800-608-1311

A BETTER EDITOR^SM

Graduate Students! Fit your budget! Meet your deadline!
APA style: dissertation, thesis, reference list
American English as Second Language (ESL)

Anne V. Sutherland, M.Div., Ph.D.

Professional Editing and Proofreading Since 1995

What Can A Copy Editor Do for YOU?

Policies-Privacy

A Better Editor for YOU!

Your words and ideas
deserve the best!
Why not dress them
for success?

Rates, Deposits, Reservations, Refunds,
and Privacy Policies
March 2010

FREE TRIAL

You must send me a copy of your University's APA style guidelines for your document with your trial sample. I will ask for clarification if necessary.
The free trial is not a complete APA style copy edit because citations should be checked with the reference list and headers must be set the same for the whole document. It is just a sample of what could be done for your paper to meet APA quality standards for your purpose.
The free trial will be posted for 5 days, then taken down.

RATES

Copy editing and proofreading services for businesses and Web sites are $30.00 an hour.
Copy editing and proofreading services for SOHO (sole proprietor) businesses and Web sites and for personal, noncommercial writing like memoirs are $25 an hour.
Copy editing and proofreading services for APA style graduate and post graduate theses, dissertations, papers, or journal articles are $20.00 an hour.
I only do undergraduate papers for ESL students. The rate is $15.00 an hour.
I do not do high school papers.

DEPOSITS

NOTE: By sending me the PayPal deposit you agree that you have read this policy and accept it as the agreement between us.
All deposits and refunds go through PayPal. I do not take credit cards or checks.
You can open a PayPal account for free on their Web site (www.paypal.com). Choose the personal account so you will not be charged any fees. Opening it often takes several days to finalize after you set it up. They verify your card or bank account. All that is explained on their Web site. I recommend you get this set up right away. Even if you change your mind, it costs you nothing except a few minutes of your time.
When you send me your information I send you a PayPal invoice. When you send a deposit to PayPal for me in reply to a PayPal invoice from me, they will notify me that you have paid. I will e-mail confirmation to you also.
I will send you an invoice in PayPal when your deposit needs to be replenished. Usually, when your deposit gets down to about $100, I invoice for another $200. That way there is no delay and I can keep on working, since I know you have a deadline.
All deposits are in advance. I only do the work after I receive your deposit. I have to do it this way because when I was first getting started, someone said they would pay, then took the document and I never received the money. When we are finished, I will return into your PayPal account any unused deposit you paid.

RESERVATIONS

In 2010, while I still have room for a few shorter papers, I am only accepting three major projects (thesis or dissertation) for the winter-spring season. A reservation means I will save one of them for you. When I have agreed to three, I will put others on a wait list, and contact them if I have a cancellation. However, they might have already made other plans.
When you review the free trial and want to make a reservation, I will need your PayPal account information to send you an invoice. To make a reservation, a $200.00 deposit to my PayPal account and an e-mail with a start date certain that begins at least six weeks before your deadline are needed.
The deposit sits in my PayPal account until you start, when it will be credited toward your cost. The reservation is not final until I am notified that you made the deposit to PayPal. Then I will send you a confirmation e-mail.

REFUNDS

Reservations

If you cancel the reservation 30 days or more in advance of the date certain, I will refund the full amount into your PayPal account.
If you give me less than 30 days notice, and if I find another project from the wait list that still has time to do a good job on it, I will refund half ($100) the deposit.
If you give me less than 30 days notice, and it is too late for me to find another project, I keep the deposit.

APA style copy editing and proofreading

Since you have seen the free sample and can decide whether you want to work with me, I do not give refunds for work I have already done. However, you can decide to stop at any time and I will stop working and refund into your PayPal account whatever is left in your deposit.
It is your responsibility to find out whether your university has requirements about who they will accept editing from. Legitimate ones usually have no restrictions, but some have deals with certain editors. I worked with a student who did not ask about this and ended up having to pay a second person to do the work over again, just because I was not on their list.
In the event you are required to make copy editing or proofreading changes for the APA or University guidelines, to satisfy your Chair or committee after I send you the completed document, you must make that request within 30 days and I will make them free of charge. However, if they want major changes to content or organization, regular hourly rates apply.
These policies may be amended at any time. Usually any changes will apply to new clients. You will be notified if this happens before your project is completed.

I will never let anyone have your personal information or see your documents at any time.
You will have a separate folder on my computer. No one else uses this computer. I use GoToMyComputer so you will be able to see your edited results online. If you wish, you can watch me make minor changes.
When YOU are satisfied and your final payment with any charges is confirmed by PayPal, I will send you the document as a rich text attachment. If you prefer a printout or a CD there will be a (prepaid) nominal charge.
Your final document will remain on my computer for 60 days and then will be permanently removed.

By sending me the PayPal deposit you agree that you have read this policy and accept it as the agreement between us.

For an overview of copy editing steps click here

To find out more about costs click here

For things you can do to reduce your costs click here

It is important that you look carefully at the pages on this site. There is information about costs and how you can reduce your costs. Notice your responsibilities along the way so that the result will be a document you can be proud of and will accomplish your goal.

Like many people, after looking at all this you may have . Do not hesitate to contact me for questions about your particular manuscript. There is no charge for this first (up to 15 minutes) informational call. Then, if you are interested, you can send me 10 pages of your document (usually first 10 pages of the literature review) for a free half hour sample of copy editing, and a free 15 minute phone discussion after you review it. Then we can both decide whether we can work together. DO NOT send a sample until we talk. I will tell you how to send your sample document.

Telephone voice mail: 800-608-1311 (near Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA)

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