back to the client within 24 hours, will incur an additional surcharge.

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To find out how I can help with your copy editing and proofreading needs, please email me: 
JamesDoesProofreading@outlook.com