What would you pay an editor to edit your Masters thesis?

[Ħ]

Hey guys,

A lady wants me to edit her 170pg Master's thesis. I work as a writing tutor at my university and have experience in both writing and editing. I've worked with both grads and undergrads.

She wants me to name a price. I skimmed over the document to get a general sense of it. Looks easy.

So...what should I charge? I read some articles online which said that editors can go from $750-$1000 for Master's theses. I'm no professional though.

[MoraWintersoul]

If you can trust these articles and you're not a professional at this, but have writing/editing experience, go on the low end but not lower than 750. That's what I would do. Obviously ask her what her range is, but doing something for a low price might send more people your way who want demanding work done for cheap.

edit: if I wanted my Masters thesis edited, I'd ask several people for quotes but I wouldn't try to haggle with an editor as they know what they're doing - that's why I'm hiring them. There are a lot more people who won't value a writer/editor's work though, so I just might be too reasonable for today's standards

[rumborak]

Maybe things are different here in the US, but back when I was in Germany doing my Master's, you asked your friends and fellow students to edit it. Was actually a bit of an honor you bestowed on people, so they all did it for free.

[Mr. Ister]

$1000?  Holy shitballs.  I should get into that game.

[Ħ]

Maybe things are different here in the US, but back when I was in Germany doing my Master's, you asked your friends and fellow students to edit it. Was actually a bit of an honor you bestowed on people, so they all did it for free.

Things are different here in the US.

If you can trust these articles and you're not a professional at this, but have writing/editing experience, go on the low end but not lower than 750. That's what I would do. Obviously ask her what her range is, but doing something for a low price might send more people your way who want demanding work done for cheap.

edit: if I wanted my Masters thesis edited, I'd ask several people for quotes but I wouldn't try to haggle with an editor as they know what they're doing - that's why I'm hiring them. There are a lot more people who won't value a writer/editor's work though, so I just might be too reasonable for today's standards

Right. Honestly, I could edit this thing in a weekend. I'm thinking $500. I will be able to put this on my resume, and she says that she has plans to get it published and she'll list me as the editor. So though $500 is low, I'll be getting more than money out of it.

[Nekov]

If she's hot then....

[Ħ]

Pretty sure she's like 60 years old.

[Chino]

Best part about majoring in MIS.... No thesis.

[rumborak]

I don't know. As painful as it is when you have to do it, it's something very tangible that years later you can look at again.

[Chino]

I don't know. As painful as it is when you have to do it, it's something very tangible that years later you can look at again.

That's what my diploma is for.

[rumborak]

I don't know, to me it's different. It's the difference between looking at your Platinum certification, or listening to the album that you got it for.

[Mr. Ister]

I just finished my PhD dissertation - in the US too - and this whole things sounds so weird to me.

[Nekov]

Pretty sure she's like 60 years old.

So is Jane Seymour and I'd totally hit that 

[Dr. DTVT]

Like Rumbo, we edited our friends for free, in the US as well.  It depends on your course of study.  Humanities people usually have paid proof readers because their writing is expected to be more elegant and less technical.  An English Ph.D. wouldn't know what to with a scientific paper.

[rumborak]

Yeah. You would have your friends edit the thesis based on language, and your advisor based on technical accuracy.

[Mr. Ister]

Like Rumbo, we edited our friends for free, in the US as well.  It depends on your course of study.  Humanities people usually have paid proof readers because their writing is expected to be more elegant and less technical.  An English Ph.D. wouldn't know what to with a scientific paper.

Yeah maybe that's the difference.  Flowy, vibrant writing is strongly discouraged in my area of research and in the Research Methods class I teach.

[Skeever]

I've edited for friends for as little as dinner or drinks. I've edited friends of friends for some money, but always at an hourly rate. That's what I'd recommend. As a student and an amateur, you don't (and shouldn't) have the clout to charge someone nearly a thousand dollars to look at their work.

First, confirm with your customer exactly what they want. Are you just proofreading for spelling and grammar? Will heavier editing be involved? Are you going to have to do a lot of rewriting? Some papers I've edited have been a breeze. Others I've done from ESL people have been absolutely nervewracking, and I soon found myself regretting having agreed to a fixed price so soon.

If the person is a good writer already, maybe you should charge something like $10-15 an hour to look at their thesis, which will probably take a few hours and get you around $50. If the person is native Chinese or something, maybe you'll spend an entire week editing, rewriting, and re-editing their entire thesis, so you'll get more like  $200-300.

[hefdaddy42]

Tell her you can't accurately quote the price until after the editing is done.  Then name a price to get the edited thesis back, and price it according to how big a pain in the ass it was.

[Mr. Ister]

I've edited for friends for as little as dinner or drinks. I've edited friends of friends for some money, but always at an hourly rate. That's what I'd recommend. As a student and an amateur, you don't (and shouldn't) have the clout to charge someone nearly a thousand dollars to look at their work.

First, confirm with your customer exactly what they want. Are you just proofreading for spelling and grammar? Will heavier editing be involved? Are you going to have to do a lot of rewriting? Some papers I've edited have been a breeze. Others I've done from ESL people have been absolutely nervewracking, and I soon found myself regretting having agreed to a fixed price so soon.

If the person is a good writer already, maybe you should charge something like $10-15 an hour to look at their thesis, which will probably take a few hours and get you around $50. If the person is native Chinese or something, maybe you'll spend an entire week editing, rewriting, and re-editing their entire thesis, so you'll get more like  $200-300.

Very much agreed.  Unless you are an expert in that area of research and can provide well-thought-out critiques to the logic of the science, the way it's implemented, and its comparison to other research in the area, I feel like you should be shooting for more in the $100-200 range.  Simply reading for syntax, grammar, and basic writing skills is something many people can do and is not worth more than probably $50-100 - but I'm not sure if you said what your level of expertise in that area of research is.

However, if somebody else in that area of research who could provide that kind of feedback would agree to this, co-authorship on the manuscript that comes from the study is going to be way more valuable than a couple hundred bucks.