Academic proofreading
and editing.
Editing that helps you achieve your career goals.
Researching and writing up your ideas is part and parcel of academic life. Crucially, your writing must balance plain, concise language with field-specific terms. It must also convey authority – all in a tone and voice adapted to your readers.
More than error-free, your text must be impeccably presented, formatted and referenced. And it’s vital your argument structure is coherent and persuasive.
This is where we step in.
the editing specialists.
We’re a specialist agency founded and operated by an award-winning academic. No one understands how important publication and funding success is to academics and their institutions like we do.
Our standards are unrivalled, and our editing expertise includes fields like medicine, finance, engineering, law, theology, business, psychology, natural and social sciences, ICT and more.
With our decade-long industry knowledge and experience in academic writing, publishing and editing, we know what it takes to make your work the best it can be, giving you the edge in academic success.
the
premium
copyedit.
This service is designed for academics and researchers whose work isn’t yet copyedited and needs a fine-detailed review before submission or publication.
At love words editing, our comprehensive copyedit service aims to vastly improve the overall quality of your writing. You can be confident the detailed edit we perform at this level will ensure precision and clarity in your subject matter by eliminating wordiness and clunky sentences and querying unclear arguments or information.
What does our copyediting include?
What we do.
everything in our basic proofread — grammar, punctuation & spelling
+ we
✓ check sentence structure and enhance readability
✓ ensure an academic tone and voice
✓ tighten up prose to ensure readability where necessary
✓ keep your writing clear, concise and consistent, including tables and figures to ensure best use, placement and formatting (if needed)
✓ follow the publisher’s style guide & formatting guidelines
✓ offer feedback and suggestions on your writing style.
What you get.
✓ complete copyedit via Track Changes
✓ clean copy with changes incorporated
✓ dynamic table of contents or list of figures/tables (on request)
✓ helpful comments + feedback
✓ custom style sheet + editorial report
What is not included:*
✗ major revisions to overall structure or organisation
✗ extensive reformatting or rewriting
✗ source missing elements in your reference list or bibliography (we’ll alert you to any instances)
*We offer this in our heavy copyediting service.
What are the benefits of academic copyediting services?
Get the benefit of a fresh pair of eyes.
Beyond catching typos even the best spellcheckers miss, professional editing ensures the message in your writing is clear and concise before you submit or publish. It helps you improve the clarity, flow and logic of your text.
Editing ensures a cohesive voice.
For longer or multi-authored material, our specialist academic editors will help you say what you really mean. You know it, and we know it: texts do better after editing when submitted to top-tier journals.
Technical jargon hampers writing.
We can help eliminate ‘technicalese’ or transform your technical language into a concise, simplified and easy-to-understand text to suit any audience.
Editing helps reduce the word count.
Exceeded the word count for your article, abstract, manuscript or grant application? Not to worry.
Our specialist editors can refine, reorganise or restructure your content to reduce the word count and meet all editorial/funding body guidelines and instructions.
Deadlines stop you focusing on your content.
Leave the finicky editing and formatting to us. Our specialist editors will expertly apply any academic journal’s specific layout and formatting requirements, saving you stress and valuable time. We even craft perfect cover letters, increasing your chance of acceptance.
Smooth, clear writing that’s easy to read!
Our comprehensive copyedit will smooth out issues of repetition and redundancy to free your writing from unnecessary distractions for readers and reviewers.
Our skilled academic editors will offer helpful advice on your document’s organisation to improve its logic, flow and readability.
We hunt down and highlight structural and content problem areas like the organisation and transition of paragraphs or chapters.
the
perfect
proofread.
This is for you if you have already completed a copyedit, or your writing is polished and almost ready for publication, peer review or submission to your university, research centre, funding board, journal or university press.
All you need is one last set of professionally trained eyes to check over your writing and eliminate formatting, spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. You know the ones; they creep in no matter how many times you read or re-read your work.
Rates start at A$35
What does our proofreading include?
What we do.
✓ fix grammar, punctuation & spelling errors
✓ ensure a professional tone and vocabulary
✓ identify passages that may need clarifying
✓ keep your writing clear, concise and consistent
✓ leave comments with helpful feedback on writing style.
What you get.
✓ complete copyedit via Track Changes
✓ clean copy with changes incorporated
✓ helpful comments + feedback
What is not included:*
✗ improvements to style or clarity
✗ extensive reformatting
✗ reference cross-checking and formatting.
✗ dynamic headings, captions, table of contents, figures or appendices
✗ sourcing missing elements in your reference list or bibliography.
*We offer this in our premium & heavy copyediting services.
Consistency increases trust in what you have to say.
We know consistency is key in academic writing—whether in voice, terminology, presentation, language or style.
That’s why we’ve made it the hallmark of our professional editorial services. Our every effort goes into identifying and fixing hard-to-spot inconsistencies in language, punctuation, lists, numerals, symbols, measurements and so on.
And whatever referencing style you use, our expert editors guarantee consistent, accurate and perfectly formatted references.
Elevate your research impact with professional editing.
Looking to publish your findings in a high-impact journal? Putting the final touches on a conference or research paper? You book proposal is accepted by a major press and needs a polish before sending it for peer review? Need to ensure your co-authored report keeps a consistent voice throughout? Finished your grant proposal and want to give it that flawless, competitive edge?
The specialist editorial team at love words editing understands impact is the currency of research.
