Editing & Formatting Services
I have worked as a freelance editor for over 10 years now and as a technical writer for 4 years. I was also an adjunct writing professor and instructor at the University level for over 10 years, where I taught Composition, Creative Writing, Business Writing, and Technical Writing. I am very familiar with writing and editing in many contexts.
If you are viewing this page, then it is very likely that you have been recommended to me by one of my happy former clients. I specialize in dissertation and thesis formatting for Ph.D. and Master’s candidates, but am also available to format, design, or give advice on several other types of documents.
Contact me at escovel@gmail.com to arrange your formatting or editing job.
The full list of freelance services I provide is below. Click on the links to see more details.
Main Editing/Formatting Services
- Dissertation and Master’s Thesis Formatting
- Editing Services (Basic Copyediting, etc.)
- Academic papers and reports
- Resumes, cover letters and application letters
- Technical and business documents
- Pamphlets, leaflets and brochures
- Posters and Flyers
Additional Freelance Services
- Document Design Services
- Pamphlets, leaflets and brochures
- Posters and Flyers
- Resumes, cover letters and application letters
- Website Creation and Editing Services
- Basic Personal Blogs and Websites (WordPress, Drupal, HTML, CSS)
- Online Journals (lit journals, webzines, etc.)
- Web editing, proofreading, etc.
Dissertation and Master’s Thesis Formatting Services
I have many years of experience with formatting dissertations and master’s theses for Purdue University graduates as well as candidates at other universities. I hope you will be happy with my services and recommend me to other Ph.D. and Master’s students who will be graduating in the near future.
Much of the information below is specific to Master’s and Ph.D. candidates at Purdue University. The general theme applies, though: All sections, forms and other documentation necessary for the complete formatting of the dissertation should be supplied either at one time or, as occasionally happens, according to a pre-arranged schedule.
Generally, if everything is delivered to me in order, it should take between 3-8 hours total for formatting, depending on the length and complexity of the document. I do not charge for any required formatting revisions that need to be done when/if the draft is sent back to you from the Graduate School, unless these take longer than 1 hour.
Contact me at escovel@gmail.com to arrange your formatting job.
My Fee (Standard and Rush)
My standard fee is $45 / hour for jobs in which the dissertation and all required documents (see below) have been delivered to me for formatting at least 96 hours in advance of your deadline. (If there are multiple stages, this may apply for each stage.) For rush formatting jobs (those delivered to me less than 96 hours before initial submission deadline), I charge $75 / hour. I will always communicate clearly with you ahead of doing work if I think the job meets the criteria of a rush job.
Payment is typically done once the job is completed, although you may arrange to pay me up front or in installments. See the payment and contact details at the bottom of this page for more information.
What I Need From You
Email the following to me at escovel@gmail.com so that I can make the formatting go as quickly and smoothly as possible (and at a lower cost to you):
- A single DOCX file of your dissertation with all chapters and front matter pages, as specified here:
- Front matter should be completed in terms of textual accuracy and content (don’t worry about the formatting elements I will take care of, listed below). This includes the title page, dedication page (if you have one), acknowledgements page, table of contents (no page numbers required, but list all chapter, section and sub-section titles, as applicable), and the abstract. Please be consistent with your name in the front matter, using your full name as registered with the University.
- Additionally, if your school requires a page/form that includes your committee members’ names and titles and other details (like date of defense, for example), be sure to complete this form for me or supply me with all necessary information.
- All of the text of the dissertation chapters should be in their final form before I begin formatting, including citations, bibliography entries and other MLA/APA/Chicago style formatting. Also include captions on all tables and figures. Substantial revisions to the text during or after the process could lead to troublesome section break and page numbering issues that will take additional time to resolve.
- Front matter should be completed in terms of textual accuracy and content (don’t worry about the formatting elements I will take care of, listed below). This includes the title page, dedication page (if you have one), acknowledgements page, table of contents (no page numbers required, but list all chapter, section and sub-section titles, as applicable), and the abstract. Please be consistent with your name in the front matter, using your full name as registered with the University.
