Batman Is a PhD
Prospective clients sometimes ask me why they should have their book editing, thesis editing, dissertation editing, academic editing, or other copyediting done by a PhD. They wonder why someone with a B.A. or M.A. degree can’t copy edit their work just as well. Well, those are good questions and I’ll be happy to explain why every copyeditor on my Staff is a PhD.
Before I make the case for PhDs, allow me to readily acknowledge that many excellent editors all over the world are not PhDs. I certainly would never disparage anyone without a PhD or mean to suggest that one cannot be a professional editor without a doctorate degree. That claim would be ridiculous and insulting. Likewise, I have personally interviewed, tested, and declined to hire hundreds of PhDs who are not good editors at all! In fact, even worse, I have had to fire approximately 70 PhDs over the years whose work was clearly not up to our corporation’s exceedingly high standards. Good editors are hard to find, PhD or not.
That said, there are four main reasons why Edit911’s Staff of PhDs are excellent dissertation editors, thesis editors, book editors, and copyeditors in general.
- A PhD has undergone an intensive and rigorous training as a thinker, scholar, reader and writer. In every one of 10-15 doctoral courses, the student—who already possesses an M.A. degree—must write several fully researched and documented academic papers, from 10-20 pages apiece. Then, the PhD candidate must take nine or more hours of comprehensive written essay exams that are graded on the quality of their composition and writing, as well as their content. Finally, the candidate must write a dissertation, which is a fully researched and documented book-length study. Throughout the process, the candidate’s writing is scrutinized by a committee of PhDs, who demand excellence before awarding the coveted doctorate degree.
- Our PhDs have taken and passed with a 100% score a very tricky and demanding little test. Fully 75% or more of our applicants fail the test because we demand a score of 100%.
- Our PhDs are all published scholars and/or authors of books.
- The editing our PhDs perform must include both grammar, formatting, and content. For example, when editing a doctoral dissertation, the PhD must attend to a) standard English issues; b) style guide formatting (APA, CMS, MLA, etc.); and c) content evaluation, feedback, and guidance. They are assigned their dissertation editing jobs based on matching their doctorate discipline with that of the client’s. Thus, the client is receiving not just good editing and proofreading; the client is receiving doctoral advice from an expert in his or her field. To take another example, 17 PhDs on our Staff have published novels or non-fiction books. They are also matched closely with the genre of book they must edit. Again, they edit not just for grammar and the like; they also give valuable advice about the genre’s conventions and requirements. Their content, structural, and developmental editing is informed by their own experience as writers who have successfully become published.
As Batman said to his would-be imitators when one asked him the difference between him and them: “I’m not wearing hockey pants.”
Your Business is Our Business
What do Toyota, DHL, Black & Decker, Transitions Optical, and Hanson Robotics have in common? They’ve all employed us on a variety of editing tasks. Thousands of business professionals, scholars, academics, and regular folks have also asked us to edit their journal articles, dissertations, books, and a wide variety of other important documents. All told, we’ve edited over 11,000 texts for over 7000 clients.
When I founded www.edit911.com, Inc. in 1999, I did so by drawing upon three main lessons learned from my degree in Business Administration and my 5 years of experience in sales: 1) Provide clients the very best service and value at the lowest possible price; 2) Stand behind our work 100%; and 3) Treat every editing job as an opportunity to develop a lifelong business relationship.
To that end, we provide business document editing, dissertation editing, book editing, and all copyediting for a modest fee and with the industry’s fastest turnaround. You’ll receive precise, concise, and correct copyediting, on time every time.
In assembling my Staff of 85 PhD’s, I’ve applied what I’ve learned from my own PhD in English and from my 37 years of experience in teaching writing to both high school and college students. I know how to fix bad writing and so does my Staff. They don’t need any babysitting from me because they’re all consummate professionals and extraordinary wordsmiths. I’m confident in asserting that I have the best team of editors in the world, bar none.
Take note of our membership in TrustE and the BBB. Read our Privacy Statement and peruse our Testimonials. No other editing service can match us—period.
Give us a try and we’ll try our very best to earn your business for life.
Why Edit 911?
Because we’re the best editing service in the world. Period.
- We’re PhDs: Working professionals, scholars, and published authors highly skilled at book editing, dissertation editing, academic editing, and business document editing. Few other online “editors” can match our credentials (See Staff).
- We’re Perfect: A+ record with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) of America for all our editing services.
- We’re Experienced: Over 21,000 documents edited since 1999.
- We’re Simple: We don’t make you choose from some pointless list of writing types and editors. We’ll match you with the best book editor, dissertation editor, or basic copy editor for your project.
- We’re Fast: No extra charge for rush jobs. Most other “editors” charge an exorbitant fee for a quick turnaround, especially with book editing and dissertation editing.
- We’re Comprehensive: We don’t charge extra for our full-service copy editing. Most other “editors” have a confusing pricing structure with several levels above mere proofing. Our editing service does everything we can to improve your work for one low price (See Services, FAQs and Submit Project).
- We’re Efficient: No account to open, no portals, no forms to fill out, no waiting for a quote, no nonsense. Simply go to Order Service, calculate your rate based on word count, pay the appropriate amount, and send us your text as an email attachment.
- We’re Helpful: We offer free consultation and advice. Most other “editors” want to charge you for advice on how to write better or get published. We’ll be happy to tell you everything we know for no charge.
- We’re Successful: We have a long list of satisfied, enthusiastic clients (See Testimonials and Published Clients).
- We’re Safe: 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed on all our copyediting (See Terms of Use & Privacy Policy).
- And We’re Darn Good Writers and Professors: Check out our Blog for some entertaining and good advice, commentary, and details about our editing services and skills.
Here’s a Good Philosophical Question: Who Am I, Anyway?
A father, a husband, a teacher. A reader, a writer, an editor. A ballplayer, a fan, a businessman. That about sums it up. I’ve been into reading and writing since I was a kid—writing stories before I started shaving. I always got A’s in English and graduated first in my class in high school–just a few weeks after nearly getting expelled for constantly wising off to the political science teacher. He deserved it: he didn’t have a clue what he was teaching and I told him so. But that’s another story.
The long and short of this story, of this business of mine, is that I got a PhD and started teaching in college. In 1995, I published my dissertation on Ernest Hemingway, entitled Reading The Sun Also Rises: Hemingway’s Political Unconscious. Big deal. That and 5 bucks gets me an iced venti white chocolate mocha at Starbucks. Good drink. Now that I have a good business here with edit911, I can buy one every day. I’m living large now, lemme tell ya.
I wasn’t in 1999. You know what they pay college teachers? Not enough to support 5 kids, that’s for sure. So, I dreamed up this business. Necessity’s the mother of invention. Or was that Frank Zappa?
Oh, right. You want to know more about edit911, not me. Well, actually, I am edit911. Along with my 85 closest friends, my PhD pals and gals who do the actual editing, the hard work. My Staff is my team and my team is Olympian, I’m telling you. What a team. What editors. I love them all. They’re all world class. They’re why we have a perfect A+ BBB rating.
Anyway, time to get back to work. Oh, and by the way, you’ll love our work. 15,000 clients before you have flipped over it. Just read some of their testimonials. And check out our Blog. Talk about some great writing.
Use us. Let us work for you. You’ll be glad you did.
Marc