Good academic editing should represent value for money, but not be ‘cheap’. Those who offer academic editing at discounted rates are often (but not always) doing a second-rate job. Some cut-price companies use editors from non-English speaking countries, which will not give you the result you want!
How much should editors charge?
Based on their unique skills and level of academic training (many have a PhD, for example) good editors should be charging more than $100 per hour, which is still significantly less than an accountant or lawyer of a similar level of training. $100 per hour works out at around $50-$60 per 1,000 words for editing of an average standard document. However, most editors charge much less than that this even though they are not constantly employed like accountants and lawyers, and often have a lot of ‘down-time’ between jobs, especially during the quiet times of the academic year.
Editex editors offer a wide range of pricing depending on their level of academic achievement, years of experience, and skill as an editor – as well as their personal preference and circumstances. This enables you to find the best fit for your editing needs and budget.
Is editing worth it?
Professional editing takes the stress out of academic writing! A good editor will ensure that your work achieves compelling content plus sound grammar, spelling and clarity.
When you consider the academic authoring process the value of expert editing and proofreading is easy to see. You are busy hatching ideas, gathering research and putting together arguments. So it is tough to get enough distance from your essay, thesis or journal article to carry out thorough proofreading and review. Some may even say it’s impossible. Here is where an Editex editor champions your hard work. We give top academic advantage to ESL students and native speakers alike with word perfect manuscripts presenting clear and convincing ideas.
If you are a student or academic from a non-English speaking background your work will achieve better marks or have greater academic impact if it it presented with perfect English. But anyone who is stressed out dealing with complicated formatting requirements and referencing styles, getting tenses right, and achieving the correct academic tone, will benefit from some quality editing.
How are charges worked out?
The most common methods for charging are:
- Charge per hour (usually quoted after seeing the document)
- Charge per page (usually assuming a certain number of words per page)
- Flat rate charge per word or per 1,000 words
- By reference to a table of prices for various word count ranges
- By use of an online fee calculator (which accepts a word count or sometimes number of pages)
Editex uses a website calculator which displays the fee for most editors based on the word count you enter. Many editors also display an hourly rate.
The Editex fees assume standard editing and average writing quality and are provided as a guide. The actual fee that you pay will depend on your exact requirements, and should be negotiated with your chosen editor once they have a full understanding of your editing needs:
- does your document need heavy or light editing?
- do you want your in-text references to be edited?
- do you want your reference list to be edited?
- do you want document formatting?
- do you need the job back urgently?
How do you sort through it all and find the right editor?
As you can see there are many ways that fees are calculated. If you are presented with a list of editors by your university there is no way for you to easily:
- Compare the fees between the different editors
- Compare the qualifications and editing ability of the editors
- Find which editors are familiar with your field.
You might have to email or call every editor on the list, and still not find the one you want!
But with Editex it can all be done in a few minutes! Most editors have entered their fees into the fee calculator in our website. You just enter your word count and you can see what each editor will charge for that size document (assuming it is of average standard for editing). You can also search by ‘fields of editing expertise’, see their qualifications and their client satisfaction scores.
Your search for the perfect editor starts here.