Elevate the visibility, impact and credibility of your research through our premium editing service. We ensure the hard work you’ve put into your research is as impactful as possible. We deliver error-free, polished documents of the highest quality with accurate referencing.
Rates start at A$50
What is heavy editing? And do I need it?
The core levels of editing—proofreading, copyediting and heavy (structural or content) editing—are defined by the peak bodies of professional editors globally.
Heavy editing differs copyediting (fine-detailed editing for correctness, clarity, accuracy and consistency) and proofreading (the final, quality control edit).
‘Bigger picture’ editing is the best way to describe heavy editing.
A text’s overall content, style or structure are improved through significant restructuring, rewriting and/or word reduction.
Note: to comply with IPEd’s Guidelines for editing research theses we do not offer substantive editing for doctoral or master’s theses.
the
heavy
edit.
This service is designed for academics who need a ‘big picture’ assessment of their work or a significant word count reduction.
Is your writing generally pretty close to where you want it to be but could do with enhancing or some serious content refinement?
Is what you want to say clear? Is it organised in a way that makes sense and is easy to follow? Are there any gaps in logical flow or deficient transitions between paragraphs, sections or chapters? Is your data sufficiently supported through your arguments?
We know these questions are at the forefront of academics’ and researchers’ minds when publishing their writing. The same goes for our editors as they review your work from beginning to end!
Our heavy editing service is a step beyond correcting errors and inconsistencies or querying general information to improve clarity and accuracy.
Our professional editors will offer detailed suggestions on how to improve the overall structure, content or organisation in your writing, including the message you wish to convey to readers.
Substantive editing is especially helpful to those who have taken on the challenge of transforming their thesis into a monograph. It is also perfect for multi-authored works: we ensure that any edited volume, collection or textbook maintains a single authorial voice and consistency in presentation throughout.
Rates start at A$90
What’s included in the heavy edit?
What we do.
Everything in the premium copyedit+
✓ substantive organisational changes, as required
✓ substantive structural changes, as required
✓ detailed suggestions for adding or improving content
✓ identify areas requiring further support, e.g., data, claims, statements, transition signals
✓ extensive word count reduction, as required
✓ fact-checking
✓ adapt the language, style and presentation to suit the manuscript’s intended purpose and audience
✓ comprehensive reference check, e.g., we check URLs for broken links and source missing elements in the reference list/bibliography.
What you get.
✓ complete copyedit via Track Changes
✓ feedback via inline comments
✓ clean copy with changes incorporated
✓ Table of Contents or List of Figures/Tables/Abbreviations (if applicable)
✓ style sheet reflecting the editorial style and formatting standards applied throughout
✓ custom editorial report.
What our clients are saying.
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‘LOVE WORDS is the Centre for Western Sydney’s preferred, go-to copyediting service. The Centre engages Abi for comprehensive edits and reviews of our major research reports and publications. Abi has copyedited a range of publications for the Centre, including the impactful ‘Paying the price: Gambling-related harm’ issues paper and our keystone report for 2023, ‘State of the Arts in Western Sydney’. The Centre for Western Sydney is Western Sydney University’s leading source of authority in its region, delivering research outputs with academic rigour and integrity. When LOVE WORDS works with us, we are confident our documents and materials are of the highest-quality standard for our communities and stakeholders. Abi is always prompt, professional and a pleasure to work with, and her recommendations and edits are thorough, detailed and insightful’.
Danielle McInness, Centre Manager, Centre for Western Sydney
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‘The editors at Love Words Editing are prompt, professional and effective. They partner with me on all my projects and actively engage in conversations to help improve my writing while editing my work. And the extra time and care taken never results in higher costs, as my editors are always so efficient in their work. My manuscripts have been published in top-ranked university press and journals, thanks to Love Words Editing’s excellent proofreading and copyediting skills’.
— Dr Aim Sinpeng, Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics, University of Sydney
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‘I submitted my dissertation last night, thank you again for your wonderful service. I have added a bit extra on the invoice—you deserve it after so much hard work!’
— Saimum Parvaz, Senior Lecturer, North-South University, Dhaka.
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‘My editor at Love Words was very professional, I was amazed by their work! The turnaround on the thesis was super fast, and my emails were always answered promptly. Their English was accurate and academic. I can’t recommend them highly enough to others like me who are ESL researchers; thank you!’
— L.S., Sociology Honours Graduate, Sydney, Australia.
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‘I work regularly with the team at Love Words Editing. I really appreciate their efforts, which included very helpful corrections and suggestions to improve my writing! I’ve had great success with publishing my work in high-quality journals thanks to their professionalism and accuracy in formatting and referencing’.
— Dr Ye Xue, Research Associate, University of Sydney.
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‘Love Words Editing helped me copyedit my PhD thesis. As an international researcher, I needed someone to help edit my work without changing its meaning—the results were what I expected and beyond. I especially want to underscore the efficiency and timeliness of my editor's work and willingness to help me with the rush of getting everything ready before the submission deadline. Finally, communicating with them was always so fast and easy!’
— Dr Javier Recabarren Silva, Researcher in Political Economy, Universidad de Desarrollo, Chile.
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‘Thank you so much for your expert editing and support throughout this textbook project. I absolutely love the formatting and structure. And I’m confident it will benefit and inspire future Year 12 students!’
Khaled Itaoui, Co-Founder & Director, Huntmaster Pty Ltd
