When the sentences are fine and the document still is not working
Some problems cannot be fixed at sentence level. A chapter in the wrong place, an argument that never quite lands, a section answering a question nobody asked. Developmental editing works on the shape of the document rather than its prose.
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The feedback tells you which level you are at
If your supervisor is writing unclear or awkward in the margin, that is copy editing. If they are writing this belongs earlier, you have not addressed X, or I lost the thread here, that is developmental, and no amount of sentence work will answer it.
The commonest structural problem in long academic work is that the document follows the order in which the writer understood things rather than the order a reader needs. That is invisible from the inside, because you already know where it is going.
This work happens on an earlier draft than the other levels, because acting on it means rewriting. Doing it after a proofread wastes the proofread.
- Whether the argument actually holds from start to finish
- Section order, and what a reader needs before what
- What is missing that an examiner will expect
- What is present that is not doing any work
What you get back
A report, not a rewritten document
- A written report on structure, argument and completeness
- Comments in the document at the specific points that need work
- A suggested reordering where the sequence is the problem
- What to cut, with the reasoning
- A conversation afterwards to work through the report
We tell you what needs to change. You change it
- We do not rewrite or restructure the document for you.
- We do not write missing sections.
- We do not change your argument or supply one.
- We do not add sources or content.
- We report what is not working and why, and you decide what to do.
This is the level where the boundary matters most. A document someone else restructured is one you cannot defend, and the viva is where that is tested. Read the full policy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Copy editing works on sentences. Developmental editing works on the document: what order the sections go in, whether the argument holds, what is missing and what should go. It produces a report rather than a graded-up text.
On a complete draft, early enough that you can act on it. It is wasted on a final draft two weeks before submission, because the recommendations involve rewriting. Directly after a full first draft is usually the right moment.
No. You get a report and comments telling you what is not working and why, and the rewriting is yours. That is both an integrity requirement and the only way the changes end up defensible.
From $0.05 per word. It costs more than copy editing because it takes longer per page and produces a report as well as comments. You get an exact figure after we have seen the draft.
Yes, though the value is highest across a whole document, because most structural problems are about how sections relate to each other. A single chapter review is useful for a chapter that has been rejected.
Then say so, and we will talk it through. A report is an argument about your document rather than a verdict on it, and you may have reasons we do not know about. Nothing is applied without you.
Send the full draft and the feedback you have had
We will tell you whether the problem is structural or sentence level, and what a developmental pass would actually change.
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