Services & Pricing

If you are just starting the comprehensive exam and/or proposal, you might want help to brainstorm about topics and research questions, select an appropriate method and design that will facilitate smooth progress, refine your data collection procedures, and select fitting strategies and tools for analysis. If you don’t have sufficient time to write, you can audio record your ideas, email the audio file, and have help to organize your ideas. For interview transcription, using voice-to-text or subcontracting can save you time. After graduation, you might want help to condense your content into a shorter format, such as a journal article, and investigate suitable sources for publication. 

In brief, our service leverages a team approach: I outsource certain tasks to trusted assistants, meticulously review their work, and personally provide higher-level editing and consulting, including methodology review and guidance on advisor requirements.

Our Team Approach: Delivering Value and Expertise

We utilize a team to ensure our services remain cost-effective while maintaining high quality. I operate as a general contractor, delegating more routine, less experience-intensive tasks to qualified assistants. I then conduct a thorough review to catch any missed details and ensure accuracy. My personal rates reflect my two decades of specialized experience, which warrants a higher-than-average editing pay rate. This tiered approach allows us to manage costs efficiently.

Our team structure enables me to focus my expertise where it's most valuable: providing strategic guidance on methodology, navigating complex advisor relationships, and identifying missing or incomplete sections crucial for dissertation success. The final cost may vary depending on the availability and rates of my trusted assistants, as well as the extent of their required work.

Why Choose Our Services?

We typically work with word-of-mouth clients whose advisors may be too busy to provide sufficient guidance. While our level of expertise commands a premium, this investment often proves worthwhile by saving clients the cost of an additional semester of tuition.

If your needs are primarily for simple copy editing, you may find comparable or lower rates elsewhere, such as on platforms like Upwork. We are also happy to provide referrals to other trusted editors if our services aren't the right fit. Our approach is most beneficial for clients who prefer not to spend time managing the search for qualified editors, coordinating communications and payments across various expertise levels, and evaluating completed work themselves.

Understanding Hourly Rates

For solo editors specializing in APA, typical hourly rates range around $70. Non-specialist editors working with U.S. companies average about $35 per hour. It's important to note that freelancers, like myself, must factor in business expenses, retirement savings, and health insurance, which can add 25-40% to an employee's base salary cost. (For more details, see CreativeCircle's blog on "Freelancer vs. Employee" at https://www.creativecircle.com/blog/freelancer-vs-employee/)

Estimates, Not Firm Quotes

We provide estimates, not firm quotes, due to the many unpredictable variables inherent in dissertation editing. Our most fair and workable approach is to track actual hours spent. This ensures final charges accurately reflect the work performed. Should the scope of work necessitate exceeding the initial estimate, I commit to discussing this with you as soon as the issue is identified, ideally before an estimate is agreed upon.

Every dissertation is unique, and a flat-rate pricing model can be inherently unfair. It might inadvertently penalize clients who have meticulously followed APA guidelines while benefiting those whose documents require more extensive work. My goal is to strike a balance: provide a realistic estimate upfront, but retain the flexibility to adjust if unforeseen complexities arise. There have even been instances where I've refunded clients if the work concluded under the estimated time.

Factors Influencing Your Estimate

To provide the most accurate estimate, we consider:

• Type of editing, as described above

• Desired level of correction: Do you prefer us to correct as much as possible for minimal effort on your part, or would you like to save costs by handling simpler tasks yourself with our guidance?

• Advisor-specific requests: Any unique instructions from your advisor that we should be aware of to ensure compliance or avoid reversal of changes

• Document length: Whether your dissertation is significantly over or under the average 100-page length

• Tables and figures: The number and complexity of tables and figures requiring formatting

• Table of contents: Whether a clickable, auto-updating table of contents already exists

• Reference verification: Requirement for cross-checking references against in-text citations

• DOI/URL lookup: If your institution requires DOI and URL lookup for references

We do not provide a rigid, detailed pricing breakdown for every task. This flexibility allows for unforeseen complexities, such as extra-long dissertations or problematic coding, ensuring we are compensated fairly for all work. Unexpected re-organization needs, for example, may only become apparent after initial review or at an advisor's request.

For situations with high uncertainty, we can begin with a pre-payment amount you are comfortable with. We will work to that point, then re-evaluate the remaining needs and provide a more precise estimate. This method allows you to assess the overall value of our services before committing to the full scope.

Estimates for Dissertation Proposals

A dissertation proposal typically represents two-thirds of the work involved in a complete dissertation edit, with the final two chapters making up the remaining third. Based on an estimated $1400 for a complete edit, a proposal would be approximately $933. Half of that would be $466.

Common Writing Issues We Correct 

A comprehensive list is available upon request. We address:

• APA and school-specific formatting

• Capitalization

• Comma usage

• Contractions

• Punctuation

• Common mistakes (e.g., affect vs. effect, data [plural] vs. dataset [singular])

Some issues, depending on your advisor's strictness, we may address if they are critical but otherwise may require extra time:

• Anthropomorphism

• Consistency of style

• Flow and coherence

• Identifying overly subjective tone

• Over-quotation (if advisors dislike direct quotes)

• Parallelism

• Passive voice

• Redundancy

• Scholarly precision and tone

• Subject-verb agreement

Transparency and Documentation

I typically provide two versions of your document: one with track changes showing all modifications, and an additional version with those changes accepted. I also maintain detailed records of costs by task, which can be provided upon request.

I hope this comprehensive overview clarifies our approach. I look forward to the possibility of working with you.