Preparing your thesis for submission: what to look for when editing at the whole-of-document level

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editing, formatting thesis

By Cally Guerin

As we have discussed elsewhere, the last few months leading up to submitting the thesis for examination can be stressful, inducing anxious – even obsessive – behaviour in even the most level-headed of doctoral candidates. In amongst the repeated re-reading of the thesis with the examiner’s perspective in mind, a checklist can assure the candidate that various elements of the document are definitely in order.

There is a lot of good advice available from editors about what to look for when editing and proofreading. In Australia, the Institute of Professional Editors has very detailed information about the kinds of details that professional editors look for, including the Australian standards for editing practice. This list and the ‘Levels of Editing’ link provide a really helpful range of elements that should be checked before submitting a work for examination or publication.

While many writers think of ‘editing’ as related to clarity of expression, grammar and punctuation, there is another whole area of thesis editing that is focused on the formatting and layout of the whole document.