When your work is ready for proofreading, please rename your document if possible as follows: First-name_Last-name_today’s-date. For instance, if your first name is Andre, your last name is Carpenter and today’s date is 2 July 2008, the name of your file would be Andre_Carpenter_02072008.

If you send more than one file to us on the same day please name the second file as Andre_Carpenter_02072008_2, the third file as Andre_Carpenter_02072008_3 and so on.

Please click on our dropbox at http://dropbox.yousendit.com/CEDS or send that file to enquiries@proof-reading-service.net and tell us your deadline, format (British English or American English) and style guide (Harvard referencing, Chicago referencing, APA Style, weblink of author instructions of a journal, etc). If no style guide is supplied we correct references to the style that is prevalent in the document and to ensure continuity.

Please note the deadline should be the time and date you need it in your e-mail inbox. The deadline should ideally allow you plenty of time before the due date for submission to respond to any suggestions and recommendations made by the proofreader (this often involves the need to add or complete bibliographical references), as well as to print and bind the document.

As soon as Proof-Reading-Service.net receives your document, we will carry out a word-count in Microsoft Word (Tools --> Word count ….). The indicated word count will be multiplied by the rate that applies to you. For instance, if the word count shows 2,093 words, then 2,093 multiplied by 0.695 pence equals £14.55.

After we have carried out the word count and the calculation we will send you an e-mail confirming the price, deadline, format and style guide. Even if heavy editing is required and we have to spend more time on your document than we anticipated we guarantee that the calculated price will not go up.

Your document is proofread using the ‘track changes’ function of Microsoft Word. This is a standard function installed in most versions of Microsoft Word. This function allows you to move easily between changes and accept any or all of the modifications proposed by the proofreader. Corrections, suggestions and comments are shown in the right-hand margin and are easy to accept into your document.

LaTeX documents can also be proofread. It would help if any unusual style files that you used (e.g. journal, style, sty, tex or ps files) were included. The alterations our proofreader has made will be shown by running the linux command ‘diff’ and piping it (sending the output) to a text file. This will highlight any changes to the text. LaTeX users should understand the output from diff. This special service is not available all the time, so if you require this service, please let us know as soon as possible in advance.

When we have finished proofreading we will return two files to you; a tracked version and a clean version of your proofread document. The tracked version is named as yourfilename_tracked_version and the clean version is named as yourfilename_clean_version. Using our previous example this would be: Andre_Carpenter_02072008_tracked_version and Andre_Carpenter_02072008_clean_version.

The advantage of this method is that in the tracked version of your document you can easily move between the changes the proofreader has made. The clean version is ready to print out and you do not have to type in all the changes yourself. Corrections, suggestions and comments are shown in the right-hand margin of the tracked version. Click on the appropriate file below to see the difference: Andre_Carpenter_02072008_tracked_version or Andre_Carpenter_02072008_clean_version.