Advice for proofreading services?

[Applemiu]

Hi everybody, I am an international student slowly writing her statement! English is not my first language, so I work with advisors at the writing center of my university. We work mostly on content and flow. My advisor suggest I contact a proofreading service to make sure everything is perfect. She said just proofreading should not be too expensive, about $25 an hour. I guess though that most services charge bypager. Anyway, can anybody recommend a good proofreading service?

[GCool]

Me! Haha.

 

But seriously, the Purdue OWL has a lot of online resources. I'm not sure if you can send a full paper to them (especially asking for grammar help, because that's something we're advised to not entertain during a session), but they have short write-ups on grammar/usage and a very well organized website.

 

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/

[TakeruK]

I guess it is a little strange that your writing advisor suggests you find a proofreading service but does not make any recommendations! One problem with looking online is that there are a lot of companies out there that only exist to scam people in need!

 

My suggestion would be to find graduate students at your school looking to earn some extra money. Perhaps you can post some flyers in the English department or email the department admin staff with your "job request" and ask them to send it to all grad students in the department. I have not done this myself, but the idea behind this advice comes from my own experience as a Physics grad student. Often, parents of high school students or undergrad students looking for tutoring will seek tutors in this way. My department even had a webpage with the contact of all grad students who indicated they are interested in tutoring work for pay (maybe your school's English department has a similar directory).