MY SERVICES FOR EDITING (編輯) AND PROOFREADING (校對))
OF THESES, DISSERTATIONS, RESEARCH PAPERS,
PROPOSALS, PRESENTATIONS, ARTICLES, ETC.
Robert J. Morris, JD, PhD 司徒毅, 法學博士, 博士
Introduction
Thank you for contacting me.
I am happy to provide editing and proofreading
services—on a private basis—for students, friends, classmates, and colleagues for
their theses, dissertations, articles, manuscripts, proposals, and similar documents.
I receive many requests for such help, but I can only accept a few projects.
This means that I am able to undertake this kind of work only when it is suitable to
my abilities and when I feel that I can truly contribute something meaningful to the
project and subject. In the past, I have been able to help a substantial number of
authors improve their work, obtain their degrees, and get their work published in
reputable journals or books.
I cannot undertake work on an “emergency” or “rush” basis. If you need the
work done in a hurry, please ask someone else. I will try to give you an estimate of
how soon I can finish your project. However, you must understand that I may have
to revise my time estimate for you if your work presents special and unforeseen
problems.
My skills include training and experience as a former university English
professor as well as a practicing lawyer and legal scholar. My English is standard
American (United States) English. If you need help in producing another kind of
standard English (such as UK, Singapore, India, etc.), you may want to consider using
the services of someone else. I also read Chinese and speak Putong Hua. You can
find more information about me, including my complete CV with research and
writing experience, at my personal Web page: <www.robertjmorris.net>.
Proofreading versus Editing
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a. Proofreading
You have asked me to “proofread” your work. I need to know exactly what you
mean by “proofread.” Proofreading (校對) is work that a copy-editor does, and it
means that the copy-editor would read your work only to correct obvious errors in
such things as grammar, spelling, diction, syntax, and punctuation on each page
without concern about the overall structure, meaning, and content of the entire work
or the relationship of the parts to each other. In other words, proofreading is mostly
a mechanical task. If you need only proofreading work, you can easily find any
number of persons who can provide such services on a very cost-efficient basis. I
can do it for you, but most of my services are for editing. Almost any competent
native speaker of English can proofread. Editing, however, requires special
professional skills and training, and it is a more valuable service to you.
b. Editing
In fact, when most people ask for help with “proofreading,” what they really
mean is “editing” (編輯). They want help with the overall structure of the project,
work on the thesis statement, purpose statement, the connections among the chapters,
and critical evaluation of the project as a whole in terms of its alleged purpose and
audience. They want the kind of feedback that helps them turn their thesis or
dissertation into a successful and publishable proposal or candidacy. This is a very
different, and much more complex task, than simple proofreading. Editing requires
much more thought and analysis—and therefore much more time and effort—than
proofreading. It includes reviewing the entire document as a whole, including
footnotes and bibliography, for proper format, style, content, clarity, exposition, logic,
meaning, etc., in conformity with your university's rules and regulations regarding
thesis and dissertation writing, as well as with your editor’s and supervisor’s demands
regarding the same. Those who want editing also want help to make the work read
like native scholarly English throughout. When I perform such editing, the work
includes my detailed comments where necessary, as well as at least one personal
meeting with you after you have seen my comments in order to discuss them and talk
about how you can improve the work. I may also ask you for other meetings and/or
exchanges by email in order to clarify your work. If you are not living in Hong
Kong, we will have to communicate by email or telephone, and you should appoint an
agent, friend, or colleague in Hong Kong to coordinate with me in case your work
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needs to be copied, faxed, or posted.
You should be aware that editing is comparatively slow work. It cannot be
done properly on a "speed" or hurried basis because it requires study of the entire
document and all its parts. This is because it requires patient thought and often
re-reading. Therefore, I do not want to undertake the work if you are facing a short
deadline or if your editor, supervisor, or examiner has asked you for major rewriting
which you have not yet done. If you are still working from the suggestions, notes,
and requirements of your supervisor, other referees, or examiners, you will need to
finish that work before you give the project to me to edit. At that point, it should be
in the near-final stage.
