This article is part of the How-to… series brought to by Emerald Group Publishing. This is part 2 of “How to… Prepare Papers if English is not your First Language”. You find part 1 here.
Using an editing service
This means using the service of a professional editor who is not a subject expert (unlike a journal editor) but who specializes in helping authors express themselves in language that is as clear as possible, so that they can communicate with their intended audience.
They are highly skilled professionals whose work often contributes to the end product but if they are lucky, will get a modest fee and an acknowledgement in the author’s preface after everyone else. Most have heard of the American author, Ernest Hemingway, but few of his editor, Maxwell Perkins, who is actually responsible for a good part of his prose.
What types of editing are there?
Structural editing is concerned with what one might term ‘high level’ language considerations:
- Is there a logical argument, does the paper follow a structure, does the author avoid sudden jumps in the sense (non sequiturs)?
- Does the author avoid using words ambiguously?
- Has the author followed the format and style requirements of the journal to which he/she is submitting?
- Is the paper’s use of headings appropriate?
- Ditto paragraphs?
Copy editing is concerned with such matters of language as punctuation, grammar, spelling, hyphenation, and following bibliographical style.
What is the cost involved?
You would need to discuss costs with the editor concerned who is only likely to give a quote if you send a paper by email. Costs, however, are likely to be quoted by the hour or by the page, and may vary from £18/£20 per hour (the lower end) through £25-£35 per hour up to £50 to £100 per hour (for very highly technical work).
If the editor works ‘on screen’, the rate will be higher – for example €10 per 400 word page for a paper edit and €15 for an on-screen edit, while a telephone discussion to resolve issues could cost €50 per hour. The amount of time varies too – one ‘average’ is given as €175 for a ‘standard’ 15 page article, and estimates vary between 3-4 hours to 8-12 hours.
The following professional societies’ websites should provide some guidance, but remember that this is essentially for relatively straightforward work:
It is generally worthwhile to gain an idea from the editor what level of work will be undertaken, and how thoroughly the person will edit.
“Editors are expensive – especially if you are working in a country with a weaker currency than your editor’s. (This is true for most non-European academics trying to hire editors in the UK.) Most of my clients do not pay for their editing out of their own pockets, but get the assistance of their university or another funding agency, and such funds are usually available if the author knows to whom they should make such enquiries at their university.
In e-mailing for an estimate of how much the editing will cost, you should attach the document to be edited so that the editor can see how much work is required.
Do not try to haggle with editors or to try to use guilt (‘I’m just a poor academic’) in order to intimidate the editor into reducing the quoted price – most editors are struggling to make ends meet as well. If they take jobs for less than their usual rate, they may lose money. Treat editors as you would treat other professionals, and as you would like to be treated if you were in such a position.
You should be prepared to pay the editor immediately upon receiving their work.”
Dr Lynne Murphy
Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, University of Sussex, UK
What else to expect
Most editors will consider it important to allow what is called the ‘author’s voice’ , i.e. the authentic style of the author, to show through, and it should also be remembered that much of the language may be intrinsic to the specific academic discipline rather than to natural, spoken English.
“I attempt to keep the author’s style, as far as possible, although I try to draw his attention to what I would consider would be inappropriate styles for the destined publication, with suggestions for improvement. I find that many EFL authors [those to whom English is a freign language] may write a part of a paper in one verbal tense and suddenly switch to another tense. In cases like this, I suggest whichever is the more appropriate. For example, if writing for Popular Science, I would suggest a more informal present tense style, whereas the British Medical Journal would exact more formal scientific paper style writing. This has to be agreed beforehand between the author and the editor.”
Brian W. Ellis
Specialist in scientific editing based in Cyprus
“I always remain non-intrusive for general editing, but when I feel that something is unclear or should be changed, I draw the attention of the writer to this and make suggestions in UPPER CASE. The author also then has the option of discussing these with me.”
