A PEGforum question with the subject line 'JustDone' was posted on 28 April 2026 asking about the effectiveness of AI detection tools. It received many responses so it was obvious that several of our members had been...
Publication Certificate – What must it include?
Question Some time last year I proofread and edited a Masters dissertation and guess what, it's back and I have to furnish it with a certificate of publication that is library journal ready/compatible. My ask is, has...
Balancing heart and craft with thoughtful feedback
The first time I had to deliver difficult feedback to a fiction author was on a fantasy manuscript, brimming with imagination but bogged down by clunky prose and plot holes. I spent hours deliberating over how to...
Living with AI
A future with machines Should we be concerned about a future alongside AI? Does the future hold productivity gains or mass employment? We are only just starting to see how this new technology will affect our particular...
A tripod: the student, supervisor and language editor
Writing a thesis is a big deal. Itโs the result of months (sometimes years) of research, thinking and hard work; and pulling all that work together into a polished, professional thesis can be tough. Thatโs where three...
Formatting tips
The benefits of formatting to editors Formatting โmakes it much easier for me to work with the document, it looks professional, and it is much easier for the examiners to navigateโ (Richard Steele, in a...
Academic writing โ itโs not for everyone
A controversial concept I recently came across a social media post that unsettled me. The person who posted claimed that academic writers would benefit from training by popular fiction writers. The poster found the...
Written contracts when editing student work
Taking on editing work for a studentโs academic project โ whether itโs an essay, dissertation or thesis โ is a rewarding but complex task. As editors, our goal is to polish and refine the studentโs writing while...
Artificial intelligence and academic English language editing
For around only SEK1 500 a year it is possible to subscribe to the artificial intelligence (AI) editing services that some reputable journal publishers offer nowadays. This seems like a brilliant way to save time and...
Referencing styles – What are they?
Referencing styles have usually been created by an organisation that specialises in a certain tyle of information, and the styles specify: how to arrange items in a reference list, eg in alphabetical or numerical order...
Accurate, exact, precise – What is the difference?
Question Helรฉne van der Westhuizen asked: Are accurately, precisely and exactly interchangeable and are there context/nuance differences to be mindful of? Answers Oxford Dictionary Our Oxford dictionary defines the...
Country names and government publications – How do I reference them?
First check your style guide and follow that if you can. If the country has changed its name, list its publications under their names as they appear in the source (including any spelling mistakes! But put a [sic] after...
ChatGPT – How do I cite it?
An American Psychological Association blog has very useful advice about how to cite and keep records of ChatGPT advice. Posted Aug 11, 2024 at 00:10 23 words
Science, SI, and Cary, North Carolina
After studying and teaching science for 30 years, I thought I knew everything about Systรจme International (SI) units. Turns out I didnโt. Editing has introduced me to a whole new, unsuspected realm of SI idiosyncrasies...
Compare citations and reference list – How?
One of the services an editor offers is checking that all items in the reference list are cited in the text and that all citations in the text are included in the reference list. This can be quite tricky and...
Substantive editing vs copy-editing – What is the difference?
Substantive editing focuses on the overall structure, content, and flow of a manuscript. When you engage an editor to perform substantive editing, they will make or suggest changes to the title, language, and style....
Legal documents: Where can I find templates and advice?
The information below comes from a [PEGforum] Editing legal documents thread on Tue 2024/01/16 10:17. Thank you to the PEG member who answered the question but did not want to be named. Question I need some advice on...
Copy-editing a compilation or a paper-based thesis/dissertation: knowing and setting our limits
In this PEGblog, we explain what a compilation thesis is (often called a thesis by articles or a paper-based thesis/dissertation) and the limited nature and extent of the copy editorโs engagement with it. Compilation...
Plagiarism: rooting it out
Plagiarism on the grand scale has been made more and more tempting and easy for lazy [writers] by people who provide whole essays on all manner of subjects on the web. โ Manning Murphy (2019) To understand the nature...
My take on certain aspects of academic editing
I have been a supervisor and an examiner of academic texts but am now an editor of academic texts. I offer my services in academic editing because I want the studentโs (and the universityโs) efforts to be honoured with...