Proofreading Services
What Is Proofreading/Why Proofreading Service?
Proofreading services essentially help polishing your work to conform to standard scientific language and literature. Incorrect grammar, spelling and punctuation in a prose could harm the very idea we are trying to convey in many ways. For instance, the punctuation (on which many people do not pay sufficient attention) in a sentence plays very important role in giving intended meaning to the language. Use of incorrect mark of punctuation or even wrong placement of the same can change the meaning of the sentence completely and sometimes even make the sentence to complete nonsense. For instance, Czar Alexander the third had once sentenced a man to death penalty by writing on the warrant – “Pardon impossible, to be sent to Siberia”. His wife, Czarina Maria, saved the life of the man, by changing the position of comma with “Pardon, impossible to be sent to Siberia”. Authorities set the man free. Hence the comma or for that matter the punctuation is vital in a sentence in such a way that it can completely upset the meaning we intend to communicate. Wrong placement of comma can give different meaning to sentence depending upon where it is placed. A document which is correct, cohesive, and in an easily readable format is always a delightful read.
Importance Of Grammer And Flow Of The Manuscript
Grammatical errors could adversely affect the manuscript which could propagate wrong ideas unintended by the author/authors to the audience. Manuscripts with many inappropriate word choices and grammatical errors met with high rejection rate. The journal editors/thesis evaluators/project reviewers/book editors while going through document/manuscript the first point coming to their attention is the poor language. It is highly likely that they might get prejudiced against the manuscript solely due to this reason. Moreover, this would impact the decision on the manuscript adversely.
The flow of the manuscript is essentially an indicator of the language proficiency of the authors and meticulous arrangement of the sentences would render finesse to the work flow. A prose should be written as seamlessly as possible to carry out the intended communication of their ideas flawlessly. Clarity of thought would easily get reflected equally well in the piece that is written.
Accuracy Of Mathematical And Statistical Content
Another important aspect of proofreading services is to check the accuracy of mathematical and statistical content of manuscripts from the area of engineering and sciences. Checking the accuracy of mathematics involves constant interaction with the author/authors so that the correctness of expressions and terms are exactly verified. The symbolic representation is another point to noticed here as is the mathematical terminology. For instance, the mathematical device called vectors are represented by bold-face letters while their magnitudes are denoted by the same letter but in normal font. Mathematical notations are another important aspect of the documents from applied sciences. Apt, contextual and correct notations (as well as customary and universally accepted notations) for mathematical operations are to be ensured.
Researchers Play A Role
Researchers who made pioneering contributions in the field needs to be acknowledged while mentioning their work directly or indirectly by citing their original work in our manuscript. Thus references used in the manuscript needs to be properly placed and the authors make it sure that the manuscript did not miss any of them. The formatting of references and the correctness of details viz., the volume number, year of publication, page number/article number and sometimes the doi (digital object identifier) are to be double checked. (Most of the journals insist to include the DOI name which facilitate easy identification and subsequent navigation to the exact online location of the digital copy of the published article). The references need to be formatted according to the requirement of the targeted journal to which the article is submitted (or according to the standard adopted by the universities or institutions in the case of PhD/MS dissertations/theses or the formats acceptable to funding agencies in the case of project proposals).
Coherence And Consistancy
Coherence and consistency is another important point to be kept in mind while preparing a good article. Articles need to properly structured with logical sequencing in presenting different sections (either with section headings in usual full-length article formats or without section headings in the case of letters or short communications). For instance, a suitable Introduction section, with adequate and relevant references to the important previous and current literature, would be a good commencement to the article, followed by the description of the exact work the authors want the readers to be aware of. Results and discussion and conclusions and inferences from the results and the work needs to be elaborated before the references are presented. There could be a brief statement or (sometimes a paragraph) at end of the Introduction section devoted to the nature of work presented in the subsequent pages.
As individuals, we are able to introspect and get awareness about common mistakes we commit during the preparation of the manuscript. While proofreading services our editors and reviewers would get hold of such mistakes, and are able to suggest amendments and corrections thanks to their years of experience in handling manuscripts and scientific literature for so long either as reviewers or as readers and writers.
Spelling Matters
Spell-checkers available with word processing software could be helpful, but should be discreetly and intelligently used while proofreading scientific literature. For instance, while we mistakenly write homonyms (Homonyms can be words that sound the same but have different meanings) such as “course” instead of “coarse”, “filed” instead of “field”, etc., the entire meaning of the statement go astray. This kind of misspelling could not be detected in the spell checker as wrong words are “not wrong” in their spelling though the meaning has become a nightmare. Also, spellings and technical terminology need to be aligned with the journal’s requirement. That a set of journals mostly published from the US would prefer the authors write the article in American English
spelling. Most of the other English journals prefer us to stick on to the British English spellings. A journal specific spellcheck thus is necessary to perfect the manuscript. Thus the spell checker should be used with utmost care in this case.
Conclusion
An article or dissertation or proposal which would conform to the above mentioned standards should be seriously handled at the editorial desk and get serious consideration so that the chances of rejection on the grounds of language and consistency are kept at a minimum.
