I'll have to keep this post fairly oblique, but let me state on the record that I am most likely not going to accept any more work editing MA theses. It's a shame, too, because it's good work and I've had mostly positive experiences. But the bad apples are so, so bad, and I can never see them coming.
I've had someone tell me (via someone else; way to be passive-aggressive) that after I edited a thesis s/he was helping supervise, it still had some problems, which betrays a misunderstanding of what, exactly, an editor can do. Hint: she can edit. She cannot completely restructure a thesis's ideas and content and language to be amazing, at least not when the source material is shoddy to begin with.
More recently, and the deal-breaker for possibly all thesis editing work from now on, is being treated like what I am doing is unskilled labor. I have only had this problem with theses in a certain field. In the very recent past, I had someone question what I charge per hour for what is often tedious, painstaking work that requires an intense attention to detail and the finer points of the English language. Then, when I was finished working according to their tight deadline and neglecting my family and my other TWO jobs in the process, they questioned how many hours it took me. (Hint: the longer it took me, the more problems your thesis had. Though in some cases, perhaps including this particular one, it was more formatting problems than English problems.) Then, they questioned some of the changes I made, even when I had this field's codified style guide to back me up. If you want me to do things the way your professor likes it, instead of the way the industry at large likes it, please tell me before hour one, not after hour twelve.
Now I just have to hope this person deigns to pay me. I wish people could understand that while having your thesis edited is a hoop you have to jump through (in these parts, anyway - the quality of some was so bad that this university made it a requirement for some programs), it is a hoop manned by an really edumacated person with a particular set of skills.
Anyway. I know I sound like a huge jerk, but someone else was a huge jerk to me today and I guess this is what it makes me do.
I've had someone tell me (via someone else; way to be passive-aggressive) that after I edited a thesis s/he was helping supervise, it still had some problems, which betrays a misunderstanding of what, exactly, an editor can do. Hint: she can edit. She cannot completely restructure a thesis's ideas and content and language to be amazing, at least not when the source material is shoddy to begin with.
More recently, and the deal-breaker for possibly all thesis editing work from now on, is being treated like what I am doing is unskilled labor. I have only had this problem with theses in a certain field. In the very recent past, I had someone question what I charge per hour for what is often tedious, painstaking work that requires an intense attention to detail and the finer points of the English language. Then, when I was finished working according to their tight deadline and neglecting my family and my other TWO jobs in the process, they questioned how many hours it took me. (Hint: the longer it took me, the more problems your thesis had. Though in some cases, perhaps including this particular one, it was more formatting problems than English problems.) Then, they questioned some of the changes I made, even when I had this field's codified style guide to back me up. If you want me to do things the way your professor likes it, instead of the way the industry at large likes it, please tell me before hour one, not after hour twelve.
Now I just have to hope this person deigns to pay me. I wish people could understand that while having your thesis edited is a hoop you have to jump through (in these parts, anyway - the quality of some was so bad that this university made it a requirement for some programs), it is a hoop manned by an really edumacated person with a particular set of skills.
Anyway. I know I sound like a huge jerk, but someone else was a huge jerk to me today and I guess this is what it makes me do.