Levelling the playing field of academic writing

“I met Panos Theodoropoulos in Glasgow, where he was doing a Ph.D in Sociology. Due to our common interests and long discussions, we could easily understand each other even if disagreements occasionally arose. His viewpoint is always based on clear arguments, which is always desired. I decided therefore to work with Panos, assigning him to proofread and edit an article that was written for the 14th International Conference on Greek Linguistics. During the process I was surprised not only by his command of the English language, but mostly by his attention to detail. The commitment he showed was indeed respectful: he asked important questions and was always available to discuss various ways to improve the article. Without making great changes that altered the voice of the text, he managed to make it significantly more clear, concise, and powerful. Without second thoughts, I highly recommend him.”

Stefania Diamantopoulou, University of Hamburg

“As a final year PhD student and author, Panos's skills as a proofreader were invaluable to me in order to meet the demanding deadlines of PhD work in turning in a final draft. It was essential to have somebody who really understands the technicalities of academic English, and particularly the social and political context of my writing, which I felt was thoroughly respected throughout the process. As an author who struggles with looking back over my work, this service was as excellent as it was essential, without in any way encroaching on my voice as an author."

Samuel Lawton, PhD researcher, University of Glasgow

“Panos has supported me with proofreading work, something which allowed for publication in top academic journals. The paper "The spatial politics of far-right populism: Vox, Antifascism and Neighborhood Solidarity in Madrid city" (Santamarina, 2020), published by Critical Sociology, recognizes Panos's job in the acknowledgements. He has also done incredible work supporting the edition of non-academic articles as an editor for Interregnum. Panos dominates academic registers and his support has been very helpful in the reorganization of the ideas and the strengthening of my writing’s effectiveness.”

Ana Santamarina, University of Glasgow

“The sociologist P. Theodoropoulos is simply outstanding in his proofreading and editing skills, always taking into account every writer's unique style of writing. His English language skills are so good that even though he is originally from Greece, he has been correcting and improving articles for English academics in literature, sociology and philosophy. Of course, that makes him excellent for non-native English-speaking academics too. He will adapt to your perspective and add depth to your writing. As a thinker with a critical eye on every subject, he is an ideal professional proofreader to reach if you are looking to bring out the substance of your writing. He will also make sure to deliver his services on time. As a journalist, I am just glad I chose him to proofread my long-read piece published for Al Jazeera English.”

Jenny Tsilivakou, journalist for koutipandoras.gr and Documento

“Zach offers an unparalleled combination of a thoughtful editor and an academic with impressive credentials. Working with him would ideally suit non-English-speaking academics. They would improve not only the wording of their text, but also its substance. I had the pleasure of working with Zach on an article for a Q2 journal. Thanks to his editing, the article was accepted without any significant revisions and required only minimal proofreading.”

—Dmitry Kurnosov, Central European University (Romania & Austria)

“I am a PhD student in sociology at the University of Cambridge, and English is not my first language. As I was completing the draft of my PhD, it was important for me to have a polished version ready for my supervisor to read. There was one particular chapter that I wanted to be proofread quite urgently. I learned about Zach’s proofreading service from my very good friends, and wrote to him. Zach did a fantastic job. He corrected grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes and inconsistencies, made sentences flow more smoothly, and even pointed out some irregularities in how I used my bibliographic and formatting styles. In sum, he was a very attentive reader and corrected my chapter in such a way that I accepted all his changes in my document after carefully reviewing them. I agreed with all of his changes. Ultimately I received very positive feedback from my supervisor regarding the style of writing. I am very happy I came to Zach for help and I highly recommend him if you need proofreading of academic texts.”

—Arsenii Khitrov, University of Cambridge (UK)

“Scholars from non-English speaking countries feel both an institutional necessity and a personal desire to publish their works in English. The language barrier, however, often impedes us from submitting our papers to international journals. The only solution is thus to find a reasonably priced but also reliable proofreading service. And, believe me, it is no easy task. Working with Zachary convinced me that I have found what I have been looking for. Not only did Zach provide a very attentive and careful proofreading of my manuscript with to-the-point comments and corrections, but he also gave valuable advices on its structure and logic. Communication with him was easy and pricing, especially given his background, more than reasonable. I hope I will have a chance to work with Zach again.”

—Evgenii Egorov, Higher School of Economics (Russia)

"It has been great working with Zach. He gave me very thoughtful and detailed comments on an article that I would like to publish. He noticed problems that I was not aware of, explained them in a very accessible manner, and offered appropriate recommendations. Most of all, he (and his teammate) value justice, equality and transparency. So I feel comfortable asking them to edit my work."

—Wing Sze Leung, National University of Singapore (Singapore)

“We have worked with Kirsty several times over the last two years, using both her copyediting and proofreading services. The work is always delivered on schedule and to an excellent standard. Kirsty is professional in her approach and takes time to understand the purpose and intended audience of documents. She tailors her approach accordingly and provides sensitive, well thought out comments on the content and clarity of the text. On occasions we have needed documents copyedited at very short notice. Kirsty is always very responsive and goes above and beyond to turnaround documents in a short time frame. We would highly recommend Kirsty’s services to anyone looking for an efficient and professional editing service.”