Therefore, please note also that editing does not mean writing or rewriting. I
am not available to do the primary writing of your work. You, not I, are the author
(筆者 、著者 、作者) of the work, and I assume that you have already written a nearly
finished, substantial, mature, and sophisticated, postgraduate-quality piece of work
which now needs only the hand of an experienced editor as understood in
postgraduate schools and in professional peer-reviewed scholarly journals. If your
work is not in this nearly finished condition right now, it is not ready to be edited.
Your work should have all the necessary parts, sections, chapters, references, etc., so
that what you give me is this complete document from first to last. If you have not
yet put it together in this fashion, it is not ready to be edited. In sum, the product
you give me will not be your first or rough draft. Instead, it must already have
received the reading and comments of your supervisor and external examiner(s), and
you must have already fully incorporated their comments to the best of your ability.
One major reason for this requirement is that the fee I have quoted below is for one
editing. If you require another editing after you have rewritten the document, that
will cost another fee.
You must also assume that I am not a specialist in your field.
As with all
non-specialist readers of your work, I am intelligent but uninformed as to your
particular academic specialty. Thus, your work must carefully and sufficiently
describe, define, and explain your research topic, thesis, purpose, research gap,
methodology, contribution to knowledge, and all technical terms for a non-specialist
audience like me for whom you are the expert. This is true even if your project is
the law, which is my specialty. I still may not be an expert in your particular area of
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the law.
If your project is too far outside my ability to understand, I will tell you so
and will not accept it to edit.
So knowing all this, please tell me if you really want me to help you with
“editing” (編輯) as explained above. If not, please seek someone else.
Suggested Preparatory & Background Readings
The official requirements of the University of Hong Kong and other universities
operating under similar postgraduate systems, which I usually follow, and which I
recommend that you follow, are set forth in the latest editions of the following
sources:
--Current Graduate School Handbook or similar published guidelines, rules,
regulations, and laws;
--Graduate School's booklet, Preparing and Submitting Your Thesis: A
Guide for MPhil and PhD Students or similar published guidelines;
--Graduate School's Regulations for Higher Degrees plus Regulations
Governing the Format, Binding, and Presentation of Theses for Higher
Degrees by Research Students (general regulations that apply to all
students);
--Law Faculty's Regulations and Syllabuses for LLM plus Regulations
Governing the Format, Binding, and Presentation of Dissertations for
Higher Degrees by Coursework (specific regulations that apply to law
students);
--Materials provided in current required Graduate School course,
"Introduction to Thesis Writing" (GRSC 6001) plus the text developed from
that course: Linda Cooley and Jo Lewkowicz, Dissertation Writing in
Practice: Turning Ideas Into Text (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press,
2003);1
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Pages 151 and 169 of this book discuss the differences between editing and proofreading.
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--Estelle M. Phillips and Derek S. Pugh, How To Get a PhD: A Handbook
for Students and Their Supervisors (Buckingham: Open University Press,
2002);2
--Judith Bell, Doing Your Research Project: A Guide for First-Time
Researchers in Education, Health and Social Science (Berkshire, England:
Open University Press, 2006);
--Style Guide for the Hong Kong Law Journal, Web page:
www.hku.hk/law/hklj/;
--All other current requirements as currently stated at the Graduate School's
Web page: www.hku.hk/gradsch/index800.htm.
If you do not have copies of these materials or the counterpart materials from
your university, I suggest that you obtain them immediately and study their contents
in detail before I work on your document. If you are not a student of the University
of Hong Kong, you should obtain the counterpart publications and requirements of
your university and comply with them. No university will accept your work if you
do not follow their guidelines carefully—no matter how carefully edited your
document is.
In addition to the above, I recommend Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G.. Colomb,
and Joseph M. Williams, The Craft of Research (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2nd ed, 2003); Joseph M. Williams et al., The Craft of Argument with Readings
(New York: Longman, 2003); and Joseph M. Williams, Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity
and Grace (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 7th ed, 2003).
If You Are Working in the Law
I also suggest that you familiarize yourself with the materials which refer to the
specific areas and legal jurisdictions of your research. Each jurisdiction presents
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Pages 91 and 102 of this book discuss the role of copy-editor.
