What is academic proof-editing?

Ever wondered what academic copy-editing and proofreading (proof-editing) involve?

Here are some recent tweaks I made to academic papers.

I've broken them down into types of edit:

ʟɪᴛᴇʀᴀʟ = correcting a literal error (arguably an essential change)

ʟɪᴛᴇʀᴀʟ (ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴀ Qᴜᴇʀʏ) = where I've changed it but flagged it up throughout and queried it in case I have misunderstood the concept

ʟɪᴛᴇʀᴀʟ/ꜱᴛʏʟᴇ = where the line between a literal error and a style choice is thin

ꜱᴛʏʟᴇ = more of a style choice

ꜱɴɪᴘ = removing fluff (wordiness)

ᴇɴʜᴀɴᴄᴇᴍᴇɴᴛ = non-essential, could argue against it, but nonetheless an enhancement

Ready?

🎯 ʟɪᴛᴇʀᴀʟ 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓉𝓊𝒷𝑒 ➡ YouTube

🎯 ʟɪᴛᴇʀᴀʟ theses margins ➡ these margins (AI couldn't see this one because it doesn't grasp context 😂)

🎯 ʟɪᴛᴇʀᴀʟ ; ➡ : (to introduce a list)

🎯 ʟɪᴛᴇʀᴀʟ Checked that serial commas were consistent (it's a US English paper)

🎯 ʟɪᴛᴇʀᴀʟ Flagged up some rogue source cues¹ for conversion to author-date references

🎯 ʟɪᴛᴇʀᴀʟ inexistent ➡ non-existent

🎯 ʟɪᴛᴇʀᴀʟ Created spacing consistency in formulas, for example p < 0.05 throughout (not a mixture of p < 0.05 and p<0.05)

🎯 ʟɪᴛᴇʀᴀʟ exeption ➡ exception

🎯 ʟɪᴛᴇʀᴀʟ (ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴀ Qᴜᴇʀʏ) system knowledge ➡ systems knowledge

🎯 ʟɪᴛᴇʀᴀʟ/ꜱᴛʏʟᴇ Chi-Squared test ➡ chi-squared or chi-square test

🎯 ʟɪᴛᴇʀᴀʟ/ꜱᴛʏʟᴇ Standardized Root Mean Square Residual ➡ standardized root mean square residual

🎯 ʟɪᴛᴇʀᴀʟ/ꜱᴛʏʟᴇ Changed single to double quote marks (rather than a mixture)

🎯 ꜱᴛʏʟᴇ Changed spaced en dashes to non-spaced em dashes (for US English)

🎯 ꜱᴛʏʟᴇ Changed non-spaced hyphens to non-spaced en dashes in date ranges, for example 2009–2014 (not 2009-2024)

🎯 ꜱᴛʏʟᴇ Standardised table and figure headings and sub-headings

🎯 ꜱɴɪᴘ "However, on the one hand, knowledge predicted...; and, on the other hand, the effect was mediated..." ➡ "However, while knowledge predicted..., the effect was mediated...".

🎯 ꜱɴɪᴘ"In addition, they also..." ➡ "They also..."

🎯 ᴇɴʜᴀɴᴄᴇᴍᴇɴᴛ high school students ➡ high-school students (to remove any doubts about the school students being high on an illegal substance 🤣)

¹ Instead of using notes, sources are cited directly in the text.

Not sure what level of tweak you need? Get in touch and I'll do it for you.

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Whether you’re working on a blog post, a business report or an academic paper, small details like punctuation and word choice can make a big difference to your writing. If you found this post helpful, you’ll find more practical tips on grammar, punctuation and writing in my other blogs. Or feel free to get in touch if you need professional support.