Carpenter Document Consulting

Hi, folks! We have a few new guidelines regarding payments.

• We will continue to submit a detailed invoice that documents the time we worked on the project and the tasks that we completed. You will receive this invoice when we submit the edited version of your project.
• In addition to this invoice, which is for your own records, we will submit an invoice through PayPal upon completion of the project.
• We are now asking all clients to pay via PayPal. You have five days after receipt of the invoice to submit payment, and the invoice will clearly indicate the due date.

We have a few ongoing clients who pay via check, and those of you can continue to pay this way if you prefer. New clients must pay via PayPal.

Note that these changes are intended to ease the payment process for both of us. It’s easy to forget to drop a check in the mail — and it costs you $.44 to do it. PayPal is a secure way to pay online without exchanging any personal payment information, and it expedites the payment process.

Thanks for your cooperation!

We often field similar questions from new clients, so I thought this would be a good place to address some of those FAQs:

• Pay: We now ask our clients to pay using PayPal. It’s more efficient for both of us than sending a check, and it’s just as secure. If there are extenuating circumstances that prevent you from using PayPal, we can often accommodate them. However, please tell us right away so that we can work out any payment issues before — and not after — the project is complete.
• Phone meetings: We work with clients all over the country, so face-to-face meetings rarely — if ever — take place. The advantage to Carpenter Doc is that we can complete the project electronically, which is a time saver for both the writer and the editor. We are available by phone, but it is easier to get a hold of us via e-mail, which we are checking regularly throughout the week. So, we ask that you use e-mail for everything from a quote request to a quick question.
• Extra charges: If you request a phone meeting outside of the initial quote request, we charge the same hourly rate for the phone meeting. When we’re talking with you about your project over the phone, that means we’re not working on other pressing projects. Thus, we charge for our editorial phone consultation at the same rate.
• Quick fixes: If you notice an easy-to-fix formatting issue with your paper (say, your Table of Contents won’t update correctly), we can fix that for no charge. Just send us an e-mail, and we’ll fix that issue right away.

If you have any project-specific questions about our services, don’t hesitate to contact us!

Hi folks! We are working through several dissertation projects with doctoral students graduating soon. Many of you already know this, but we will be on vacation from April 1 to 4. We’ll still be checking e-mail, so if you need an update on your document or want to submit a document, feel free! We’ll be back to work on Tuesday, April 5. Any documents that have already been submitted will be returned by mid-next week.

Thanks!

Carpenter Doc officially launched in August 2008. Two short years later, we’re enjoying our most successful and productive year yet. We owe a special thank you to our many clients who have referred us to classmates, friends, coworkers, and family members.
In 2010, Carpenter Doc tackled the following editing projects:

• 35 doctoral dissertations in subjects like nursing, education, and English for students from the University of Central Florida, Barry University, Nova Southeastern University, and more
• Dozens of academic papers for students from a range of backgrounds
• Dozens of published articles for academic journals and magazines
• 10 resume/cover letter edits for students applying for graduate school or professionals looking for a new job
• 5 reviews of promotion and tenure portfolios for academic faculty
• 4 grant proposals for professors and even a local museum
• 2 business websites
• 1 young adult novel

As you can see, we expanded our editing reach this year, and we enjoyed taking on new challenges. No matter what you’re writing in 2011, we’re looking forward to editing it.

Happy holidays!

Hi loyal readers! We apologize for the blogging hiatus, but we’ve been busier than ever at Carpenter Doc, editing multiple dissertations a week! We’ll be back to regularly scheduled blogging very soon.

In the meantime, if you have a grammar, writing, or editing question that you’d like us to answer, feel free to e-mail us at barbie@carpenterdoc.com. We’ll address it in an upcoming blog.

Happy writing!

Here in Kentucky, college students are moving into their dorms, and the semester begins on Monday. With a college professor in our household, the first day of school means as much now as it did when we were in college. In honor of the beginning of a fall semester, we’re rolling out a new post every day this week to help students get back in the writing mode this semester.

Stay tuned!

Carpenter Doc is hitting the road and heading to our home-away-from-home in Florida until July 7. We’ll still be working, but our e-mail response time will be slightly slower. So, please be patient!

As always, you can contact us here or e-mail barbie@carpenterdoc.com.

This week marked our busiest week in nearly two years at Carpenter Doc! We worked with seven UCF Doctor of Nursing Practice students, helping edit and format their theses before today’s thesis submission deadline. Whew! Although we’ll continue to work with them after they defend and revise their documents, today’s deadline is a milestone for these upcoming summer graduates.

We work with many UCF graduate students since Orlando is our home, even though we’re in Lexington now. Here is a helpful link from UCF that guides graduate students when writing their thesis or dissertation: Formatting the ETD.

New clients often ask, “How long will it take you to edit my document?”

Although the answer varies depending on our workload, we can assure you that we’ll return your edited document in seven days or less. Needless to say, the longer the document and more intensive the edit, the longer the turnaround time. While we can often turn around short documents in 24 hours, we cannot guarantee a 24-hour turnaround on longer documents like research papers and dissertations.

We realize that your document must meet a deadline (and often a tight deadline if you’re a student), so we’ll work with your schedule. As we tell all of our clients, the earlier you can send us your document, the better. If you’re working on a multi-chapter document, consider sending us your chapters as you complete them, which will expedite the editing process.

So, while it is unrealistic to ask for a thorough, comprehensive edit for a lengthy document in 24 hours, we’re committed to helping you meet your deadline. But, please keep in mind that comprehensive editing is an intensive process, and we’re not willing to sacrifice the quality of the edit for speed. We simply would not be comfortable putting our seal of approval on a document (and charging you for the work) if we don’t have time to thoroughly edit it.

The end of the semester is always a busy time for Carpenter Doc, and the Spring 2010 semester has been no exception. In the last few weeks, we’ve edited eight dissertations and theses from students at a number of schools. Now, that the semester is winding down, and we have a little breathing room, we’ll get back to our regular blog posts!

If you’re graduating this summer and need an editor for your thesis or dissertation, contact us today!

Congratulations to our clients who are graduating in the coming weeks!