Why Contracts are Necessary When Working With a Dissertation Editor

When you’re looking for someone to edit your thesis, dissertation, or grad school application materials, reviewing and signing a contract with an editor might not be top of mind or something that you even feel is necessary. But as someone who has worked with hundreds of clients who have signed contracts for me to edit their work, I’ll explain a few reasons why contracts are absolutely necessary, for both clients and the editors they hire:

1) Contracts eliminate confusion about what your editor is/isn’t responsible for. Imagine you’re paying your editor to review your Reference page for adherance to APA Style, and your editor decides to skip that part of the assignment. If that happens, you can easily point back to that initial contract that you both signed and question why that wasn’t addressed.

2) Contracts can help you manage your budget. When you sign a dissertation editing contract that states that 50% of the estimated fee is due before editing begins and the balance is due upon you receiving the final edits by a specific date, you can better manage your finances so you have the funds in place to make payments on specific days.

3) It holds you accountable, too. Let’s say your editor has agreed to edit your 200-page dissertation in 5 business days (which is an aggressive timeline). In the contract that you and your editor have signed, it states that if they have any questions/need clarity about something in your dissertation, that you are responsible to respond via email within 24 hours. If you don’t respond in time and give your editor the clarity they need to edit that part of your dissertation, imagine how challenging it’s going to be for them to turn around the edits in time. If there are delays, that will only impact when you can start reviewing the edits and finalizing your work.

As much as a contract can make you feel uncomfortable at first, clear, well-written contracts protect all parties and are absolutely critical for the entire dissertation editing process to run smoothly.