Professional Proofreader vs. Proofreading Software

It can take thousands of hours of work to craft a thesis or dissertation. Between conducting the research necessary for academic writing and organizing it into supporting evidence and a solid conclusion, it is a laborious process. When your final draft is ready, only one step is left before its official presentation: the editing process.

With the recent rise in the popularity of editing software, some academics turn to artificial intelligence (AI) to prove their precious work. While AI may be suitable for proofing some writing, an academic thesis is not among them. Why would you risk having AI whisk over what may have taken you years to compile, with nothing more than a surface understanding of what makes the content correct or appropriate? That is the risk academics take when they rely solely on AI to review their hard work.

Popular editing software 

There are more than a few editing software programs flooding the marketplace. Some of them are free, while others offer free and premium subscriptions to users. Here are two of the most popular AI editing options available.

• Grammarly offers a free and premium version to users. A full version of this AI editing software costs $29.95 a month. Grammarly does well enough with locating spelling and grammar errors but lacks the knowledge to verify facts and technical details present in most academic documents. You can choose between kinds of writing — academic, business, casual, creative, email, general — and indicate whether you are trying to convince, describe, inform, or tell a story. Grammarly will then spit out suggestions for improvement of your document.
  
  
• Hemingway Editor also offers a free and paid version. Hemingway is excellent at identifying issues with your writing. What it does not do, however, is tell you how to fix your writing. While it may point out if you are using passive voice too often or phrases that have simpler alternatives, it does not offer suggestions for revising those sections of your writing, leaving you to figure it out on your own.

The problem with most AI editing tools is they can misinterpret and confuse terms and their use. A human editor could identify language nuances and verify terminology specific to an academic topic. In contrast, an AI bot would assume it is a writing error and direct you to fix it. In the same token, AI can miss fundamental errors by misinterpreting wording. The human editing “eye” can be far superior to AI in the academic world.

Why choose an academic editor?

There are advantages to using an academic editor to proofread and improve your writing instead of the latest software. Human proofreaders trounce AI bots any day:

Proper Nouns and Academic Terms

AI editors have great difficulty with proper nouns and academic terms. They will mark them as errors most of the time, making for a tedious review process if you are writing about a technical topic with a lot of industry-specific jargon.

Formatting and Presentation

AI can only identify problems a human has directed it to find. The structure of your paper and presentation of findings affects its digestibility and is paramount to its reception by other academics. Human editors excel at helping you identify the best format and presentation to ensure your writing flows and delivers the main point.

The Human Touch

The last thing you want to happen after all of your research and hard work is a paper that appears to be written by a robot. While the software creators are promoting their tools to be “as good as or better than” human writers, why take the chance? 

Our editors are available 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We lend a human touch to the editing process, offering turnaround times that meet any deadline. Reach out today to find the perfect editor to meet your needs.