Occam's Eraser

Copyediting and proofreading for authors of scientific, technical, and non-fiction writing.

Frequently asked questions

The basics: What I do

Ok then, what do you do?

I provide editing services.

Editing, hmm? What exactly does that involve?

It means that I look at authors’ texts and make them better, by

  • fixing grammar, spelling, and punctuation;
  • improving the readability, style, and flow of the text;
  • simplifying awkward, repetitive, or inelegant, unclear phrasing;
  • making the presentation of the text consistent;
  • generally looking at the writing from the point of view of a typical educated reader, in order to identify shortcomings that the author mightn’t have spotted.

This isn’t an exhaustive list. Clients usually send texts to me with a particular purpose in mind: they might want the spelling and grammar improved so that their article can be published in a journal, they may need some help in rewriting very complex parts so that others can more easily understand it, or they could just need someone to look at the text with a fresh pair of eyes.

What kinds of text do you edit?

I concentrate on editing scientific, technical, and academic texts—writing in which clear communication of the author’s ideas is the main goal.

I’ll edit other types of text too, such as CVs and correspondence, grant applications, statements of purpose, recipe books, how-to books, websites, reports… and many others. Just ask me if you’ve not sure whether I’ll be able to help you.

Who are your clients?

My clients include scientists, academics, authors of technical works, and authors of non-fiction books. Many come to me to help them prepare or finalize their master’s or doctoral thesis.

A large number of my clients are non-native users of English, and for them I take special care to make their texts as readable as possible. Depending on the client’s wishes, I usually aim to make the text read like it’s been written by an educated and capable native speaker.

Native speakers of English also use my services, which allows them to concentrate on getting their ideas across without worrying too much about whether they’re expressing it ideally first time. They know that I’ll catch errors, clarify murky parts, untangle torturous sentence, and sprinkle in the missing commas.

How can you be a specialist in every scientific area?

I’m not! But I don’t write the text. And I don’t rewrite it in a new language, like a translator does (this is why translators often specialize very narrowly). I couldn’t write the majority of the texts that I receive. But I can edit them.

First of all, I can correct most linguistic errors regardless of the subject of the text.

The specialized vocabulary of a particular subject is something I can recognize, even if I wouldn’t be able to produce it easily.

Then, through careful reading, I can tell if the text is clear and comprehensible—even if I don’t know the exact details of everything involved.

It’s amazing what a careful reader can pick up from an unknown text by proceeding through it intelligently and patiently. But the ideal of technical and scientific writing is to communicate clearly and comprehensibly. I wrack my brains to make sense of your texts, so that your readers don’t have to!

Can you edit highly mathematical texts? Unless you’re a specialist, you probably can’t even read them!

Luckily mathematics and mathematical physics are exactly what I studied at university (see About me). So yes, I’ll be able to parse your writing. I’m very happy to work with mathematics!

The editing process

How fast do you edit?

It depends quite a lot on the text. Editing is a lot faster than translation, because translators have to rewrite the text completely (in the desired language), while I just change what needs to be changed. This could be just a little bit of work (i.e. occasional errors in a well-written text), or a lot—it could involve rewriting many sentences and paragraphs.

Here are some typical speeds that I reach when editing complex technical texts:

3,000–3,500 words per hour for proofreading, or for editing of very good texts that require only a few changes.
1,000–2,000 words per hour on moderately difficult texts (those that require a large number of quick edits, or a small number of more extensive interventions).
700–1,000 words per hour on rather difficult texts that require multiple passes.
400-700 words per hour on incomprehensible texts that require me to solve many puzzles and rewrite everything (this is very rare, but it has happened once or twice).

For comparison, a speed of 2,000 words per day—that’s 8 hours, so about 250 words per hour—is often considered good for translation (see, for example, this discussion). I give this example because people are often more familiar with translators, and sometimes think that editors work in exactly the same way. To be clear: I don’t do translation!

What variety of English do you use? Will you change my text to British English? To American English? Will you leave my text in American English?