— Ruth McKenna, Waverley Care (UK)

“Kirsty Kay edited a paper of mine and did a fantastic job. She helped to turn my bad translation from German to English into a decent piece of writing that sounds like actual English. Furthermore, she assisted to transform a lengthy and meandering draft on a complicated topic in Holocaust history into a cohesive and coherent article. She did not just scratch the surface and correct my spelling and idiomatic mistakes but really dived into the topic, asking me pointed question that helped to clarify my thoughts. This proved tremendously helpful in shaping my arguments. Her remarks even helped me later on fleshing out my doctoral thesis. Kirsty was super-thorough on all levels, easy to communicate with and extremely reliable. Writing scientific papers can be a very exhausting process. More than once, her friendly e-mails really helped me to push on.”

—Phillip Dinkelaker, Center for Research on Antisemitism, Technical University Berlin (Germany)

“Working with Zach was great. He was very reliable, the correspondence was easy, and most importantly, he delivered on time. If you are looking for a fast and competent editing service at a fair price, Zach is a great option.”

— Gerrit Gonschorek, University of Freiburg (Germany)

“I am very pleased with the results of the editing job accomplished by Zachary Reyna. I greatly appreciate the fact that alongside proofreading he enriched my text with useful comments and gave me some valuable pieces of advice. I would strongly recommend his expertise to anybody looking to give a nice shape to a piece of writing. I’m sure that you won’t be disappointed either by the final result or by the price which is more than fair.”

— Ekaterina Smirnova, Ghent University (Belgium)

“In recent decades, English has increasingly become the lingua franca in international humanities and social sciences. This is a great process of international integration, but there is the serious danger of on the one hand underprivileging non-native speakers of English in the marketplace of ideas, or on the other hand barbarizing the English language and reducing the role of precise linguistic expression, which would be fatal for the humanities as we know them.  This is why the field of academic proofreading becomes a highly important profession requiring a lot of skill. Proofreaders basically take you from your particular existence and bring you into your universal existence. Kirsty Kay and  Zachary Reyna are unique virtuosos of proofreading, with interdisciplinary academic competences, mastery of English, and many years of experience in the profession. I highly recommend them!”

— Artemy Magun, Director of the Center for Practical Philosophy at the European University at St Petersburg (Russia); Editor of Stasis: journal of social and political philosophy

“I worked with Kirsty on several papers which were eventually published in the principal journal in the subfield of sociology I am working in (quantitative sociology of culture). While getting them there was in no way easy, none of the many criticisms coming from the reviewers during many iterations of “revise and resubmit” was related to the quality of English writing. Taking into account that my knowledge of English did not progress much since I graduated from a Soviet secondary school, making what I wrote understandable for international reviewers was Kirsty’s remarkable achievement. Working with Kirsty was both easy and enlightening. It was easy as she excellently grasped intended meanings and edited the text so that these meanings were communicated accurately. It was enlightening as, following her detailed remarks and suggestions, I was (I hope) able to make some progress in academic English myself. Multiple iterations of “revise and resubmit” inevitably created some ambiguity on how to count the volume of editor’s work on the revised versions of the same paper, but Kirsty was always very generous in estimating how much we owe her for editing the revision (which, as scholars from a middle-income country, my co-authors and I very much appreciate). I would without any doubt recommend her help to any non-English speaker who embarks on preparing papers for a top-tier journal in social sciences.”

— Mikhail Sokolov, European University at St Petersburg (Russia)

“Kirsty co-edited our collective volume on collaboration and resistance in Nazi-occupied Europe. Her work went far beyond simple language-corrections; with patience and enthusiasm she helped our authors to clarify their arguments and improve their articles altogether. Her experience in working with non-native speakers was especially helpful for this volume, since the authors came from various countries and disciplines. Her background in East European Studies and the knowledge she acquired in previously editing publications about the Holocaust made her especially perceptive for meanings and pitfalls when it comes to writing about this period of history. Her responsible and reliable communication with the authors and us as editors was of enormous help for the project.”

— Paula Oppermann, University of Glasgow (UK)

“I had Zach edit the materials for the website of the research group I am a member of. My colleagues and I liked that he did not just correct the grammar mistakes but made our texts sound like they were written by native speakers. At the same time, texts were not changed completely, and we could still feel like the authors of these texts. Based on my experience of having my texts proofread, I can say that to find this compromise is the hardest thing. Sometimes, proofreaders just change your grammar mistakes, so all your brilliant ideas are still there, but texts continue to sound like written by a foreigner. Other times, proofreaders try to make your texts sound native, so they change your wording, but it appears at the end not exactly what you tried to say. Zach was able to find a balance between these two “bad” alternatives and made our texts sound native while keeping them being “ours.” I also liked that he did his work even faster than we initially agreed.”

— Natalia Savelyeva, University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA)

“Kirsty has edited three articles of mine which I then submitted to Q1 peer-reviewed academic journals. The first article she edited was my first text ever written in English. She did the almost impossible job of making it sound not just understandable but almost native. I still think that it is partly thanks to her copyediting that this article was published in the first journal I submitted it to. The next article she edited just recently returned from the external review in a different Q1 journal. One of the reviewers specifically mentioned that the paper is well-written. The third article is still under review, but I’m sure that Kirsty’s copyediting will bring me luck again.”

— Svetlana Yerpyleva, Public Sociology Laboratory, Center for Independent Social Research, St Petersburg (Russia)

“Zachary provides comprehensive proofreading and line editing including advice on punctuation and style. As a scholar, he is also well familiar with social sciences and humanities and can provide a useful feedback on the general structure of the text, logic, and argumentation. The price is quite affordable too. In June 2020, he edited and proofread my manuscript on the psychological mechanisms of media reception in nondemocracies, and the work was done very professionally and fast. I find Zachary’s work very satisfactory and will definitely use his services again.”

— Maxim Alyukov, Tyumen State University (Russia)