I am an Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd) accredited editor, specialising in academic documents (e.g. journal articles, theses, books and book chapters, grant proposals, etc.).  I also have experience in editing creative writing (e.g. short stories, novels) and nonfiction (e.g. books on finance, HR, personal development).

Please get in touch via editor@tinamorganella.com or +61 408 732 468 for a chat and more information, or feel free to connect via LinkedIn

FAQs

Q. What sort of editing do you do? 

I generally offer two types of editing – a copy/line edit or proofreading. A copy edit involves checking your grammar, punctuation, spelling, tone, expression, clarity, consistency and succinctness. I’m reading your document at a sentence/paragraph level so while I’m also looking for any repetition and general flow, I don’t offer a structural edit. A structural edit involves giving feedback on the document as a whole and how, for example, information could be better organised.

A proofread should occur towards the end of your document journey, when you’re almost ready to hit print or submit. At this point, I’m looking for any stray errors, consistency, problems with layout or formatting. This is a close reading – there should be no major grammar or punctuation issues at this stage of the document.

Q. How do you edit a document?

A. Usually, you send through a Microsoft Word document so that I can use Track Changes to offer suggestions, changes, corrections and comments, but I can work with other mediums if necessary. It’s then your responsibility to either accept or reject those changes and produce a clean document. It’s a good idea for your document to go through at least two passes – the first should be a copy edit and the second should be a proofread. Time and/or budget restrictions often mean that a document only goes through one round of copy editing. This process catches the majority of errors and is usually acceptable to journals and thesis examiners.

Q. What resources do you use?

A. For Australian documents (especially theses being submitted to Australian universities) I use resources such as the Macquarie Dictionary and the Australian Government Style Manual to make all decisions. Decisions might include, for example, whether or not to hyphenate a word, how to present numbers and dates, whether to use sentence or title case in headings, or how to format bullet lists. If you’re working to a specific style guide (for example, when submitting to a particular journal), I would copy edit your work to those specifications.

Q. How long does it take?

A. Every text is different and everyone’s writing ability is different, therefore I can give you a broad guestimate, but I’ll be able to give you a better idea once I’ve seen a sample of your work. As a very rough guide, an 8,000 word journal article might take 2 to 5 hours, and a 80,000 word thesis could take anything from 20 to 35 hours for a copy edit only, depending on your requirements. It’s best to book well in advance – up to 2 to 3 months ahead for a thesis, and around 1 to 3 weeks for a journal article.

Q. Will you check referencing?

A. Clean referencing is critical for academic documents. I can check that your in-text citations match your reference list and vice versa, and I can also format your list to a particular style (for example Harvard or APA). This task is quite time consuming though, and is not included in the time estimates provided above for copy editing.

Q. How much notice do you need?

A. The longer the lead time the better (see note above), but I can occasionally accommodate short and urgent deadlines.

Q. What sort of documents can you check?

A. My expertise is in academic documents, but I have copy edited a range of texts. These include book chapters, books, peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers, conference proceedings, technical reports, honours and PhD theses, short stories, novels and newspaper articles.

Q. What do you need to know to provide a quote?

A. It will depend on the document type, but generally I’ll need to know the word count and due date to start with. If it’s an academic document, I’ll need to know if you need me to check referencing too, and whether you’re working to a specific style guide or manuscript requirements. To provide the most accurate estimate, it’s best if you can provide a sample from the document. That will help me judge the extent of copy editing required. All documents are treated with absolute discretion and confidentiality, whether you decide to go ahead or not.

Q. Do we need to meet in person? What if I live overseas or interstate?

A. I am based in Adelaide, South Australia. If you’re local, I’m more than happy to meet up for a chat. But I have edited documents for clients from across the globe, including Kosovo, Italy, Germany, Mauritius, USA, Indonesia, Hong Kong and several other countries. Many of these clients I have never had the good fortune to meet in person, but we’ve developed trust and rapport via email, Zoom and WhatsApp chats.

Q. What are your fees?

A. I think it’s fair to only bill you for the time it takes to complete your work, so I charge an hourly rate instead of a per document or per word rate. When you’re completely happy with your document, I send you an invoice for that amount (with a 14 day term) which you can pay via several methods (including EFT, PayPal and credit card). Please get in touch to get an accurate and individual quote.