If I’m writing something for myself, I’ll usually use British standards of spelling, punctuation, and vocabulary choice. But if I’m editing your text I can be quite flexible:

  • I can leave your text in British English while editing
  • I can leave your text in American English while editing
  • I can convert your American English or mixed text to British English
  • I can convert your British English or mixed text to American English, although in this case (since I’m not American) I’ll concentrate on removing non-American elements and making the text conform to American standards of spelling, punctuation, and presentation. I can’t guarantee that it will “sound really American”: my aim here is to make it acceptable to American readers. Luckily, for technical texts, the differences are minor and mostly merely formal in nature. It would be different if I were trying to Americanize dialogue in a novel!

What style guides do you use?

I’m most familiar with

  • The Oxford Guide to Style / Oxford Style Manual
  • The Chicago Manual of Style (15th and 16th editions)
  • Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA style)
  • AMA Manual of Style (American Medical Association)
  • The Associated Press Stylebook (AP Style)

and I’ve used others required by my clients, including house style guides and guidelines on styles issued by individual academic journals and academic department.

For texts that don’t need to conform strictly to a single style guide, I’ll take into account the variety of English used in the text, the conventions used by the author (even if they’re used inconsistently), and the intended audience of the text, and I’ll decide on a consistent and clear presentation style.

What is a style guide, anyway?

A style guide is a manual which gives details on how many questions should be resolved in the presentation (or “style”) of a text.

The simplest guides tell you such things as whether you should use single or double quotation marks, where you should place commas, which words need hyphens, what words should be capitalized, and how to format bibliographical references and citations.

The bigger style guides (such as the Chicago manual) tell you everything you need to know to publish a book—including things like the difference between a preface and foreword, where to place page numbers, and how to design an index.

How do you decide between alternative spellings of a word?

The first question is whether we’re using American or British spelling conventions. For British English, I refer to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary (11th edition) and the Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors. I feel these give modern and reasonable spellings.

For American spelling, I generally check in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th edition).

In both cases, I may use other conventions if you require it, or if it seems appropriate.

Why did you change “civilisation” to “civilization” in my British English text? Aren’t -ization and -ize American?

Not necessarily! All the major British English dictionaries now list the z forms as the preferred forms, and the s forms as possible but less-recommended forms (this concerns most, but not all, words). The s forms, on the other hand are not used outside of British English (I’m simplifying slightly here). So z is universally accepted, and s is not, with the result that for many readers, s may look unnecessarily British.

The opposite reaction is sometimes met: some PhD students are incorrectly told by their supervisors that spellings like “civilization” are unacceptable in British English. This isn’t really true, but in such cases the best thing to do is to change the spelling to suit them (after all, “civilisation” isn’t unacceptable either).

Note that many words break the above general rule. For example, it’s: “analyse” and never “analyze” in British English. It’s always “arise” and never “arize” in all kinds of English.

Will you translate my text to English?

Generally, no. The only exception is that if your native language is Polish (which I speak), and if I am editing your English-language text, then you can include some difficult expressions and sentences in Polish, if you don’t know how to translate them.

(The next question expands on this in Polish)

Czy możesz przetłumaczyć mój tekst na angielski?

Zasadniczo nie. Wyjątek stanowi sytuacja, kiedy tekst zawiera kilka
wyrazów lub zdań napisanych po polsku. W takim przypadku mogę
przetłumaczyć je na angielski w trakcie redagowania całego tekstu.
Może to być pomocne dla klienta w sytuacji, gdy ma trudność z
wyrażeniem pewnych zdań po angielsku. W przypadku artykułu napisanego w całości po polsku, najlepiej jest przesłać go do mnie po
przetłumaczeniu na angielski (zwłaszcza jeśli to tłumaczenie nie jest
najlepsze) wraz z polskim oryginałem. Wówczas będę miał możliwość
upewnić się co do znaczenia wszystkich fragmentów tekstu i skutecznie
przygotować jego poprawioną wersję.

Will you translate my text to Polish?

No, I don’t do translation into Polish.

Will you edit my text in Polish?

