Hi all,

I've been asked by a friend my department to proof-read her thesis, a chapter at a time in the New Year. I've been offered good money to do it and I've been told it's just for syntax and spelling rather than editing (I have very little subject knowledge). I'm just a first year but this person has been wonderful and I want to make sure I do it very well.
I've proof-read essays before for friends but this, an entire thesis, is a much bigger deal and I want to make sure to do it well.

Does anybody have any advice?

I recently did some proof reading for a friend that has English as her second language. This wasn't quite on the scale of an entire PhD thesis, but it was her upgrade documentation and ran to about 50 pages or so. My advice would be not to take the money. I was offered cash but I said no because I didn't want to muddy the waters of our friendship and place unneccesary pressure on myself to do a "professional" job. I did it as a friend because I figured that she would be able to repay me in some other way in the future; for example, she might recommend my services to others that I wouldn't feel so uncomfortable in taking money off.

I'm not saying this to show that I'm a "nice guy" or pass moral judgement, I am just saying that personally I would be very careful about agreements like this.

I don't take money for proof reading for my friends either but some other people in my lab do and that's up to them. I don't think it's anyone's place to comment on the actions of others regarding proofreading payments.

Thanks for the responses. Perhaps it's unclear from my post but I've already agreed to do this and have accepted the money. I'm really after some practical advice (if possible) on proofreading. I'll be doing at a chapter at a time.

I'd probably start by coming to an agreement about how you're going to mark any errors you find (e.g track changes/written notes etc) just so your friend knows what to expect - people are sometimes a bit sensitive about seeing corrections noted, even if that's what they've asked you to do! I would also break the job down into small chunks to ensure that I was approaching it with a clear head each time.

I was a professional proofreader and editor a few years ago. It is challenging to start with but only a matter of time till you get into the swing of things.

My manager advised me to go through "slowly" the first time, correcting any errors, making changes to improve readability (for example, consistency of the terms used, abbreviations defined upon first use, an extra comma here or there, etc). Then, once finished, proofread again much more quickly. On the second proof, I found it helpful to zoom out (perhaps to 90% page size, as opposed to about 140% on the first read).

Use tracked changes, but untick the box where it says show ink etc. It is really helpful to only show comments. If you show ink whilst editing it can be easy to make errors (unnecessary spaces etc). It is much easier to have this switched off whilst editing. Then the author can switch them back on, view your changes and decide whether to accept/decline each one. Comments should be used if you are unclear of the meaning of a given sentence, and so cannot be sure that your correction reflects the author's meaning - you need to highlight this to them rather than just go ahead with what you think they mean.

Finally, as you proofread, it is really helpful to have a guide of the rules you are following. For example - numbers from 1-10 should be written in full, unless in a list containing number higher than 10 (e.g., 1, 4, 8, and 11 is correct) or for scores, ranges, etc. Beyond 10 (or some guides say 9), use the numerical form. There are a few things like this that need to be done consistently for a high quality paper. Have a Google and you should be able to find a guide for these sorts of things. But if not feel free to message me your email address and I will forward you one.

I hope this is helpful. Good luck :)