Do you think this is worth it? Is anyone else thinking about it?

I have some research money left over from a prize that I won and I am thinking about asking if I can spend it on this. I'm still a little unsure though. Some of the proofreaders I have seen advertising seem more like editors and this isn't what I want - I just want it double checked for typos and consistency rather than having any of the content specifically edited because that seems a bit like cheating.

I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts on this.

I honestly don't think it's worth it personally. You should be able to pick up most things yourself. Anything small that sneaks through isn't going to be a problem at the viva - at most an easy minor correction.

No definitely. You should spare a few days for that.
Only you know best and can do the job well.
Don't waste money and time on getting someone to correct what you know best.

I wouldn't do it if I were you.

I kind of unsure and what you are saying makes sense. I just keep worrying that I am going to miss stuff.

Bilbo - how much time did you factor in to proof the whole thing?

Thanks for the advice :-)

why don't you do it chapter by chapter? one chapter a day? so u dont feel overwhelmed at the amount

why don't you do it chapter by chapter? one chapter a day? so u dont feel overwhelmed at the amount

I proofed it on my final go-through of corrections. So as I read through. Just a couple of days really.

I would wonder about the quality of the person proofing it for me; I'm not sure that I would trust them to write or even recognise my style. This position could just be me though as I'm becoming a bit of a grammar Nazi.

This is one of my main concerns too, Slizor. It's a huge amount to trust a stranger with.

I got a quote from someone that has just come through and it isn't cheap. She also gave me some inaccurate advice on APA.

On the basis of your responses and my own concerns I am going to can the idea and just schedule in a whole week to go through it myself very carefully.

Thanks a lot for helping me think it through. I think I was just panicking needlessly about getting it done, but it does make more sense to do it myself.

It cost me a lot of money but my sup had the satisfaction. He even paid half of the bill which I think is great

Provided you've got a good grasp of grammar and spelling, it might be best if you do it yourself. However, proofreading your own work is more difficult because you are so close to what is written and it's easy to skip words and miss mistakes. One good tip is to read each line from the right to the left so that you can really focus on each word in isolation. You would obviously still need to read the whole text for sense/grammar.

I used to do proofreading for a small publishing company (as well as everything else, from researching and occasionally writing to copyediting) and have to admit I really enjoyed it. Probably because I'm a bit of a pedant. :$ :) I am amazed though how often I miss things in my own writing. You really need to go through it very carefully and with a different mindset from 'the writer'.

Good luck! :)

I would do it yourself, but try to have a break from your thesis before you do it. If you don't, it's easy to read what you're expecting to read and not notice small typos or repeated words etc. I recently got the proofs back for an article i had accepted for publication, and when I read it there were quite a few typos that I spotted instantly. I thought, there's no way I submitted it with that many mistakes in it (especially since my sup had read the final version), and I went back to look at my manuscript. Sure enough, I had made those mistakes and neither myself nor my crazy proof-reading sup had noticed them- we were just too familiar with what we thought the text said to notice the mistakes. So def take a break first if you have the time! Best, KB

I don't know if you might have a loving mum/dad/sister/brother/boyfriend/friend, who could go through it. They could do it for free - they won't understand most of it, but they can still proofread the general English, missing spaces etc. A proofreader will not know your area either. I would not go with paying someone to do it (perhaps if it is a friend take them out to dinner or something).

Thanks everyone.

I have decided I am going to do it myself but a friend has also offered to have a look over it for me so I think this is the best plan.

I have to use this research money by the end of the year which is partly why I was thinking about getting a proofreader (I won the money in a writing comp but it had to go towards something research related and it was quite a lot of cash - would have been way more helpful for fieldwork etc two years ago. Anyway - that's another story!) I've decided to go to a conference overseas in September which will use it up nicely and allow me a free holiday. Not sure why I didn't think of that before!

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