I’m afraid not. Try here instead.

Rates and payment

Why do you charge by the hour, and not by the word (like most translators do)?

Editing is a quite different task from translation. For one thing, it’s a lot cheaper and faster, but one big difference is that the amount of work in editing a document can vary a lot: it depends on how well the text is written and what the client wants me to do.

I use an hourly rate because it lets me price the job according to the amount of work that I really do. I think this is fair for everyone involved. It means that if your text is fairly well-written (or even just well-prepared), the work can be quite cheap and quick, even if the text is long. (If I used a per-word rate in this case, you’d have to pay much more for the same work).

Apart from being fair, it also makes my job a lot easier. With an hourly rate, I can offer my time and experience for a single, simple price. If you want me to edit only certain sentences in your text, I can do that without having to calculate the number of words involved. If you want me—for example— to just fix the spelling, or to only change American English conventions to British English convention, I can do that without having to invent a new price!

How do I know how much the work will cost?

If we’ve never worked together before, I’ll usually ask to see a sample of your text (about 5–10 pages if the text is longer, or 1–2 pages if it’s short). Then I’ll typically edit the sample, or a part of it, and the result is that I can give you an estimate of the final cost, and you have a chance to see what the result of the editing will look like. (This is also a good time to tell me that you’d like me to edit more heavily, more lightly, or to concentrate on a particular problem).

If you don’t like the estimated price, you don’t have to pay: it’s a free sample. If the price suits you, then I’ll edit the rest of the text according to your specifications. The final price will then be based on the real amount of time that I spend working on your text. This is usually similar to the estimate, but sometimes it’s a bit more or less expensive. If it turns out during the editing that the estimate was much too small, then of course I’ll contact you, and we can decide how to finish the project within budget.

If you have any concerns or questions about the cost of a future or current project, don’t hesitate to contact me. Usually something can be worked out to suit all of us.

If we’ve worked together before, we usually find that I have a particular speed for your texts, and it becomes easier to estimate the cost in advance.

Some of my clients who are not native speakers of English even pay attention to the mistakes I fix in their texts and are careful not to repeat the same errors in future. This is pretty clever, because not only do does their English improve, but it becomes faster and cheaper for me to edit their texts!

What is your rate in dollars/pounds/yen/pieces of eight?

Currently (10 January, 2012), my standard rate of EUR 25 per hour is equivalent to about:

  • USD $32 per hour (minimum charge per order USD $19)
  • GBP £21 per hour (minimum charge per order GBP £12.50)
  • JPY ¥2460 per hour (minimum charge per order JPY ¥1475)

If the exchange rate has changed significantly from these values when you contact me, I’ll revise the converted price up or down, as appropriate.

Payment can of course be calculated in other currencies too—please enquire.

My bank/online payment system/wire transfer service wants to charge me a lot to send your payment! Who should pay for this?

Some payment services are rather expensive to use. In this case, I suggest splitting the cost between us. For example, if I do €200 worth of editing for you, and your bank wants €30 to transfer the amount, we split the €30 and pay €15 each—meaning that you send me only €185.

Obviously this isn’t a great solution for either of us. It can be worth checking what other payment services charge. Some charge a flat fee (typical of bank transfers), and some charge a percentage (e.g. PayPal), so what’s good for transfering €20 mightn’t be good for transferring €1,000!

What payment methods do you accept?

  • PayPal
  • bank transfer to my account in the EU (the cost varies widely by the sending bank. My bank, for example, charges about €1.30 to send money to a bank in the EU (by SEPA transfer), and about €10 for a SWIFT transfer, which can reach most banks in the world)
  • wire transfer, e.g. Western Union (the cost of this varies by country)

(Read about what to do when transfer fees are large)

If you’re interested in paying by another method, let me know about it, and I’ll tell you what I think.

Do you charge VAT or sales tax?

I run a VAT-exempt business in the EU, so no, there are no taxes involved.

Can you issue an invoice?

Yes, of course. There’s no problem issuing a non-VAT invoice if you need it. It can be sent by email or traditional post.