Question 1

Can you format my document without proofreading it?

Accepted Answer

Absolutely! We’re fantastic at formatting and would love to make your document look as great as it reads. Simply add our formatting service at checkout and provide details of your formatting needs when prompted after payment.
You can see more information on our formatting services page.

Question 2

I am not happy with the formatting. Can you redo it?

Accepted Answer

With our formatting service, we aim to work to your exact instructions. In the absence of specific instructions, we work to an in-house formatting guide and focus on making sure your document is clear, consistent, and readable.
If you feel that the formatting applied does not match the instructions or style guide you provided, let us know and we will investigate the problem.

Question 3

I have made some changes to my document. Can you look at my work again?

Accepted Answer

Of course! You have a couple of options here:

Submit the whole document again and we will edit it at a 30% discounted rate.
Highlight the sections you have changed and submit your edited document.

We can then calculate how many words need proofreading or editing again and charge you only for that much of the document. In both cases, email us the document and we will upload it to your account.

Question 4

I added the wrong service. What should I do?

Accepted Answer

If you have added a service by accident, contact our customer support team immediately. We will address the problem as soon as we are made aware of it.
When we are able to remove the service we will, and we will always try our best to credit you for any work that hasn&#8217;t been completed yet, but we will be unable to do so for any work that has already been carried out.

Question 5

I preferred the editing or proofreading on a previous document. Can I request my previous proofreader or editor in the future?

Accepted Answer

We can usually allocate your documents to a preferred proofreader or editor. Simply email us to let us know which document you liked the best (include the order ID for the document) and we will do our best to make sure your future documents are assigned to the same editor.
Please note that this may cause a delay in returning your work, as your preferred proofreader may not always be available when you submit, but we&#8217;ll let you know if it will take longer than the return time shown on upload.

Question 6

Why did you not make more changes during proofreading?

Accepted Answer

First, please ensure you are viewing the Track Changes version of your document. Occasionally, customers will accidentally view the clean version of their completed document rather than the version that shows the edits we&#8217;ve made. Alternatively, if your document was well written, we may not have needed to make a large number of changes. It could be that your writing only needed a polish.
If you believe your document hasn&#8217;t been proofread or edited to the standard you were expecting or that we missed specific errors, please let us know.

Question 7

What dialects do you proofread in?

Accepted Answer

We proofread and edit documents in standard British, American, Australian, and Canadian English. Simply select your dialect preference during upload.

Question 8

I have dyslexia. Can I receive proofreading for free?

Accepted Answer

We work with a lot of people with dyslexia, some of whom receive free proofreading through university proofreading funds. You&#8217;ll have to check with your institution whether you are eligible for this.
However, once you know you are eligible, you can simply:

Submit your work through our website, complete payment yourself, and send the invoice to your university for reimbursement.
Request a quote from us and send it to your university for payment.

Additionally, students in the UK can sometimes apply for reimbursement via Disabled Students Allowance (DSA).

Question 9

Which referencing styles do you work with?

Accepted Answer

Our expert academic proofreaders can help you ensure your referencing is always correct. You can even select from the most common referencing styles and systems when you upload your work, including:

APA
Harvard
OSCOLA
Chicago
MLA
IEEE
MHRA
Vancouver
Oxford
AGLC
AMA
Turabian

Click on a referencing style above to find out more. In addition, we can work with other referencing styles on request. Let us know which system you&#8217;re using when you upload your work, and we&#8217;ll tailor our service accordingly.

Question 10

What does &#8216;referencing style&#8217; mean?

Accepted Answer

A referencing style is a citation method, most commonly used in academic writing. As a student or a researcher, you need to show when you&#8217;ve used someone else’s words or ideas and you do that by referencing them in your work.
When proofreading or editing your work, we can ensure you have correctly applied your referencing style to your document. Simply select the referencing style you are using during document upload.

You can see a full list of the referencing styles we support here.

Question 11

Do you guarantee a certain grade?

Accepted Answer

We don&#8217;t guarantee you&#8217;ll receive a specific grade for your work after proofreading. Nor do we change the ideas or concepts presented in your document, which is what you will be graded on.
We do, however, offer a five-star rated proofreading service, which ensures your writing is error free and improves its readability. Many customers have told us that they received better grades after proofreading, but we cannot guarantee this.

Question 12

Will you rewrite my document?

