1 Procedures

The supervisors of research higher degree students are expected to provide editorial advice to their students. Students are permitted to use, at their own expense, additional editors in preparing their thesis for submission, but should discuss this with their principal supervisor and provide the editor with a copy of these guidelines before they commence work.

Editorial intervention should be restricted to:

1. proofreading: that is, detecting and correcting the presentation of the text to confirm with standard usage and conventions (e.g. spelling, quotations, italics, lists, word usage, punctuation, graphs, charts, citations, references, heading hierarchies, symbols and equations, headers and footers, style of numbers etc)

2. the identification and provision of advice, with corrections and exemplars only, in matters of structure (the need to restructure and reword, deletions, additions); the conventions of grammar and syntax; use of clear language; logical connections between phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs, and sections; voice and tone; and how to avoid ambiguity, repetition and verbosity.

Material for proofreading should be submitted in hard copy not electronic (because it is too easy for the reader to make changes and the student to hit the ‘accept button’ without thinking about the suggested correction).

When the thesis has had the benefit of editorial advice then:

1. The name of the editor and a brief description of the service rendered should be printed as part of the list of acknowledgements or other prefatory matter near the front of the work when it is to be presented for examination.

2. If the professional editor’s current or former area of academic specialisation is similar to that of the candidate, this too should be stated in the prefatory matter.

2 Other Policy Information