- If required by your school, include a DOC or DOCX copy of your CV either at the end of the dissertation file or as a separate file attachment. Remove all personal contact info (addresses, phone numbers, email addresses) from the CV, as required by your university’s graduate school.
- Specify if there are any special formatting needs with your dissertation (figures, illustrations, tables, InDesign documents, etc.). All tables, illustrations, and figures should be numbered and include whatever caption information you would like.
- Any other required forms or documents.
- If your graduate school or department provides a Word template file, please attach it or direct me to the website where I may download it.
If you have trouble with any of the items above, please let me know. I can be flexible and will work with what you have at the time (i.e. if you need me to put separate chapter files together, etc.).
What I Do For You
For my part, I will take care of the following:
- Margins
- Ordering of front matter and other required sections
- Required spacing for headings
- Cover pages
- Page numbering
- Consistency in formatting of titles, section headings, indentations, figures, tables, and other repeated document elements
- Any formatting requirements from the Graduate School which I neglected to list here
- Anything else you would like me to look out for in your dissertation regarding formatting (e.g. block quotes, footnotes, endnotes, figures/tables, etc.). Note that this will add additional time to the formatting job.
- (Optional): I will do proofreading for MLA, APA, or Chicago Style citation/reference formatting if requested, but this will add considerable time and money to the formatting job.
Editing Services (Basic Copyediting, etc.)
I have over a decade of experience teaching college English and writing courses, including composition, creative writing, literature, business writing and technical writing. Whatever you document is, I will be able to correct any writing errors and make it more professional and clear.
The needs for each job are different, so please communicate in as much detail as you can with me as we plan and work through the document. If there will be multiple deadlines (per chapter/section), be sure to provide as much advance indication of these as is possible to make it easier to fit the job into my schedule.
My Fee
My hourly fee is the same for all editing and proofreading type jobs. The total fee for each job will vary according to the amount of time required to complete it. Here, roughly speaking, are my definitions for the different levels of editing services I provide:
- Proofreading is surface-level correction of a document. I will check and correct spelling errors, typos, punctuation, and sentence grammar (depends on specific job, does not include dissertation formatting). For a more involved editing job, you will want to request basic or heavy copyediting.
- For copyediting jobs, I will do everything explained above regarding proofreading, but I will also look for clarity, conciseness, paragraphing, parallelism, reference citation style formatting (APA, MLA or Chicago Style) and writing style (plain style for professional writing documents, for example). I can also leave comments (consulting) on what you might improve in the document when I believe something is better left to you.
The definitions are only to be taken generally. I will work with you to determine what specific services you require.
Editing Rates
Note: My rates are based upon the common editorial rates chart provided by the Editorial Freelancers Association.
- Proofreading and Copyediting | $45 / hour ($75 / hour for rush jobs)
Rush Jobs
My time is valuable, so rush rates are applied to jobs which present a considerable strain on my time and life. A job will be charged a rush fee of $75/hour based on the following criteria (for page / word length criteria, I consider whichever is most applicable to the given scenario):
- It is 10 pages ( or 2,500 words) long or less and 72 hours or less are provided for editing.
- It is between 11 and 50 pages (2,501-12,500 words) long and 7 days or less are provided for editing.
- It is between 51 and 100 pages (12,501-25,000 words) long and 14 days or less are provided for editing.
- It is between 100 and 200 pages (25,001-50,000 words) long and 4 weeks or less are provided for editing.
- It is longer than 200 pages (more than 50,000 words) and 6 weeks or less are provided for editing.
Note: “Job” here specifically applies to those portions of the document(s) relevant to each deadline (if there are multiple ones). “Pages” here means double-spaced, 12-pt. Times New Roman font. Word counts are estimates based on how many words are typically on such pages. Jobs will be assessed accordingly. Documents delivered in sections/chapters may need to have rates considered per each section/chapter deadline. A determination of the fee rate being standard or rush will be clearly indicated when the job is accepted.
Payment & Contact
You may pay by PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, or by check. PayPal and Venmo are the preferred methods.
Contact me at escovel@gmail.com to arrange your editing job.