Extensive Proofreading and Editing

We ‘polish up’ your manuscript, eliminate any language errors, and get it ready for publication or print, following predefined proofreading/editing standards defined by the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP). This involves:

• Proofreading: adjusting spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization and other surface-level technical errors
• Editing: adjusting overall readability, including sentence structure, coherency and flow, conciseness and clarity, and academic terminology/tone
• Commenting: the editor may occasionally leave comments where applicable to highlight recommendations for improving your work

Both the tracked changes version and clean version are sent back to you, allowing you to view all the changes made to your work. A final rigorous quality-assurance check is then performed by a different editor to ensure the final edited version of the manuscript has improved readability and is free from any language errors.

Edited Samples

In-Text Citations and References Adjustment

This involves checking the in-text parenthetical (citations within parentheses) and narrative citations (citations whereby author names are incorporated into the text) throughout the manuscript, and adjusting them according to a specific format (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian, IEEE). We also check and adjust the references list (i.e. bibliography) at the end of the manuscript. Finally, a thorough check is performed to ensure citations are included in the references list, and reference listings are cited in the text.

Manuscript Style Formatting

This involves adjusting the entire manuscript format according to the style guide or (MS Word, LaTex) template provided by the journal or university. This applies to journal papers, conference proceedings or theses/dissertations. Various elements are adjusted, including the title page, font, headers, paper layout and sections to include, line spacing, margins, paragraph indentation, citation/references format, figures, tables, equations, etc. These are all adjusted based on predefined instructions in the style guide. A good example of a general style guide is the APA Style Seventh Edition.

Paraphrasing

Researchers are required to summarize key concepts and write them in their own authorial voice, especially in the literature review section of a research work. However, this occasionally results in an increase in the similarity index level, sometimes over a certain limit/threshold (e.g., 20%). In such cases, our editors are able to paraphrase, rewrite and restructure portions of the content that have a high similarity index level, effectively decreasing it to an acceptable level by the university or journal. This involves extensive restructuring of sentences, changing tense from passive to active voice and vice versa, replacing key terms with their nearest synonyms, merging simple sentences, cutting complex sentences, re-arranging lists, etc., while at the same time preserving the original meaning of each sentence and ensuring readability and coherency throughout the manuscript. Please note that this is for self-authored content that is slightly over the similarity index limit.

Paraphrased Samples

Turnitin Report Generation

This involves generating an official Turnitin report for your manuscript that shows its similarity index level, as well as a detailed description and highlights of the portions of text that overlap with other published work. This is sometimes requested by universities, oftentimes as a recent version that is submitted with a final draft paper prior to submission. This can be generated within 24 hours from the time of request.

Language Translation

This involves manual translation of any source language to any target language (e.g., English to Malay or Malay to English). Proofreading in the target language is also performed to ensure that the final version of the document is concise, easily readable and error-free. The languages available depend on translator availability.

Academic Disciplines and Background Areas Covered

Types of Documents Covered