Scientific texts

I work with all types of scientific text: research articles, reviews, letters to the editor, referee's reports, PhD theses, posters, grant proposals, protocols and reports. As a trained scientist, I understand the requirements of scientific publications and can ensure the optimal presentation of your work, and after more than 8000 texts and with more than 25 years of experience, my English correction and writing skills are well-honed. Once your work is returned, you can contact me by telephone or via e-mail to discuss the text and any additional changes you wish to make, to ensure that the final document conveys precisely what you wish it to, in impeccable English. I can provide you with a correction certificate on request, if required by the journal.

I generally work in Microsoft Word, using the TrackChanges mode to indicate my corrections so that you can choose to accept or reject them. However, correction in GoogleDocs is also possible if you prefer and, if you use LaTeX, you can send me a link so that I can work on the text in the editor of your choice. It is a good idea to send me the figures too, so that I can check them over and to facilitate comprehension if the text is unclear. I can correct Powerpoint and Excel files, albeit with the changes not clearly indicated due to the absence of an equivalent to TrackChanges. For pdf and other formats, I indicate the changes separately as I cannot modify the files directly.

Corrections are generally billed by the hour, which means that second readings and corrections after submission are substantially cheaper, and texts requiring more work are more expensive than those that are already well-written, an advantage to the client relative to charging by number of words or pages. Feel free to send me your text for an estimate, indicating the billing address that should be used on the quote. All work is treated in strict confidentiality.  

Correction of texts that you have generated or translated by AI

I understand only too well the temptation to use AI to write or translate your texts. However, having seen a large number of these texts over the last few years, often after their rejection by a journal for "poor English", I am also very aware of the pitfalls of this approach. AI still has much to learn. It often makes errors of meaning or of language register and seems to have learned a number of idioms and ways of saying things that do not exist in the real, non-digital world. You should always check AI-generated or -translated texts extremely carefully for errors and inconsistencies. I can do that for you. If you have machine-translated texts from French, Dutch or Spanish, the languages I can understand, it helps to send the original version with the text to be corrected as this can help me resolve problems with the AI-generated text more rapidly. For corrections of texts with AI-generated content, it is generally a good idea to indicate that you have used AI as this provides pointers to the types of errors likely to arise, but rest assured that I can usually spot such texts very easily anyway.

Scientific writing

I am not a "medical writer" in the classic sense of the term, but I can write texts for you. I can convert poster presentations into articles, for example, write reports based on source materials you provide or write letters for which a certain degree of tact is required. Feel free to contact me to discuss any writing projects you may have. 

Non-scientific texts

Alongside my scientific work, I have also developed an activity in the correction of non-specialist texts. I apply the same approach and the same rigor to these texts, to ensure that my clients communicate clearly and effectively in English. I have worked on diverse documents, including journalistic articles, webpages and marketing documents. I can also help students to prepare for examinations to be taken in English for entry into British or American universities, by correcting practice essays and providing tips for improvement. Evidently, I do not correct essays that will be sent to examiners for marking, as this would be unethical. Please note that I prefer not to take on highly technical documents in specialities that are not my own (legal and economic documents, for example).