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I have been using some online proofreader tools for checking for grammar issues in my writing, but I have found that the solutions they give are not so good at all. For that reason I would like to know any human-proofreader service that somebody could recommend me. Some of the characteristics of the service that I am requiring are:

  • Not so expensive
  • Confidentiality, I do not want my article to end up published by somebody else
  • Reliable

Could anybody has experience with those services and could recommend me one? I need to review an article asap

Thanks

Layla
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  • Which tools have you found lacking? Some colleagues have had success using wordy.com, I think it was. – Mike A. May 02 '14 at 13:55
  • There are many commercial services available expressly for scientific (sometimes domain specific) proofreading (even translation too). Your target journal may even link to some which would be some indication of quality. –  May 02 '14 at 13:59
  • Usually professional services don't satisfy the "not so expensive" criterion. If you have a tight budget, maybe there are students at your institution who are willing to do quality work on such a budget. Have you considered that? – Not Quite An Outsider May 02 '14 at 16:38
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    I wonder in what part of academia you are working in which a proofreader stealing your paper is something that has ever happened, let alone something to take into account when choosing a proofreading service? – Pete L. Clark May 02 '14 at 17:25

2 Answers2

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Have you tried getting the proofreading done within your own university? This is not made explicit in your question, but my guess is that you are not a native speaker of English and you are writing in English. If you are attending an anglophone university there will probably be places where you can just show up and get help on proofreading your paper (the humanities version of drop-in tutoring). So I'm assuming that you are not attending an anglophone university. But at (almost?) any university there should be faculty and students who are working on English writing specifically. Can you find a student who is willing to help you? Perhaps you may even be able to offer some other academic service to the student in exchange.

Pete L. Clark
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It is generally not worth to use a paid commercial proofreading service, as a typical translator (unless clearly specialized in this area) does not know the necessary scientific style and terminology.

Once my laboratory relied on fully translating the article into English by the paid translations service, assuming, professionals do better. The received comment from the editor sounded "do not write English text yourself, ask somebody to do this for you". Wise.

Pay attention to grammar when reading articles and try follow the style. Most likely, nothing can do much better than you yourself. Also, the idea to ask the English department of your university seems very good.

algorithmic_fungus
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