I’m always trying to find ways to be more efficient – not necessarily faster, but more adept at balancing speed and quality. Having recently discovered that I can use ChatGPT in the same way others use PerfectIt, I have achieved a little win in both. But there are other ways in which speed and efficiency come together in my work. I thought I’d share these with you.

This process is based on an academic editing project:

1. Admin

As soon as I take on a project, I create the invoice. Then I record the client’s name, invoice number, invoice amount, a brief description of the project and the words ‘Not Paid’ in a separate Word document titled ‘Editing Income’, which I keep open all year. I add details to the Word document as each new project comes in, updating it when an invoice is paid.

2. Formatting

This part is fun and easy. I assign numbered heading and subheading styles from the beginning to the end of the document and I insert page numbers, figure captions and table captions. Then I generate the automatic table of contents, list of tables and list of figures, all hyperlinked.

This is something I could not do a year ago but thanks to PEG’s input, I have finally half-mastered captions!

3. The plod work – Edit 1

I edit the document with Track Changes switched on. When I come across my first US version of a word (conceptualize, organization, rigor), I conduct a global search-and-replace of all -izing and -zation words to -ising and -sation. The rest I change as they come up. I use a combination of typing and voice-to-text – which is especially useful for inserting comments in the margins.

I include references in my edit, which often requires looking up incomplete or odd-looking references or inserting correct identifiers.

Edit 1 is long, arduous and time-consuming. Clients think I offer a fast turnaround time but I don’t work especially quickly – I just work long hours! I’d like to find ways to shorten the number of hours worked.

4. The plod work – Edit 2

I go through the entire text again, reading closely to pick up errors or clumsy wording I may have missed. No matter how carefully I worked on Edit 1, I always find something to improve.

5. Proofreading by ChatGPT

This part is probably way more time-consuming than submitting the document to PerfectIt, but it’s free and it works. I literally copy and paste 10 to 15 pages at a time into ChatGPT with a very clear prompt: reproduce the text, highlighting in bold all errors to do with grammar, punctuation, spacing, capitalisation, consistency and correctness. Amazingly, there is always something that comes up! ChatGPT will alert me to inconsistencies in authors’ names, the correct dates of legislation and the occasional missing word. Using the global search tool, I locate each error in my Word document and correct it.

6. Use a macro to cross-check in-text references with the reference list

Years ago, a kind PEG member in our Eastern Cape branch taught us how to set up the macro ‘Citationalise’ which flags references missing either from the text or from the reference list. This macro saves me hours of work. However, the results are messy and the macro does make mistakes. I still have to go through the 5- to 40-page ‘missing references’ list with a fine-tooth comb, cleaning up repeats and checking for mistakes. Often I’ll pick up a discrepancy in a date and go back to the document to change it.

If the dissertation is long, I send the automatically generated list of missing references as a separate document to the client, with an explanation on how to interpret it. If the dissertation is short, I use this list to flag missing references in margin comments in the dissertation itself.

7. Email the client and send the invoice

 8. Wait until the money appears in my account before I release the edited document

Once the money is in my account, I email the edited document to the client. I have had my fingers burned before when an amount showed in my account but later disappeared.

I’d love to hear other people’s ideas. I think I offer a high quality of work and my turnaround from the client’s point of view is excellent, but the intensity is exhausting at times! My process seems to optimise quality but at a high cost to myself.

My emails to clients are quite detailed, often giving an overview of my thoughts on the document while raising particular issues for their attention. I do value good relationships with clients and feel that it is worth putting in a bit of effort with the emails.

I regard myself as a beginner in technical matters. But if there are any new-ish PEG members who use an Apple Mac, as I do, and they have not yet mastered formatting, I am happy to help insofar as I can. You can find my email address on my PEG listing.

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