What is our Proofreading & Editing service?

Question 1

Can I receive a certificate of proofreading?

Answer

Yes, we can provide a certificate of proofreading.

As soon as the editor delivers the edit, you can email us at info@scribbr.com to request a certificate.

Please indicate the following in your email:

Your order number
Your full name
The title of your work

We will create a PDF certificate and email it to you as soon as possible.

Question 2

My document includes an abstract in another language. Does Scribbr also proofread this summary?

Answer

Yes, Scribbr will proofread the summary in another language as well.

If your document contains a summary in another language, we will send this part to another editor who is a native speaker of that language. For that reason, we will create a new order and send you an email with the new order number.

This also means that you will receive two emails and text messages from us when our editors have finished proofreading. You can always login to your account to check the status of your orders.

Question 3

What type of documents does Scribbr check?

Answer

Scribbr is specialized in editing study related documents. We check:

Theses
Graduation projects
PhD dissertations
Essays
Admissions essays
College essays
Application essays
Personal statements
Reports
Process reports
Reflections
Internship reports
Academic papers
Interviews
Proposals
Research proposals
Prospectuses

Calculate the costs

Question 4

Can I order a Layout Check, Reference Check, Structure Check or Clarity Check independently of Proofreading & Editing?

Answer

These additional services can only be purchased in conjunction with Proofreading & Editing.

Providing feedback on structure and clarity requires extensive knowledge of the text, which the editor acquires while proofreading and editing your text.

To help you deliver the perfect paper, Scribbr also offers a Layout Check and Reference Check. At the moment, these services can only be purchased together with Proofreading & Editing. We are working on a flexible solution in the future.

Do note that our Plagiarism Checker is not an additional service and can be purchased separately.

Question 5

Can I use the edited document as the final document to hand in at my university?

Answer

Yes, when you accept all changes and delete all comments your document is ready to be handed in.

How to accept all changes:

Word 2013
Word 2010
Word 2007
Word 2003
Word for Mac 2011

Accept changes (Word 2013)

Accept changes (Word 2010)

Accept changes (Word 2007)

Accept changes (Word 2003)

Accept changes (Word for Mac 2011)

How to remove all comments:

Word 2013
Word 2010
Word 2007
Word 2003
Word for Mac 2011

Delete comment (Word 2013)

Delete comment (Word 2010)

Delete comment (Word 2007)

Delete comment (Word 2003)

Delete comment (Word for Mac 2011)

When you’ve finished this, others will no longer be able to see the changes made by the editor.

Two tips

Read your last version one last time to make sure everything is the way you want it.
Save your document as a .pdf file to come across more professional and to ensure the layout doesn’t change.

Question 6

Can I choose between American English, British English and Australian English?

Answer

Yes, as you upload your document you can fill in your preferences at step 4.

If you do not know if you wish to write in American, Australian, or in British English, the editor will choose American, Australian, or British English based on the English you currently use. If the editor has any questions about this, we will contact you.

Question 7

What if I am not happy with the edit?

Answer

Editing papers is still the work of people. And we, too, can make mistakes. If you’re not 100% happy with the edit, please let us know so we can find the solution that’s best for you, whether that’s a new edit or a refund.

Read more about our 100% happiness guarantee.

Question 8

How long does it take to have my document checked?

Answer

You can choose between three set time periods. The editor can edit your paper within 24 hours, 72 hours or 1 week. The deadline is set as soon as you have paid.

Do you need to hand in your paper in four days? Please choose either the 72 hours or 24 hours deadline. All the editing periods include weekends and holidays.

You will receive a notification via text message and email as soon as your paper has been edited.

Check the How it works page for more information.

Question 9

What types of editing does Scribbr offer?

Answer

Every Scribbr order comes with our award-winning Proofreading & Editing service, which combines two important stages of the revision process.

For a more comprehensive edit, you can add a Structure Check or Clarity Check to your order. With these building blocks, you can customize the kind of feedback you receive.