Accepted Answer

For business, author, researcher, and professional customers, we can offer a substantive editing service. As part of this, we will help you to develop or even rewrite a document. Simply email us with your needs and we&#8217;ll let you know how we can help.
We cannot offer this service for students as rewriting work is always against plagiarism guidelines. However, we can offer proofreading services to help ensure your academic writing is clear, correct, and concise.

Question 13

I only want part of my document proofread. How do I submit it?

Accepted Answer

No problem! You have two options:

Copy the words you want to be checked to a new document and submit that new document.
Highlight the words you want checking and email us the document. We will then add it to our system for you.

Question 14

My document is too long. Can you reduce the word count?

Accepted Answer

Word count reduction depends upon the service you select. Proofreading may involve removing unnecessary words, but it doesn&#8217;t include specific word count reduction. If you select editing – as a business, author, researcher, or professional – we can try to reduce your document to a specific word count.
Simply let us know in the comments how long you need your document to be and we will try to edit to that word count.

For students, we will not reduce word counts as we are very strict on proofreading within university guidelines and significantly changing the length of a document would constitute plagiarism.

Question 15

Can I speak directly with my proofreader?

Accepted Answer

We do not provide a method for proofreaders or editors and customers to communicate directly. If you have something to tell the proofreader about your document, let them know via the comments box when you upload it.

You can also ask our team of experts a question at any time. Simply contact us and we&#8217;ll be happy to help.

Question 16

I would prefer to work with a proofreader or editor who has experience in my field. Can you arrange this?

Accepted Answer

We have hundreds of proofreaders and editors, so we can match your work with someone who has relevant subject experience. In fact, we always aim to do this for larger or more complex documents.
If you want to be sure your work is proofread by someone with a specific background or qualification, though, contact us and we will find the editor who is best suited to your work.

Question 17

Can you format my document?

Accepted Answer

Absolutely! We’re fantastic at formatting and would love to make your document look as great as it reads.
Simply add our formatting service at checkout and provide details of your formatting needs when prompted after payment. You can see more information on our formatting services page.

Question 18

Do universities allow proofreading?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Generally, universities allow proofreading. Some students even receive a proofreading allowance from their university.
That being said, if you are ever in doubt, speak to your university.
Proofed operates an ethical editing model where we will never knowingly edit a student&#8217;s work. This ensures we don&#8217;t facilitate plagiarism while providing great proofreading services to students that meet university rules.

Question 19

Why can&#8217;t I add the editing service?

Accepted Answer

It sounds like you&#8217;ve registered as a student. If so, we suggest sticking with the proofreading service. We&#8217;ve designed this service to follow academic plagiarism guidelines, so we never make edits that change the meaning of your writing. University rules on proofreading and editing services can vary, though, so you should always check with your institution first.
If you have registered as a student and you&#8217;re actually a researcher or academic and require editing, please contact us and let us know.

Question 20

What is the difference between proofreading and editing?

Accepted Answer

With proofreading, your editor will check the spelling, punctuation, grammar, and other basic elements of your writing to make sure it is error free and easy to read. For more details, see our proofreading page.
With editing, your editor will make more substantial changes, which may include revising sentences, restructuring paragraphs, and adapting the written tone of your document. For more details, see our editing page.

Question 21

Do you proofread and edit spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets)?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You can upload Microsoft Excel (XLS/XLSX) and Google Sheets (GSHEETS) spreadsheets to our system for proofreading and editing. We then extract the word count from the document and charge you on this basis.

When we are done, we will return an edited version of your spreadsheet in its original format. For detailed information on our spreadsheet proofreading and editing services, see the page below related to your chosen file type:

Microsoft Excel
Google Sheets

Question 22

Do you proofread and edit Google Drive files?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You can upload Google Docs (GDOC), Google Slides (GSLIDES), and Google Sheets (GSHEETS) documents to our system for proofreading and editing.
To upload a Google document, go to the upload page, hover over the &#8216;Drag and drop your file&#8217; button, and you will see a &#8216;From Google Drive&#8217; option. Click this and follow the steps to connect your Google Drive account to the Proofed app. You can then select any documents stored on your Google Drive for upload. See below an example of Google Drive files being uploaded.

For any Google documents we work on, we provide a link to the edited file, which will be uploaded to your Google Drive folder.

