Who can use the Graduate Editing Center?

All graduate students who are
1) currently enrolled at SU or ESF,
2) do not currently have a submission in with the GEC, and
3) are in the final stages of the drafting process are eligible to use the GEC.

- All graduate students who are or have been enrolled in the past three calendar months are eligible to utilize this service.

- Graduate students submitting texts to the GEC should consider what type of help they need prior to submitting their survey. If a document is currently awaiting feedback from your advisor and/or is still in the process of being written/revised, do not submit your document to the GEC; contact the Writing Center for help at this point in the drafting process.

- If you or your advisor have determined your written language skills need improvement, you may be better served elsewhere; the GEC is not a language learning or tutoring service.

Who will edit my document?

Graduate Editing Center Consultants are fellow graduate students. We work independently to provide sentence-level feedback on your writing. When you submit your work, you can either be randomly assigned an editor or pick from the list of editors to continue working with someone you have previous experience with.

It is important to bear in mind that differences in timezones, personal schedules, etc., may slow communication between Editors and Clients. When submitting to the GEC, please respond to all GEC-originated emails as soon as possible; this will help us to respond to your submission in a more timely manner.

What does the Graduate Editing Center do?

- The Graduate Editing Center provides feedback and grammatical corrections to work associated with your graduate program. Examples of eligible documents include: thesis and dissertation chapters, articles for publication.

- Graduate Editors are not permitted to review the following types of documents: resumes/CVs, coursework, comprehensive exam responses.

Where, When, and How does the Graduate Editing Center work?

- All work submitted to the Graduate Editing Center is reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis. Work is reviewed remotely, and all communications occur via email.

- When you submit your work to the Center, you will receive a “Welcome” email within a day; this is to accommodate possible time zone and scheduling differences between yourself and our editors.

- Your welcome email will introduce your assigned editor and contain a basic summary of our understanding of your submission based on the responses you provided in your submission survey. At this time, we will also confirm with you any additional steps that must be taken prior to being added to our work queue.

- Once we have confirmed with you that the process is ready to move forward, we will provide you with an estimated date of return; usually, this consists of a 2–4-day timeframe in which you can expect to receive your completed document.

- Your editor will review your submission, focusing solely on sentence-level issues of grammar, clarity, and awkwardness/tone. We do not assess the disciplinary strength of your writing, as this is outside our purview.

GEC Process Steps:

1. Student finishes drafting their document. The document is ready for polishing/editing, and no further content revisions are anticipated.
2. Student submits their survey, accurately detailing the scope, length, and type of document they’re working on.
3. A GEC editor will reach out to the student to acknowledge their submission and detail next steps.
   1. If a document is degree-bearing, the student will be asked to procure permission to work with the GEC from their advisor. Please note: Until permission from an advisor is received, the submission review period will not begin.
   2. If a document is not degree-bearing, the editor will request that you send a Microsoft Word version of their document via email. Please note: The GEC only works on Word documents. PDFs, Google Docs, etc., are not accepted.
   3. If your document is not eligible for review by the GEC, the Editor will notify you and reject your submission. If possible, the Editor may also provide you with alternative means to secure aid for your document. Please note: The GEC will reject your submission if policy dictates that we cannot review it. There is no appeal process if your document is rejected.
4. Once all previous steps are complete, your Editor will confirm with you the expected date of return for your document—this timeframe is determined by the current work queue at the GEC, the order in which your submission was received and confirmed for review (i.e., advisor permission secured, Word doc sent, etc.), and the length of your document.
5. The Editor will work on your document and return it to you by the end of the timeframe they quoted you in Step 4. During this time, it is likely that you will not hear from your editor, but you may reach out to them via email if you have questions or concerns.
6. Once your Editor has completed their review, they will contact you via email to return your edited document. When your document is returned to you, your submission is considered “Complete”; any further editing or review of your documents must be done as a separate submission, but your Editor can clarify their previous feedback with you, should you have further questions.

More Details:

What can I expect when I receive my document from my Editor?

All documents submitted to the GEC (reminder: Word Docs only) are reviewed in “Track Changes” mode. Any and all sentence-level corrections (i.e., typos, missing words, verb-noun or tense agreement issues, etc.) will be made via this function. When you open your returned document, please make sure you have your word processor set to show “all markup.”

In the case of situations where your Editor knows something isn’t right but cannot be certain about the appropriate correction, you will find comments detailing 1) the issue your Editor identifies and 2) what they believe to be the issue and/or suggestions to fix it. This is dependent on how your text is constructed and how much knowledge the Editor might have about your subject matter.

If you find that you have questions or concerns about the feedback you received on your completed review, just reach out to your Editor. We are happy to clarify previous feedback, if needed.

I just got my document back from my editor and I disagree with some of their feedback? What should I do?

Remember that the changes your editor makes to your text are suggestions. While your editor is highly knowledgeable about standard/academic English, you are the expert on your subject-matter and your purpose for writing; whether or not to make each suggested change is up to you (for more information, please see GEC Policies).