You might be familiar with a different set of editing terms. To help you understand what you can expect at Scribbr, we created this table:

Types of editing	Available at Scribbr?
Proofreading Correction of superficial mistakes, such as typos, misspellings, punctuation errors and consistency errors.	Yes! This is the “proofreading” in Scribbr’s standard service. It can only be selected in combination with editing.
Copy editing Focus on grammar, syntax, style, tone and the conventions of the field. The editor also considers the internal logic of the text and flags any obvious contradictions.	Yes! This is the “editing” in Scribbr’s standard service. It can only be selected in combination with proofreading.
Line editing Focus on language, style, concision and choices. The editor helps you strengthen your story, polish your sentences and ensure that your use of language drives home your ideas.	Yes! Select the Structure Check and Clarity Check to receive a comprehensive edit equivalent to a line edit.
Developmental editing (i.e. content editing, substantive editing) This is the first step of the editing process and applies to very early drafts. The editor helps you structure your ideas, decide what story to tell and find direction for your writing.	No. This kind of editing involves heavy rewriting and restructuring. Our editors cannot help with this.

View an example

Question 10

Which languages are supported by the Scribbr Proofreading & Editing services?

Answer

Scribbr not only specializes in proofreading and editing texts in English, but also in several other languages. This way, we help out students from all over the world.

As a global academic writing proofreading service, we work with professional editors – all native speakers – who edit in the following languages:

English
German
Dutch
French
Spanish
Italian
Danish
Finnish
Norwegian
Swedish

This way, you can also have your academic writing proofread and edited in your second language!

Question 11

Are the footnotes included in the word count?

Answer

The footnotes are not automatically included in the word count.

If you want the language errors in your footnotes to be corrected by the editor, you can indicate this in step 3 of the upload process. The words in the footnotes are then automatically added to the total word count.

Need help with your references?

If you use the APA reference style, you can use our free APA Citation Generator or the articles about APA in our Knowledge Base.
If you’d like us to check your references for consistency, you can use our Reference Check.

Question 12

What payment methods do you accept?

Answer

We accept the following payment methods:

Credit card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Maestro and Diners Club)
Transaction fee of 2% – 3,9%.

PayPal
Transaction fee of 3,5%.

AliPay
Transaction fee of 3,2%.

WeChat Pay
Transaction fee of 2%.

iDEAL
No transaction fee.

Question 13

Do you offer a free trial edit?

Answer

We don’t offer a free trial edit because we want to keep our prices as low as possible.

Rest assured, it is our number 1 priority to ensure that you’re satisfied and to provide the best quality proofreading service there is.

How do we guarantee to deliver the best edits?

We only work with native speakers who have successfully completed our Scribbr Academy.
We edit texts as shown in the example on our website and provide you with personal feedback to help you improve your own writing.
If you are not satisfied with our work, we will edit your text again.

What about our service?

Students are very satisfied with our services. They’ve rated us with an excellent 9.8 on TrustPilot!
When uploading their document students can select the pages they want to have proofread. This way, students only pay for the text that needs to be proofread.
And our support team is available 24/7 to answer all your questions.

About our editors:

“Professional and personal”
“Excellent revision”
“Fast and thorough editing”

About our support:

“Very interactive and friendly”
“Excellent customer service”
“So helpful”

Scribbr reviews

Questions?

Contact us! We are more than happy to help out!

Question 14

How do I receive my thesis when the editor has finished the edit?

Answer

After your document has been edited, you will receive an email with a link to download the edited document.

The editor has made changes to your document using ‘Track Changes’ in Word. This means that you only have to accept or ignore the changes that are made in the text one by one.

It is also possible to accept all changes at once. However, we strongly advise you not to do so for the following reasons:

You can learn much by looking at what mistakes you have made.
The editors do not only change the text, they also place comments when sentences or sometimes even entire paragraphs are unclear. We therefore advise you to read through these comments and take into account your editor’s tips and suggestions.
Because of the many changes, sometimes there may be double spaces, double periods, or other minor mistakes in a sentence. Checking the changes one by one, you can easily detect these minor errors.

We have written a manual in which we explain step by step how ‘Track Changes’ works.

Check out an example

Question 15

Can I contact my editor directly?

Answer

No, you cannot contact the editor directly. Contact with the editor will always be via the Scribbr support team.

Questions about our services

If you have any questions about our services, you can contact our support team via the chat, phone or e-mail (info@scribbr.com).

