Please note that all last minute changes, announcements and information will be posted on the door of our office. Students are welcome to come by the office or to phone during our office hours.

Editing Services

The Graduate Thesis office provides copy editing services free of charge to students of BU's Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences.

It is important that the adviser and the student understand the limits of the work permitted and the amount of time needed to edit a text. The following chart explains the different kinds of editing and notes whether they are offered by the Editing Services Office.

Definition of Terms
Type of editing Description Service offered
Proofreading Checking for typos and format mistakes. Yes
Copy editing Grammar, spelling, punctuation and other mechanics of style Yes
Stylistic editing Clarify meaning, smoothing language and other non-mechanical line-by-line editing. Some
Substantive or
structural editing 		Clarifying and/or reorganizing a manuscript for content and structure is not done. This level of critique belongs to the thesis adviser. No
Deep editing Basic spelling and grammar mistakes, basic formatting, rewriting bits, translating terminology No
Format check Final proofreading before the manuscript is published Yes

Rough drafts are not accepted.

Deep editing of texts is not possible given the time constraints and the number of students seeking editing. It is the student's responsibility to make sure the language in the thesis is comprehensible and to perform a grammar check and a spell check before submitting the text for copy-editing. Any text found to be in an overly rough state will be returned to the student for rewriting before editing can proceed.

Before submiting your thesis for editing, make sure you have followed these steps:

1. Your thesis must be ready to be edited

  • The thesis must be complete. This means all parts of the text, front matter and back matter.
  • The thesis must be proofread by the student carefully with a spell-checker and a grammar-checker and corrections made.
  • It must be formatted in the style required by the Institute. You can use the Thesis Format Checklist to make sure you have all of the elements presented correctly. This is the same list the Editing Office uses when your thesis is submitted for editing. Papers found to be not in format will be returned to be fixed before editing can proceed.
  • Your adviser must fill out and sign the Thesis Permission Form, which states that the thesis is ready to be submitted for editing.
  • Theses lacking parts and/or not properly formatted will be returned to the student before being edited.

2. There are time constraints
  • Properly prepared theses and dissertations are edited in the order in which they are received.
  • Editing personnel do not work evenings, weekends or holidays. Please take these facts into consideration when planning to submit the thesis.
  • Theses must be submitted for editing at least 10 days before the Institute deadline. That is, if the SSI states that the deadline for thesis submission is 15 June for graduation, students who require editting must bring their theses to the Editing Office at the latest on 5 June. Otherwise their theses will not be edited by 15 June, but at a later date.
  • The editing office is closed for the month of July and for 2 weeks during the winter break. The dates will be posted on the door.

3. The student is required to make the changes indicated by the editors.
-- After the student has made all of the changes indicated, but before having the book bound in hard cover format, a final Format Check is conducted. The manuscript is compared to the
Format Checklist and the Graduate Thesis Office will check to see the changes have been made.
The Graduate Thesis Office
The Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences
Bogazici University, Istanbul Turkey tel. 359 7718