Use of the Chasing Rays Proofreading Service – General Notes

Perhaps not so much terms and conditions, but a few things to bear in mind before sending your documents:

What I Can Do, and What to Expect:

A summary of what I can do for you, depending on your circumstances and requirements, can be found on my news page on what to expect from proofreading.

1. School and Academic Work:

I will at all times consider myself bound by the rules set out by your particular school or academic institution regarding the corrections that third-party proof-readers may undertake. Please consult your institution’s rules in this regard when requesting my services, as these do vary considerably in their specifics. Generally speaking, I will not, under any circumstances, undertake [additional] work for you – I will only make corrections and suggestions. Please do not ask me to complete any part, or the entirety, of your work as I will refuse. Note also that I will not check the correctness of data, equations or code in any academic thesis, dissertation or project. One common factor in academic work is that, ultimately, your institution will require you to take sole responsibility for any work you submit, so please be sure that you are happy with any and all corrections I might make to your work. Please note that you must also take sole responsibility for ensuring that your institution allows proofreading by external entities for any work that contributes towards the award of an undergraduate or postgraduate degree.

2. Private, Non-Profit or Other Non-Academic Entities:

Note that for commercial or other non-academic entities or individuals, where academic or other dishonesty regulations similar to those mentioned in point (1) do not apply, I am happy to undertake any corrections as might be required, including completion of work. Transfer of copyright for such corrections and additions is included in the commercial/private individual fee.

3. Time to Allow Before Your Deadline:

I can comfortably read about 15,000 words per day, and in the normal course of affairs suggest that you allow this time plus an additional two days before your deadline when sending your work. This is to allow you time to look over your corrections, ask any questions and request any minor amendments that might be necessary before your deadline. See point (4), however, for any work required on shorter notice.

4. Short Notice and Emergency Work:

I’m happy to do work on shorter notice than requested in point (3), but this will not generally allow time for you to do more than have a cursory look over your corrections, so I don’t recommend late submission if it can be avoided. I do recognise, though, that late submission is sometimes unavoidable, so there is no extra fee for emergency work. However, whilst I will always do my absolute best to accommodate any such work, in the interests of fairness to other clients and available time, please bear in mind that it may not be possible to undertake work sent to me after the timeframe given in point (3).

5. Proofreading Fee for Commercial Entities:

My standard fee is £10 to the nearest 1000 words with a £10 minimum charge for commercial entities, for which I include corrections to spelling, grammar, punctuation and other typographical issues. Sentence and paragraph rearrangement, formatting, stylistic changes, and completion of work are also included where necessary, either for clarity or as requested. Current prices can be found on my current pricing page. I will also include additional commentary on your English and project material (for example, suggestions, where I think an argument is weak, where possible references might be included, etc.) wherever possible, and minor amendments (see point (8) below).

6. Discounted Fee for Students and Academics:

I operate a 50% discount to the standard fee and minimum charge given in point (5) for schools and academia. All items mentioned in point (5) that are allowed within the bounds expressed in point (1) are included in the discounted fee. Current prices can be found on my current pricing page.

7. Fees for Other Entities:

My charge for professional writers is £7 to the nearest 1000 words, with a £7 minimum fee. Charges to all other individuals will be considered on an ad hoc basis, depending on purpose; please contact me for further details.

8. Minor Amendments:

On occasion, I do come across confusing or ambiguous sections of text that I am unable to place in context, and therefore cannot easily correct. These will be commented on as such in your documents, and can be corrected (according to points (1) or (2), as appropriate) as part of your fee at a later time, pending further clarification on your part.

9. Word Count:

Your word count does not include acknowledgements, dedications, other preamble not directly related to the thesis/dissertation/project body, tables of contents, lists of figures, lists of tables, tables, equations, indexes, or references. Included in the word count are abstract, headers and body text of chapters, any and all table and figure captions, appendices (unless specifically requested otherwise), discussion and conclusions. Note that this list is not necessarily exhaustive, and I may or may not charge for other text at my discretion, though I will undertake to inform you first if I intend to charge.

10. Document Formats Accepted:

I am currently equipped to correct all types of LaTeX (.tex, .txt), Lyx (.lyx), Word (.doc, .docx, .rtf) , Powerpoint (.ppt, .pptx), OpenDocument (.odt) and compressed (.zip, .zipx, .rar, .gzip) formats. Whilst I should be able to accommodate documents in other formats, please contact me for further advice if you are not using the above. You can get more information in my post about acceptable file formats.

11. Disputing Word Counts and/or Charges:

Whilst I do my utmost to ensure an accurate word count, I appreciate that various methods of obtaining such counts vary by method, particularly for LaTeX-type documentation. If you are unsure about any of my charges, or wish to dispute them, please contact me before the due date of the invoice.

12. Invoicing and Payment Methods:

Payment is initially requested via an electronic invoice sent to your email, which contains easy links to complete payment; note that you do NOT need to be registered with PayPal, or indeed any of the other services used in Chasing Rays payment portal, to be able to complete payment. Occasionally, the electronic invoice method can prove difficult, in which case I will also do payment by BACS. If the latter becomes necessary, I will send my BACS details on request. You can get more detailed information about the above on my online payment methods page.

13. Time Allowed Before Payment is Requested:

Please note that I generally allow up to 10 days after the return of your documents to make payment (which I will extend on request), and will never send an invoice without having first returned your corrections.

14. Graphic, Distressing and Offensive Images:

As part of academic discourse, I recognise that it is sometimes necessary to include images that people may find distressing. Chasing Rays policy in this regard is that I be appraised of the inclusion of such images in advance and be given an idea of their nature, and that you consider if their inclusion is absolutely necessary. You can get more detailed information about the above on my page on the inclusion of potentially graphic, distressing, or offensive images.

15. Right to Refuse or Return Work:

On very rare occasions, the quality of the work that I have been sent is of such poor quality that it would be pointless to start or complete corrections due to the extensive work that is still needed for your document. Should this be the case, I reserve the right to return your document either unstarted or with an incomplete set of corrections; in either instance, no charge will be made. Please see my post on the right to return or refuse work either incomplete or unstarted for further details.