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You should choose me to proofread your document if the following characteristics describe you:

• You want a proofreader who will value your work and respect your academic integrity.
• You want a proofreader who focuses on a quality service rather than a lightning-fast turnaround.
• You have prepared your document well and can afford to wait for a high-quality job to be done.
• You prefer a personal approach and wish to be able to contact your proofreader if necessary.
• You like the idea of receiving a retrospective 10% discount for every referral you make that results in a new customer for me.

Rather than tell you how meticulous, detail-orientated and pedantic I am – those are just basic proofreader prerequisites – let me say I think you will be pleasantly surprised if you engage me to proofread your document.

I have reviewed documents for a wide range of clients (from master’s and doctoral students to entrepreneur CEOs, software companies, engineers and professors) with a correspondingly wide range of writing abilities. Some documents have been well written and correspondingly easy to read; others have needed more time for corrections and comments.

However, there has been one common theme running through all my proofreading: all writing – even the best – benefits from the ‘fresh eyes’ of a third-party reviewer. I have often surprised myself when looking back through a clearly well-written document that I have just proofread to see how many corrections and suggested modifications there are.

Based on my proofreading and editing experience, I am confident that even the most proficient of writers will benefit from my services. My technical and business background and my wider reading interests enable me to proofread with precision documents written on topics as wide ranging as social media, culture, economics, business, management, chemistry and engineering of all disciplines.

I have come from a professional engineering career, where my ability with words stood out, and have brought into my writing career the same professionalism and ethics that was required to operate as a Chartered Engineer. You can count on my professional integrity to uphold your academic integrity.

You may have heard of me and my work by word of mouth, by referral from a satisfied customer. My goal is to have most of my work come to me in that manner. And for you to refer me to your colleagues, as well. (I think you’ll like my referral scheme.)

I have a reputation to uphold. For me, it’s personal. Trust me.

Unlike some other providers, I don’t provide a quotation without having first seen your document. This gives me the chance to assess your writing and estimate the time needed to do the work. In my experience, some documents simply need more attention than others.

And attention means time.

See my ‘Instant Ballpark estimate’ tool to get an indication of the likely price and turnaround time.

I am not able to give you a firm fee proposal until I see your document and any requirements you may have.

Payment for work done by Rollin Kennedy | Word Engineer is currently made via PayPal. As soon as I can see that payment has been made into the PayPal account, the clock starts ticking and you can expect me to start proofreading your document.

1. Upload your document safely to our server and fill out the fields in the submission form. (Thesis/dissertation authors: be sure to include a link to your institution’s rules for third-party proofreading.) Then click ‘Submit’.

2. I will return within 12–24 hours (if not sooner) with an email containing fee quotation, expected delivery date and time, and an invoice.

3. If you accept my quotation, reply by email to let me know. An email conversation containing: (1) my quotation, and (2) your acceptance of that quotation, will serve as the contract between you and me.

4. Upon receipt of funds in the Word Engineer PayPal account, I will commence work on your document. (Delayed payment will affect delivery of the proofread document.)

5. Before the agreed deadline, I will email you a Word document with tracked changes and comments showing my corrections, modifications, recommendations and comments, plus a mini-report summarising the work done.

6. If you are happy with my work, please tell others. First, follow the link on my email and let me know. Then, please recommend me to your colleagues and others you know will benefit. There’s a 10% retrospective discount in it for you for every successful referral.

7. If you’re not happy with my work, please tell me. Follow the link on my email and give me the details.

8. Book in a reminder to engage me for your next document.

You’ll receive a Word document which uses the Track Changes function and comment boxes to show corrections and recommended modifications. You will then be able to consider each correction, recommendation, or comment before deciding whether to accept or ignore it.

For reasons of academic integrity, a thesis/dissertation document will have more recommendations and comments in the margin compared to a journal article, which is likely to have more in-text corrections and modifications.

I don’t provide a blanket ‘if you’re unhappy with my work in any way, I’ll give you all your money back’ promise, for two reasons:

1. Based on the feedback I have received from clients I am almost 100% confident that you will be very happy with my service.

2. Actually, that is the main reason. If you do have concerns after receiving a proofread document from Rollin Kennedy | Word Engineer, please contact me with details, and if your claim is reasonable, we will come to an agreement.

When you upload your document and submit it for a quote, your document will be kept safe and secure.

If an engagement does not eventuate, Word Engineer will ensure all files are deleted shortly after confirmation of that fact.

If you engage Word Engineer, your document will be treated with confidentiality and will be deleted from the system and editor email accounts one month after you have received your proofread document from us.

No, I won’t.

I don’t do ‘lightning-fast’. I leave that to others, who will charge you for the privilege of a rushed job. 48 hours, 24 hours, 12 hours – I think there’s even a provider who will do it for you in 9 hours.

If, however, you want a high-quality job done for a reasonable price, then I want to be your proofreader.

Give me at least three days to proofread your document. And if your wordcount exceeds 10,000, allow another day for every additional 5,000 words.

Absolutely.

If you are a thesis/dissertation author, send me a link to your institution’s style guide and I’ll proofread your document in accordance with the guide.

If you are a journal article author, send me a link to the requirements of the journal to which you’ll be submitting your document, and I’ll work to those rules.

I you don’t specify a style, I will proofread your document to ensure internal consistency.

Absolutely.

In fact, I strongly encourage you to point me to your institution’s rules, so that I can ensure my work does not compromise the integrity of the document and your authorship thereof. As part of the process, you will be asked to upload the relevant document or provide a URL that will take me to it.

In any case, if you don’t provide me information about your university’s rules, I will still undertake my work with your academic integrity front of mind. I will use the rules of my alma mater (The University of Auckland, New Zealand) as a general guide.

No.

I can check that your citations and references are in accordance with your required style, and I can check that each citation has a matching entry in the reference section (and vice versa). However, if wholesale changes are required, I’ll let you know.

If the absence of a specified formatting style, my review will focus on internal consistency.

In short, you do your work, and I’ll do mine.

In my experience, a good proofreader is a ‘natural’ when it comes to words. That may manifest in such a person being the company wordsmith, to whom colleagues will gravitate with requests for proofreading of emails, reports, and other documents. At home, and in social company, that same person may be accused of being the ‘grammar police’, and the kind of person who can’t help but identify typos, whatever the medium.

And, finally, a good proofreader is probably an avid reader with a wide reading repertoire (technical, non-technical, fiction, nonfiction) who feels privileged to be paid to read.