Academic

Journal papers, articles, dissertation and thesis editing

Writing academic content is a bit like Marmite: you either love it or you hate it. The guidelines for writing dissertations, theses and journal papers are quite explicit, which ought to make writing these documents easy. But a lot of people find it difficult to write good papers - I should know, I spent 7 years at university where my submissions would repeatedly be returned from the editor or my supervisor covered in red ink. By the fourth year of my PhD I had acquired the skill and indeed, was a peer-reviewer for several of the major journals in the remote sensing field.

Editors in the academic arena are notoriously strict on content - factually and stylistically - since articles are concerned with presenting new information and findings rather than telling a story. Whilst a well written article will tell a story, there is very little room for artistic license, since the quality of the work presented in the article will be merited on the quality of the paper and a poorly written paper will quickly be discredited, irrespective of the value of the work.

In academic writing, an article must:
  • be accurate and consistent
  • be clear, concise and relevant
  • provide sufficient detail without becoming wordy
  • be well organised and logical, with an obvious flow from one section to another
  • acknowledge similar work and reference all external sources
  • back up any claims with appropriate evidence
  • be of value to its field

I have many years' experience in writing for academia and I can assist with your journal paper, undergraduate dissertation and PhD thesis. My PhD was highly technical with a large computer science and statistical component but even if your subject is completely unrelated I can still help, since a well-written paper or dissertation will make sense to anybody who reads it, even if they don't understand the maths or science behind it. Indeed, a fresh and impartial set of eyes can provide a new and previously unconsidered viewpoint.

Next steps: