There are many editors who work like lone rangers. But when it comes to academic editing, it is necessary that the editing be done in a collaboration with students. There are many reasons that make such interaction a necessity. The first is that when the editors go through any academic document, they may find many errors, which ideally must not be there. Now, if this is a manuscript, then editors may simply return the same without making any correction, with feedback and some comments as to where the mistakes are.
However, the situation for an academic document is different. Here, the editors not just need to make the required corrections, but they must also explain the errors to students so that the same are not repeated in future assignments. By interacting directly with students, editors can tell them about the area in which they are week, judged by the concentration of errors. If there are a number of grammatical errors, it means that the student is weak in grammar. On the other hand, if spelling mistakes are there in the majority, it may simply mean that the student has not been careful enough with the writing process. Mistakes in format and presentation show that the student is not completely aware about the style and format requirements. Depending on the errors which are found, the process of correction and the feedback given to students also change. When editors talk to students, they can specify the area in which they need to improve.
Another benefit that accrues from a collaborative editing process is that any confusion regarding the content can be easily removed by asking the writer what he wants to portray. Once the intended results are known, the language and structure can be suitably modified by editors. There might be some wrong data or names in assignments or dissertations, which pose a problem for editors. Under such circumstances, they need to get in touch with students and ask them to confirm such data. Thus, inputs from both the student as well as the editor are crucial to ensure that the academic document is edited with perfection. The editors at ithesisedit.com collaborate regularly with students and interact with them over email and Skype.