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special needs and problems that you must be familiar with if you conduct research in
that law. All law libraries have sections of reference materials with books and
guides for conducting legal research and writing, and many helps are also available
online. For example, in Hong Kong there are the following:
--For footnotes and bibliography entries in law-related research, unless your
supervisor or examiner has specifically directed otherwise, I recommend
and use the Hong Kong Law Journal (HKLJ) "Style Sheet," a short form of
which is printed at the back of each edition of the HKLJ as "Notes to
Contributors," and the complete version of which is available at
<www.hku.hk/law/hklj> under "HKLJ House Style Guide." Check with
your supervisor to make sure s/he agrees with your choice of format and
style.
--A good basic research guide for conducting legal research in Hong Kong
is Jill Cottrell, Legal Research: A Guide for Hong Kong Students (Hong
Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1999), which includes materials on
researching UK and US law as well.
--If you are citing United States cases or writing for US law reviews, you
should use the format in A Uniform System of Citation (commonly called
the “Blue Book”), published by the Harvard Law Review Association.
Especially recommended are the following books for all students, the second for
all those whose second language is English, the third for beginning researchers:
--Tony T. N. Hung, Understanding English Grammar: A Course Book for
Chinese Learners of English (Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong Press,
2005).
--Steven Taylor Goldsberry, The Writer’s Book of Wisdom: 101 Rules for
Mastering Your Craft (Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2005).
--Geraldine Woods, Research Papers for Dummies (New York: Hungry
Minds, 2002).
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Stylistic, Content, and Structural Concerns
Make sure the formatting of your work in consistent throughout. It is
common to see a mixture of formats in many first-draft documents, and this is
confusing to readers and editors. Choose one format and stick with it.
You must provide to me a clean copy of your document in as final, complete, and
finished a form as possible, starting with the title page and including each and every
page and section through to the final page at the end of the document, all properly
numbered. Do not omit any pages or sections. It should be printed on one side of
each page using standard white international size A4 paper. Please use Times New
Roman 12-point typeface in Microsoft Word format. All text should be
double-spaced and formatted as required by the university for a finished work. Any
changes or additions you make while I am involved in the middle of the editing
process will add time and cost to the project. I will make written notes on the pages,
so please make sure you are giving me a working copy (not an original) on which I
can write.
Please make sure that you have not committed plagiarism. Make sure you
understand the official definition of plagiarism at your university. Each and every
source that is not your own words or thoughts must be properly attributed to the
original source with a footnote—whether or not you quote the source directly, and
whether or not the source is published, oral, Internet, or other source. If I discover
that you have committed plagiarism, I will discontinue my work on your project
immediately, and you will forfeit the cost of the work up to that point. I will also
notify the proper university authorities of your plagiarism.
Make sure that the sources cited in (a) your footnotes and the sources cited in (b)
your References match exactly. Every source given in either place must also be
given in the other place—no more and no less. Do not omit from your References
any source cited in your footnotes—and vice versa.
If you wish help with your oral presentation, conference paper, or defense, I can
do that too upon the same terms and conditions as for editing. I will be happy to
listen to and observe your rehearsal (“dry run”), offer comments, and assist you in
practicing such things as your body language, overhead projections, and PowerPoint.
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In working for you, I do not represent or work for any other person, company, or
organization. If all these terms and conditions are acceptable to you in their entirety,
I look forward to working with you on your project.
THE COSTS
My charge for editing is HK$250 per hour of work, payable fully in advance
as a retainer. (Proofreading is $150 per hour on the same basis.) I do not use a
set or fixed fee to work on a certain kind of document. Rather, I calculate the
expense based on the number of pages in your document multiplied by the estimated
time required to read a page. My charges for this editing work, as set forth below,
are not negotiable. I do not wish to argue, bargain, or dicker about the cost. If you
cannot afford the cost to hire me, you should contact another person to help you.
From experience, I find that editing takes about 7-9 minutes (average 8) per
average page to read and make comments and corrections. Included in these
estimated times is my time for reading your work carefully, writing notes and
comments to you about what I find, meeting with you or exchanging emails about
your work, and answering questions. These are averages because some pages
require more or less work than others, and some require re-reading. It is impossible
for me to know exactly what work will be required before I actually undertake your
project. You indicate that you have about ___ pages. Thus, I estimate the cost as
follows:
___ pages x _ minutes per page = _____ minutes = __ hours x HK$250 =
+/-HK$_________ total, all payable in cash in advance.
If all these terms and conditions are acceptable to you in their entirety, please
indicate your acceptance by signing your name here.
_______________________________________
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