Dr Brian Bloch
Specialist German-English editor/translator
The editor will also check the format and style of the journal to which you are submitting – so make sure you provide this information. (You can also save money by checking this yourself.)
The same goes for references – so you will save considerable time and money if you do that yourself – see our How to.. use the Harvard reference system guide.
You should not expect your editor to solve all your English problems! You may well find that they need to contact you to resolve queries, caused by ambiguities in the English.
You should not expect your editor to solve all your English problems! You may well find that they need to contact you to resolve queries, caused by ambiguities in the English.
“Often with well-written EFL, there are subtle changes of meaning that may not actually be intended. For example, if I see the word ‘anxiety’ written by a French speaker, it could cover a range of meanings from ‘anxiété’, ‘inquiétude’, ‘appréhension’ or ‘angoisse’, all of which are found as equivalents in dictionaries. For the meaning to be clear, I would need to know the original word or, at least, what the author had in mind, so that I could qualify the noun with an appropriate adjective, if necessary (or select a different word). An editor cannot second-guess an author, if he is to do a good job, and my experience dictates that such subtle changes are often more time-consuming than the poor quality original, especially as the author is more likely to wish to debate terminology or phraseology, simply because he has a better knowledge of English to start with.”
Brian W. Ellis
Specialist in scientific editing based in Cyprus
“You should not expect that the paper will be ready to submit to the journal/publisher on the day that you receive it back from the editor. In most cases, the editor will have written some queries regarding sections of the paper that were ambiguous or contradictory or that could use further information that the editor could not provide. Attending to such matters will often take a couple of days.”
Dr Lynne Murphy
Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, University of Sussex, UK
When should you contact an editor?
The general advice is first to contact the editor informally with a working draft and the promise to tidy up the English, but to get the English sorted out before entering the more formal, peer-reviewed publishing process. Note the following comment, where it is suggested that it may be a waste of time to get a relatively clear manuscript edited when its content may change as a result of editorial or peer review.
“If one is faced with a fairly good article, which obviously needs a bit of polishing but is generally quite clear, I have been inclined to say, ‘”This is good enough for an editor to make a judgement. Don’t spend money on it now’, so that the author can make sure they only spend money on the final version. It would be expensive to have a lot of correction done on an 8,000 word article, and then have the editor insist that 3,000 words are cut. In several cases I have advised that the authors check whether the editor is interested in the topic, and that they say they will have the English revised for the final version.
The other thing that one often faces is an article with reviewers’ comments with very specific suggestions for revision – elaboration of the methodology section or more developed conclusions are the most common – which I cannot do anything about without more information from the author. Why had they chosen to do it this way, or which of the possible conclusions do they favour? If I start editing at that point, I am going to get involved in a lengthy (costly) exchange with the author trying to pull the information out of them. I would normally suggest that they answer those very specific questions before I begin, so that I have everything that I need for a final edit before I start.
Thinking about it, I think that I am more than likely to refuse to edit the first version of the article I am sent – between those that I suggest are good enough for an editor to decide whether they are interested in the article in principle, and those that I ask for more information before I can start.”
Professor David Turner
Editor based in Wales
Some editors will also recommend a final edit before submission.
Book resources
If you are using English regularly as a means of communication, you need to get good reference books, in particular a grammar and a dictionary.
Dictionaries
You will obviously need a dictionary which translates your own language into English, but you will also need a good English-English dictionary.
The type of dictionary you use will be determined by where the journal for which you are writing is based.
- If writing for an American-based journal, use Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, which is also available online free.
- If you are writing for a UK- or Australian-based journal (and that includes Emerald), use the Oxford English Dictionary.
The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors is an invaluable and relatively inexpensive tool which is invaluable for checking the spelling of awkward words, as well as other issues of language usage such as spelling and capitalization.
