Whether you are an international student, an English-speaking researcher, or an employee in the marketing department of an internationalising company, let me use this opportunity to stress how important professional proofreading and editing services are.
I have met countless students, academics, and businesspeople who say that they do not have the time to find and make use of these services. At the same time, I have run into many people who, despite understanding how vital these services are, explain that they tend not to use them because they don’t know how to find reliable professionals who can add value to their written documents.
I understand all of these claims. In fact, when I was a student in university, I rarely had my work edited or proofread at first, even though I knew how much my work would improve after recruiting a qualified professional to work with me.
I used these services once or twice during my first year as a student (I was studying maths at the time), and – after seeing how many errors the technical proofreader I recruited spotted and corrected in my work –I was sold. I had spent hours checking for errors, and I thought I had found them all. However, in the space of an afternoon, a well-trained pair of eyes came in and showed me how much progress I had yet to make.
Aside from my own personal experiences with many technical proofreaders and editors over the years, I can offer a few concrete, evidence-based reasons why you need these services.
First and foremost, these services are not nearly as expensive as they used to be. Now, with the availability of many competing – and many excellent –online service providers, recruiting a professional who is qualified in your field (and, as such, who has an intimate knowledge of precisely what you are writing about) is completely affordable.
Don’t get me wrong, there are many companies and individuals out there who will charge above the going rate for these services. However, more often than not, you can find a price that meets your budget, and which still gives a great return on investment.
Second, I would argue that, just as you would not want to go to a Wall Street interview wearing dirty clothes and sneakers, you should not think about submitting a document that could contain spelling and grammar errors. Similarly, if your document is structured poorly, is difficult to read, and uses way too many words to say something simple, you can avoid running the risk of making a bad impression and recruit the services of a professional editor or proofreader.
As a final point (though there are many more, believe me!),note that the services you can find for a good price on the Internet today are – in almost all cases – delivered by professionals. You can proofread or edit your own work, sure – just like you can cut your own hair. But – most likely – you won’t have the training a professional does, and that’s why it’s always worth using these services.
Professional Proofreading Services 