Editing and Proofreading for Students

You need to write an assignment, an essay or a thesis. You know what you want to say, but have problems expressing it in English. Are you uncertain about which words to choose? Are you unsure about which tenses are appropriate for your submission? Is layout or formatting giving you problems? Then maybe I can help you with your paper.

My name is Peter Murphy. I have several years experience as an ESL teacher. I can go through your essay looking for the following problems in written English:

  • Incorrect capitalisation
  • Incorrect punctuation
  • Spelling errors
  • Grammar errors
  • Wrong words
  • Vague language
  • Run on sentences

For most cases, I won't just identify a problem, I will correct it. But that's not all! I will help you with style and formatting problems involving:

  • Tables
  • Page numbers
  • Headings
  • Headers and footers
  • Margins and Indents

Now you can concentrate your mind on organising your essay, rather than on struggling with the intricacies of English grammar.

How would I handle your document?

If you wish me to edit or proofread your writing, the first thing to do is send it to peterkmurphy@gmail.com - my email address. Try to get the essay as complete as possible. I can only correct what's there, and I can't fill in the holes.

The next stage is for me to read through your work, and annotate the problems. Some proofreaders like to do everything over the Internet, and mark their corrections using "Track Changes". I prefer to do things the old-fashioned way: by paper and pen. If you send me an assignment by email, I will print it out and proofread that.

Once I have completed proofreading, I prefer to invite my customers in for a face to face consultation. Alternately, I can come to your house, if you have transport issues. In each case, I will sit down with you, go through the essay from beginning to end, and point out every mistake. Furthermore, I will indicate repeated errors to you, and advise you how to avoid them in future.

You can send me documents in any of the following formats:

  • Microsoft Word. Don't worry about the version of Word you used to write your document. It doesn't matter if it was 95 or 2007: throw it my way.
  • Adobe PDF.
  • HTML.
  • Open Office, Star Office and Libre Office. These tools may have changed name, but the format is the same.
  • Plain text. You could even send me a text file to correct. I don't why you would - it's hard to correct for indenting or format. But I'm willing to handle it.

Whatever format you use, remember to send it to me double spaced. The page size should be A4. I accept essays in "Letter" size, but I will suggest that you change it to A4.

What's the cost?

A rough rate is $30 AUD per 5 pages. I'm prepared to be flexible on the matter. A 11 page essay with 2 pages of bibliographic material counts as 10 pages, so that's $60 from you. However, 15 pages sans the biography might be closer to $90. 5 pages or less is about $30.

Cash will do nicely.

How can you be contacted?

Give me a ring on 0410 522 012, or email me on peterkmurphy@gmail.com (the same details as the left sidebar).

I have a question you haven't addressed. What can I do?

You can read the Editing and Proofreading IAQ (Infrequently Asked Questions) page. If your question isn't answered, you can contact me using the phone number or evail address above.