Ask questions and pass on demands from the supervisor when uploading the document

When you upload your document, you can write down all questions you have for the editor and discuss your supervisor’s demands. You can also send us your supervisor’s feedback in a separate document. We will make sure to pass on the information to the editor.

Questions about the edit and comments made by the editor

If you have any questions about the editor’s work, you can e-mail these questions to info@scribbr.com. We will make sure that the editor answers your questions.

Tip: Write your questions in comments in your Word-document. This way, the editor can answer your questions directly in your document.

Question 16

Can you guarantee that my thesis will be 100% error free?

Answer

Our editors are very experienced and will do their utmost to correct all errors in your thesis.

However, with our current rates, an editor can only check your thesis once. This may cause an editor to overlook an error. We can therefore not guarantee that your thesis is 100% error free after you have had your thesis edited.

Question 17

How does ‘Track Changes’ work?

Answer

The editor uses ‘Track Changes’ in Word when editing your thesis.

Don’t know how this works? Then read the following guide in which we explain step by step how ‘Track Changes’ works.

Question 18

Do you provide a clean copy of my document?

Answer

No, we do not provide you with a clean copy. You will always receive a file edited with tracked changes.

We do this for two main reasons:

In most papers, there are sentences that the editor cannot edit without additional information from the author. In these cases, your editor will provide guidance but leave you to implement the feedback. If we were to simply accept the changes for you, then these issues would be left unaddressed.
We believe students should be accountable for their work. Our editors can correct language errors and coach you to be a better writer. However, the end product belongs to you and should reflect your ideas and decisions.

Check out an example

Question 19

Is the editor specialized in my field of study?

Answer

Our editors are all language specialists and not specialists in your field of study. You can select your field of study while uploading and we make sure that the editor who is editing your work is familiar with editing work in your field of study. This means that your editor will understand what is written, but will not be able to give you feedback about the content.

We’ve carefully selected and trained all our editors before they started working with us. Their work is also continuously assessed to ensure that we can deliver the highest quality.

We only work with language specialists because our ultimate goal is to improve the language of your text and not the content. We believe that only those specialized in academic writing can truly improve your writing!

Question 20

What type of documents does Scribbr check?

Answer

Scribbr is specialized in editing study related documents. We check:

Theses
Graduation projects
PhD dissertations
Essays
Admissions essays
College essays
Application essays
Personal statements
Reports
Process reports
Reflections
Internship reports
Academic papers
Interviews
Proposals
Research proposals
Prospectuses

Calculate the costs

Question 21

How does Scribbr handle confidential documents?

Answer

At Scribbr, we are committed to protecting your personal information. That’s why our employees and editors follow specific guidelines to ensure the confidentiality of your work:

Pledge of secrecy
Signed statement prohibiting publication or third-party sharing
Obligation to delete files
Secure connection (SSL)

Both the original and edited versions of your document are saved on our secure server for 12 months. After this period, the files are automatically deleted. However, you can manually delete your files at any time via your user profile.

Tip: If you still have concerns about confidential information in your document, you can take additional measures to anonymize this data. We advise you to do the following:

Change company names and other identifying details
Delete data and analyses that do not need proofreading

Can I ask Scribbr to sign an NDA?

As a policy, we do not sign NDAs. Every NDA is complex and unique, and our legal team does not have the capacity to review each individual contract we receive.

However, we take extensive measures to protect the confidentiality of your documents. You can learn more about how we handle confidential information on our privacy policy page.

Question 22

Can I have my thesis edited during weekends and holidays?

Answer

Yes, our editors also work during the weekends and holidays.

Because we have many editors available, we can check your thesis 24 hours per day and 7 days per week, all year round.

If you choose a 72 hour deadline and upload your thesis on a Thursday evening, you’ll have your thesis back by Sunday evening!

Frequently asked questions

What is our Proofreading & Editing service?

Language use will be improved

Personal feedback with tips and suggestions

Frequently asked questions: Proofreading and editing

Two tips

Need help with your references?

How do we guarantee to deliver the best edits?

What about our service?

Questions?

Questions about our services

Ask questions and pass on demands from the supervisor when uploading the document

Questions about the edit and comments made by the editor

Questions?

Ask our team

Frequently asked questions

Can I ask Scribbr to sign an NDA?