Help! Proof-reading a PhD?

[oxcat1]

I should state before I start that this thesis has got to be at the binders for this coming Friday (!!), so this may well influence your answer!

So my PhD (English Literature) is due to be submitted on Tuesday 22nd December, and thus has to be at the binder this Friday, 18th. I'm suddenly panicking about not having had it professionaly proof-read! Friends have read every chapter, but of course I have made minor changes/corrections etc, ever since, and I'm worried I might have accidentally deleted words or something like that.

I don't know how quickly a professional could turn-around a PhD thesis (c. 72,000 words), but do you think it is worth the hassle, panic and expense of employing an emergency professional at this stage, or should I just accept that it's too late now?

I have to confess that I think there are pretty significant problems with the thesis which make a referral the most likely outcome, so pass/fail is not really going to hinge on this, but what would you do?

AAAAGGGGGHHH!

Right - panic over.
Any thoughts?
Thank you.

I think it's too late to find a proof reader.

Can you print the whole thing out and have a really good, slow, read-through? Perhaps read it aloud to yourself.

BTW, if your supervisor is any cop, they wouldn't let you submit if they thought there were serious issues with the thesis, so try not to worry about referral at this stage.

Good luck. And enjoy a lovely PhD-free Christmas.

I am genuinely perplexed as to how you have got this far without having thougght of this already, I really am.

I dunno Moondog, I didn't have a professional proof reader for my thesis, nor have any of the dozens of people I know who have written PhDs ever mentioned this. So I don't think it's THAT odd!

I have a phd in English lit. and 15 years of teaching experience.

I'd be happy to do as much of the work as is feasible...
Do you want to cat me the details and suggest a fee on a chapter by chapter basis and see how far We get through it?

I have examined phds as well.

I had thought about it earlier, but things have not gone at all according to plan over the last few months.

I myself have been admitted to hospital three times since September, and am still working from home with an IV line in my arm and district nurses doing antibiotics just because I refused to go into hospital again with this looming deadline.

On top of this, my supervisor has been ill with swine flu (and, I suspect, a marriage break-down) and thus I had no contact at all from the start of October until just this week.

I know I should have thought of it earlier, but just pulling the whole thing together has felt difficult enough, and I didn't see the point of having it proof-read when I was still making significant rewrites etc etc.

Now I'm even more panicked. My fault for asking, of course.

Will certainly try a very slow read myself. DH has said he'll try and read through it all himself, and friends have looked at it already.

I appreciate that the capital W wasn't very reassuring there. I was trying to balance a baby on my knee but she is bed now.

I can send on my CV to authenticate myself. I'm also v. familiar with critical terms so wouldn't be getting waylaid by those.

My email is tim [no gap] siob [no gap] @ gmail.com

in bed ...

Gah.
You're making me nervous about my writing style.

Lentils - that is so kind, thank you.

Unfortunately I don't have CAT set-up yet(although of course I can do that), and I also have absolutely no idea how much we might be talking for a proof-reader, either you or somebody, as I never really got to this stage (see pathetic reasons given above).

Hmmm.

Enormously kind to offer though. Will get CAT sorted and then come back.

Calm down OP! You can go through it with a fine toothcomb yourself to check for glaring errors but probably worth handing it over to a reasonably educated friend to go through it again to look for grammatical errors and to check punctuation as often once you've read it a few times, it's easy to miss those things.
Doesn't matter that you're probably too late to send it to a professional proofreader now because tbh your PhD supervisor should check it before it's submitted anyway so they ought to spot anything you've missed.
You'll have at least one internal and one external examiner and so if they see any minor typos they will let you know and tell you to change them. Even if they pass you, you may have to rewrite some bits of it.
I really wouldn't worry, check it as much as you can and as long as you've gone through it yourself, any minor errors will either be picked up by your supervisor or the examiners and you will be notified if they require you to change anything.
All the best!

I have no idea about the rates either.

But if you are interested, you could send me your intro or any chapter that is totally ready. I could do it and tot up the time so that we'd have a working idea of how long it would take.

I really enjoy this kind of work and I'm free this evening and for the rest of the week. I'd see it as a contribution to the mn sisterhood as much as a job so just a sum to cover the time involved would be perfect.

I was soooooo calm about it all until tonight. I don't know what's happened - I've just suddenly cracked.

I haven't had an entirely easy ride. Endless health problems of my own [vide above], plus no fewer than 5 (yes, five!) supervisors, for one reason and another: retirement, emigration, sabbatical, nervous break-down, and so on!

Nobody will have read the entire thesis cover to cover before submission, as my supervisor has been out of contact for a while, and is still trying to catch up with stuff. He sent me an email today wishing me good luck, but that's it.

I am expecting minor errors - and to be honest if I can get away with only minor errors I shall be extremely grateful, even if they do need correcting later.

Right - I'll have a walk until I calm down a bit, and then think about all your various suggestions (and offers - thanks Lentils!).

Cheers!

I am a useless proofreader of my own work but this is what I did.