Question 23

Do you proofread and edit presentations (PowerPoint, Google Slides, Keynote)?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You can upload presentations directly to our system for proofreading and editing in most formats, including MS PowerPoint (PPT/PPTX), Google Slides (GSLIDES), and Keynote (KEY). See below an example presentation being uploaded.

We then charge you based on the number of pages in the file. When we are finished, we return an edited version of your presentation in its original format.
For detailed information on our presentation proofreading and editing services, see the page below related to your chosen format:

Microsoft PowerPoint
Google Slides
Keynote

Question 24

Do you accept LaTeX documents for proofreading and editing?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You can upload LaTeX documents to our system for proofreading and editing. We then extract the number of words that aren&#8217;t markup and charge you on that basis (i.e. you only pay for the content of your document, not the formatting). See below an example LaTeX document being uploaded.

We charge a 20% premium on our regular prices for LaTeX files. When we are finished, we return an edited Track Changes version of your document content as an MS Word (DOCX) file along with your edited LaTeX (TEX) files in their original format. For detailed information on our LaTeX proofreading and editing services, see our LaTeX proofreading and editing page.

Question 25

Do you accept PDFs for proofreading and editing?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You can upload PDF documents to our system for proofreading and editing.
We then extract the word count of the document using optical character recognition (it can take up to a minute to calculate the word count) and charge you based on the number of words. See below for an example.

We charge a 20% premium on our regular prices for PDFs. When we are finished, we will return a single copy of your PDF with comments where changes are required. For detailed information on our PDF proofreading and editing services, see our PDF proofreading and editing page.

Question 26

Which document formats do you support?

Accepted Answer

We proofread and edit nearly every major document format. You can automatically submit these formats via our upload page.
Simply click a document format below to find out how we work with it and our pricing:

Microsoft Word Documents (DOCX and DOC)
Portable Document Format (PDF)
Google Docs (GDOC)
LaTeX Files (TEX)
Microsoft PowerPoint Presentations (PPT and PPTX)
Microsoft Excel (XLS and XLSX)
Google Slides Presentations (GSLIDES)
Google Sheets (GSHEETS)
Rich Text Format (RTF)
Keynote Presentations (KEY)
Pages Documents (PAGES)
Plain Text Documents (TXT)

For other document formats (e.g. InDesign, ODT), simply email us the file and we&#8217;ll upload it for you.

Question 27

What are your hours of operation? Do you work on weekends and holidays?

Accepted Answer

We work 365 days a year and our support team covers multiple time zones, allowing us to provide 24/7 support.
You can upload a document or contact us at any time and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Question 28

How long does it take to proofread large documents?

Accepted Answer

We pride ourselves on the speed and quality of our service. Our return times are based on the size of the document, so if you know your word count, go to our prices page and enter the document details to see the delivery options.
We also have Express and Rapid services, which are perfect for those on tight deadlines. Simply select the delivery option that works best for you when you upload your document.

If you require a document back even sooner or have a specific request, contact us with the word count and the deadline you need to meet, then we&#8217;ll tailor a service to your needs. And if you are unsure of your word count, simply upload your document and we can provide the delivery times available.

Question 29

My university has asked for my proofreader&#8217;s name to be stated on my certificate of proofreading. Can you do this?

Accepted Answer

Certifying that your work was proofread by Proofed (as a company) is normally enough for universities.
However, if you have a specific need in this respect, simply contact us and we will adapt the certificate accordingly.

Question 30

Do you provide a certificate of proofreading?

Accepted Answer

Yes! You can download a certificate of proofreading with your name, the document name, and the date of proofreading for any written work you submit to us.
If you need anything changing on your certificate, simply contact us.
You can see an example certificate of proofreading below.

Question 31

How long will it take to proofread my document?

Accepted Answer

We offer a Next-Day Guarantee at no additional cost, which ensures we return any document of up to 8,000 words within 24 hours. We then add another 24 hours for each block of 8,000 words after the first (e.g. we guarantee to return a document between 8,001 and 16,000 words within 48 hours).
If you need your work checked sooner, you can add our Express Service at checkout. We’ll then return the document in half the time! To add our Express Service, simply click the aeroplane delivery option at checkout.

If your work requires immediate attention, try our Rapid Service. We&#8217;ll then get your document proofread and back to you in as little as 3 hours. Our Rapid Service can be selected by ticking the rocket delivery option at checkout.

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