Academic Editing Services

Academic editing services

An experienced academic editor, professionally trained in academic editing, I provide editing services to academics and postgrad students in education and across the social sciences. I copyedit, format and proofread a broad range of scholarly manuscripts:

research theses
scholarly books and chapters
monographs
journal papers
research reports
research proposals
conference papers

Browse my website to see how I can help you, and contact me if you have any questions.

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About the Detail Devil

Professionally trained, experienced academic copyeditor, providing editing services to researchers in the social sciences, particularly in education.

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Editing Services

Copyediting, proofreading, manuscript formatting, thesis and dissertation editing, and reference formatting — visit this page for full details of editing services options.

Client Testimonials

Testimonials from my many happy clients at all stages of their careers and across a broad range of research areas.

Portfolio

Copyedited, formatted and proofread books and chapters, journal articles, conference papers, research reports, doctoral dissertations, master’s theses, research proposals and reports: a snapshot of my work.

FAQs

How much does editing cost? What’s the process for submitting a manuscript? When do I need to schedule dates? What are your payment terms? Do you have guidelines for editing theses? Your questions answered.

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Devilish Details: Blog

Fiendish Tips for Writers and Editors
Fiendishly useful resources, tips and hacks on academic writing, self-editing, APA Seventh, Word, manuscript preparation and much more …

Let me know how I can help

Delighted clients

Words edited

Cups of coffee

Client Testimonials

Pam is the most effective and the nicest detail ‘devil’ you could hope to find. She finds bugs, missing references, commas that should not be where they are and spaces begging to be rescued with a meaning-enhancing comma. Pam fixes actual problems and notices potential ones. She asks for your opinion and gets your approval before she makes changes, but I came to see that she is always right. Pam copyedited two of my research reports and improved the presentation logic, readability and prose in deep ways. I recommend The Detail Devil, but really Pam Firth, without any reservation. She’s great.

Prof Joseph Lo Bianco Language & Literacy Education, University of Melbourne

Your feedback was incredibly helpful. I could have worked on this for another 4 years and not thought about language and formatting to the extent you have been able to convey. I wish [supervisor] had recommended you earlier, but I am glad I have had the opportunity to work with you. Thank you again for all your help. Your knowledge, support and expertise is fantastic.

Andrew McAlindon Doctoral Candidate (Mathematics Education), University of Melbourne, Australia

We owe Pam (The Detail Devil) immeasurable gratitude. As our copy-editor, Pam’s valuable insights, attention to detail, and professionalism shone throughout the project. We are forever indebted, and readers will witness her ‘special touch’ in every chapter of this handbook [The Palgrave Macmillan international handbook of women in outdoor learning, 2018].

A/Prof Tonia Gray and Prof Denise Mitten (Eds.), Western Sydney University, Australia, and Prescott College, United States

Pam is the most detailed and thoughtful editor I have ever worked with. Her service is incredibly focused and timely, and her comments meaningful, gentle and filled with valuable resources. Her copyediting skills are exceptional and her talent for catching inconsistencies astonishing. Her approach was respectful, collaborative and knowledgeable. I have learned a tremendous amount of information and appreciate her service beyond words.

Lenka V. Studnicka Doctoral Candidate (Sustainability Education), Prescott College, United States

I thoroughly recommend the Detail Devil. Pam assisted me to finalise submission of a book manuscript of over 130,000 words [Assessing Mathematical Literacy: The PISA Experience, 2014, Springer]. She has an excellent command of English, including the finer points of grammar. She set up the styles for our Word program to simplify the formatting task and to deal with references, figures, tables and indexing. Pam is a master of academic style manuals and finds answers to complex referencing questions quickly and accurately. She is indeed good at detail and tracks it through the manuscript. Best of all, Pam is able to achieve just the right balance between making a decision and referring a decision to you. A pleasure to work with.

Emeritus Professor Kaye Stacey (Mathematics Education), Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Australia

Pam provided a truly fantastic service with helping me get my PhD thesis to a point where I was really proud and ready to submit it. In the last couple of months, it's unbelievably stressful but to know that you have such caring, professional and detailed support in Pam makes it all so much easier. I've even learned how to use the semicolon after all these years! Honestly, I couldn't recommend her work highly enough. Thank you!

Clare Dallat Doctoral Candidate (Outdoor Education), Western Sydney University, Australia

Benefits of keyboard shortcuts in Word and how to assign your own

by Pam Firth | 13 July 2021 | academic editing, academic writing, efficiency, fiendish tips, How-to, scholarly publication, student writing, Word | 2 Comments

Keyboard shortcuts enable you to work faster, more efficiently and with increased precision, thereby saving you time and improving your productivity. And by giving your mousing hand a break, shortcuts can help you reduce the risk of repetitive strain injury. In this blog post, I show you the most popular keyboard shortcuts to get you started, along with a few lesser known ones that will have you working like a pro.

APA Style hacks: How to implement the em/en dash in Word (4 simple ways)

by Pam Firth | 25 November 2020 | academic editing, academic writing, APA 7th, APA style, efficiency, fiendish tips, formatting, How-to, scholarly publication, student writing, Word | 0 Comments

In APA Style, en and em dashes have specific uses. In this blog post, I introduce you to the two dashes, explaining when you should implement them according to APA Style. I then demonstrate four simple ways to insert them into your Word manuscript.

Passive Voice: When is it the better choice?

by Pam Firth | 25 July 2020 | academic editing, academic writing, APA 6th, APA 7th, efficiency, fiendish tips, How-to, scholarly publication, student writing, Uncategorized | 0 Comments

Many style guides recommend using active voice wherever possible, but is passive voice acceptable, and if so, when might it be a better choice than active voice?

How to Make the Most of Word’s Custom Dictionary

by Pam Firth | 15 February 2020 | academic editing, academic writing, efficiency, fiendish tips, formatting, How-to, scholarly publication, student writing, Word | 0 Comments

This blog post outlines the benefits of creating a custom dictionary for each unique writing or editing project, followed by step-by-step instructions on how to create, add/edit/delete a word, make default, change the language of and transfer your custom dictionary to another person.

Academic Editing Services