1. Spell check with the corrrect dictionary in your spellchecker. If you are UK based then do not use a US spellchecker and vice versa.

1. Go through every heading and reference check for font size, correct numbering and check they are the same and all included in your contents table.

1. Search for all accidental double spaces between words by using the search function with two spaces typed in the search box.

1. Search for words like 'form' which is a word I typically mis-spell when I mean to type 'from'.

1. Proof read one chapter at a time and take a 2 hour rest after each chapter then give to DH for him to do the same.

1. Let the examiners pick up the other minor errors.

DO save 3 electronic copies in separate places right now just in case your file gets corrupted/lost.

Lentils - have sent you an email, following Moondog's panic-inducing response!

Thank you!

Hi, My DH is an academic who supervises and examines PhDs. He is worried that some of this information is a bit inaccurate.

Main messages:

1. Check the requirements of your own university regarding presentation. It is your responsibility to be in line with these, not your supervisor's.

1. Don't panic. The submission and the viva are just the first steps. If you are passed without corrections, then that's great, but most people have to resubmit after corrections, including tidying up typos. If it is referred, then that is very, very unlikely to be on the basis of proofreading errors alone. In other words - don't panic, pproofing problems are not going to trip you up at this stage.

As one of DH's colleagues always says to students, "It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be submitted".

Break a leg!

Hi oxcat. Just a thought, if Lentils doesn't have time to read the whole thing and/or you want a professional proofreader as well as someone with an academic background, if you go to the website for the Society of Freelance Editors and Proofreaders there is a directory of people who might be able to help (for a fee, of course), even at short notice. You can search on keywords for people's specialisms, and it's a reliable way of getting someone good (I work in publishing and know a lot of the SFEP members). You will probably be looking at paying at least £400, though.

Congratulations on being nearly there !

my dh is also an academic who supervises PhD's and says ditto to ponymum's dh! All the best

Hello,

Thought I should update this thread a little. I've been chatting via email to Lentils and she has extremely generously offered to work through my thesis. She's given me a bargain basement rate, that I feel horribly guilty about, and we've agreed on a donation to charity as well.

My general feeling up to tonight was that a professional proof-reader is not necessary, thus corroborating what namechanger and others have suggested. However, having worked myself into a state about it, I am enormously grateful to Lentils, and from the work she's got back to me already, it looks as though it will be well worth while.

I know that eradicating typos won't help me pass, but if it can put the examiners in a good mood then that can't be a bad thing?!

Thanks for all your suggestions and messages of calming support - I needed them!

I had a spelling mistake on my title page

Was fine

Glad to hear that oxcat - best of luck with the final push!

Glad to hear.

In future, I find working backwards through the document (one paragraph at a time) helps to disrupt the familiarity that blinds you to errors.

When you've been through a document SO many times, I find your brain sees what it expects to be there. Working through it back to front means you see the text that is actually on the page, rather than the version that's in your head.

Hi Oxcat,
Glad you have come to an arrangement with Lentils. I was going to urge you not to pay £400 at any rate!

I didn't get my thesis professionally proofread. Late on a good friend and fellow PhD student read it all and pointed out errors, but I was working on it till 10.30pm the night before it had to go to the binders first thing in the morning, and so there was no way I could have properly proofread all of the final version I submitted. Nevertheless, I passed with minor corrections. If you do end up with minor or even major corrections (and I know several people who've had major corrections and have managed to successfully get the thesis accepted) then you'll have the chance to put this right anyway.

I agree too with Ponymum. Check you have the expected format for everything, as typos are part of being fallible and human, but to not have checked that your institution wants Times New Roman instead of Arial, or whatever, just comes across as not being bothered enough.

I think you're fixating on the possibility of mistakes as part of the very understandable anxiety around submitting. Do your best (or get Lentils to!) and then hand it in and try to relax. You have done brilliantly to get to submission, what with illness and 5 different supervisors! Once it's in, that's the hardest bit over and the bit most people struggle with, as you can always make whatever changes are then required by the external later on.

One (possibly apocryphal) story I was told was that someone got given major corrections because they'd spelled the name of a scholar wrongly throughout their thesis and that scholar turned out to be their external. So if you've referred to your external's work in the thesis, make sure their name is spelled correctly and all else will fall into place...Good luck.

Don't be daft! Nobody is going to fail a PhD thesis because of a couple of typos. It is the content that is important. Worst that could possibly happen is that they would be slightly sniffy in the viva. You'll be fine. Good luck with it all and congrats for submitting!

At my viva the external produced a typed page of all my errors for my attention! Good job I said Oh thanks so much that will really help me, as I ended up with a pass minor revisions, and most of those were typos!! Good luck- trust its done and you can now relax

Can I just say that the thesis is rather wonderful.

My main job has been to offer a colleague's opinion in addition to a few notes on typos.

Oxcat is, I imagine, very tired, but well on the way to being DrOxCat.

Hoorah!!!

Lentils, you are a brick.

Oxcat, sounds like you have done a terrific job under difficult circs.

Slaps on the back all round!