Grammars
- Practical English Usage
Michael Swan, Oxford University Press, 2005 (3rd edition), ISBN-10: 019442099/ An alphabetical guide to the most common problems of English grammar. - Oxford Guide to English Grammar
John Eastwood, Oxford University Press, 1994, ISBN-10: 0194313514. A basic English grammar, organized according to parts of speech. - Fowler’s Modern English Usage
R.W. Burchfield, Oxford University Press, 2004 (3rd edition), ISBN-10: 0198610211
A more detailed alphabetical guide to English grammar.
Website resources
There are a large number of writing sites, many of them compiled by universities anxious to give their foreign students help with academic English. Much of this advice is geared to undergraduates, but there is still some useful advice. We have selected the best of them, together with other relevant sites, and the details are below. If you know of any others which you have found particularly useful, please do not hesitate to contact us.
General features of academic writing
- Online Writing Lab (OWL)
One of the first Internet writing resources, this site is the work of Purdue University Online Writing Lab, and contains some very high quality handouts on a range of subjects from placement of the comma to writing research papers and non-sexist language. - University of Hertfordshire Using English for Academic Purposes: A Guide for International Students
This is an excellent resource written by Andy Gillett. The sections on “Features of academic writing” and “Rhetorical functions in writing” may be particularly useful, as are the sections on punctuation and spelling. - University of Toronto Advice on Academic Writing
Again addressed to undergraduate assignments, but looks fairly comprehensively at logic, style, grammar, etc. - The Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
An excellent set of resources again aimed at students but providing a useful resource on grammar, as well as advice on writing clearly. - The University of Victoria Writers’ Guide
Useful advice on paragraphs, sentence construction. - The Center for Communication Practices at Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute
Mainly scientific writing, but has some sections on language use. - Goldsmiths University of London Resources for English Academic Literacies. A highly useful site looking mainly at all types of language issues.
Writing on research papers
- Scitext Cambridge: Includes a useful article on how to compose a scientific paper – the term ‘scientific’ is used in the most general sense of research
- Youngstown State University Guidance on Writing Research Papers . One of the few resources actually on research papers. Takes one through the whole process from formulating the question to editing.
General language
- William Strunk’s Elements of Style
Dating from 1918, this is one of the classics of guides to grammar and style, set out as a series of rules. - bartleby.com
This site takes well-known reference books on English usage, such as Fowler, American Heritage Book of English Usage, and provides a search facility. Quite why they use the 1908 version of Fowler is a mystery, and their pop-up ads are irritating, but other than that they provide a very useful site. - Common errors . A useful reference work where you can check usage/spelling.
Grammar
- Guide to grammar and writing
A good online source of grammar information, accessed by means of drop-down menus. - Jack Lynch Guide to Grammar and Style. Very well set out with alphabetical organization, easy to check common ‘difficult words’, e.g. is it alot or a lot?
- Internet Grammar of English
Written for undergraduates by the English Department of University College London, but a useful resource for anyone interested in grammar. - Online Writing Lab (OWL)
A very useful generic site (see above), which contains a lot of information specifically on punctuation, capitals and spelling, parts of speech, and English as a second language. - Hong Kong Polytechnic University English Language Centre
This is an ‘English for Academic Purposes’ site, but it contains some very useful sections on usage, grammar and sentence construction. - University of Hertfordshire Using English for Academic Purposes: A Guide for International Students. Has excellent sections on punctuation and spelling, as well as general advice (see above).
Online dictionaries
- www.voycabulary.com
This site acts as an online dictionary in the sense that it converts words on websites into links with online dictionaries. - Websters online
A free online dictionary.
Bibliographic referencing
- How to… use the Harvard reference system
See our How to… guide for information and links to various other sites.
Portal and gateway sites
- Cambridge Language Consultants
An editing and consulting services specialising in research publications, this excellently organized site has pages devoted to writing resources online and in print. - ELB Brighton. Has useful links to other sites for English for academic purposes.
Source: http://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/authors/guides/write/english.htm
Photo: Ildar Sagdejev, CC
