Many overseas students, while being confident and even brilliant in their faculty, as well as their spoken English, maybe far less competent in their written English language skills. Many feel they would require their written work checked and revised in order to achieve a higher standard of written English and therefore ultimately achieve a higher grade in their results.
The thing is, regardless of how brilliant the content of their work is, examination boards do penalise poorly written work for everything from minor spelling errors, to incorrect vocabulary and bad grammar, sentences and paragraphing, etc. Points are deducted for poor or incomprehensible written English, and ultimately for the student this can mean a big difference in their results. It can mean the difference between a first class degree and a third class one. That is a BIG difference! A difference that could have a decisive effect on their careers and their futures. Most students will only get one shot at it and it costs a lot of money, as well as time and work, to get through it.
However, having their academic work proof read and edited by professional people is completely permissible. Many Universities provided this service for their foreign students as part of the range of their student services. The problem today is that this service, along with others, is now being largely eradicated by many higher education institutions, owing to the major government cut backs in public expenditure aimed at tackling the national deficit.
As a result of this a new niche has been opened up for people with professional skills and experience in proof reading and editing, such as Chris Proctor of “Flying Colours”, who are offering their services to students privately. Students can send their essays or dissertations direct by email, or on a CD by post. The work is thoroughly proof read and then edited using reputable software such as Microsoft Word.
The students will, more often than not, be required to meet their editor in person over a morning coffee for instance, or alternatively speak with them by telephone, in order to explain things that they are trying to say that are, shall we say, not being conveyed in English as well as they could or should be. This provides the opportunity to develop some personal relationship with their editor and discuss better ways of conveying their ideas in writing, improving the overall presentation of their written work and possibly even the bonus of adding to the quality of the content.
Finally, students are given the option of having their document returned to them, showing all the corrections made in margin annotations. Or if they prefer, just the final, clean, edited version, all ready for submission.
Competitive rates: Since I charge an hourly rate, the overall fee depends on the quantity of text to proof read and edit, e.g. a thesis will obviously take much longer than an essay. Please contact me for a no obligation quotation.
My only stipulation is that students must be reasonable with their deadlines for the completion of the editing and the submission of the work.
FLYING COLOURS - PROOF READING, EDITING & COPYWRITING
Chris Proctor
0776-088-6696
Keywords: overseas students, exams, thesis, theses, proofreading, dissertations, essays, university,higher education, college, english language, pass exams with higher grades, professional proofreader, copywriting and editing
