Close Reading and Feedback

A cost-effective alternative to copy editing is my close reading and feedback service.  This is particularly beneficial for clients who are in need of feedback on the organisation of thoughts and ideas. 

With this service, I do a close reading of the text, but do not make any corrections in the writing itself. Instead, I will provide feedback with regards to the writing throughout the text in a different colour. The text with my input will be provided to the client. 

This service can either be used on its own or supplement the following services: a) one-on-one coaching; and b) guided thesis writing clinic. 

Charges

Close Reading of academic & commercial writings: SGD.003/word (based on the word count of the original document).

Guided Thesis Writing Clinics (Study Group)

For some clients, these writing clinics could be a cost-effective and dynamic way for them to cope with the challenges of writing their thesis.  I would be sharing the fundamentals of thesis writing, which are applicable to all theses, while fielding queries about individual theses. My responses to one participant could be useful for the others at the same time. 

Charges 

Session: SGD150/hour (split among the participants). If travel is involved, additional travel costs (back-and-forth by taxi) will be added.

Minimum: 2 hours; actual costs will be pro-rated according to the amount of time spent. 

Reading fee: SGD.03/word in the case of clients who would like me to read through their materials prior to the session.

RECOMMENDATIONS AND FEEDBACK

About Choo Kah Ying's Copy Editing and Coaching/Consultation Services

I worked with Kah Ying whilst writing my thesis for INSEAD over a period of two years. Without her skill, authenticity and professionalism over this period I am sure the thesis would never have been completed. I found her style both challenging and supportive which was key to my reaching my goal.

Giles Watkins Group Chairman, Coach & Mentor at Vistage plus Affiliate with Aberkyn  I hired Kah Ying for her close reading & feedback service for my INSEAD EMCCC thesis and what I got was … So. Much. More. Kah Ying’s perfectionism, inspiration, productivity and ability to challenge content is simply superb. She only has one aim in mind and that is to help you achieve your goal. Thank you Kah Ying. From the bottom of my heart.  Naomi Sedney, 2016 Diversity Training & Inclusion Consultant INSEAD EMCCC Wave 18 Kah Ying’s support was invaluable during my process of thesis writing. Not only is she an outstanding, precise and eloquent editor with a very high standard, she is also a coach who helps you through moments of doubt, despair and general stuckness , and who celebrates the achievements and happy moments with you. She has witty humour which kept things in perspective when it was difficult, and she is a person I could easily relate to: she is authentic, honest and trustworthy. She really goes the extra mile and is very reliable. She would get back to me within minutes after emailing her. When I sent her a chapter for editing, she would immediately let me know when she would be able to revert (most times within 1 or 2 days), and always did. I loved the way we set up our collaboration: we kicked off with a 90 minute (face to face) session where I took her through my initial thesis proposal. I walked out with a clear structure how to build the thesis and a clear approach for each chapter. She also  gave me some real practical advice on the order and how to approach the lit review, the research, the analysis and the findings, so I felt confident I was good to go.  We agreed I would send her chapter by chapter as I finished them so she could edit along the way. After that, we communicated through email and what’s app. At some point I got very stuck so we had another meeting (Skype this time) where she helped me structure my thinking and make choices. It helped. After that I finished my writing and handed the thesis in within the deadline. Her editing goes beyond ‘putting it down in nice words and perfect English’, she added so much value by making it a cohesive story, and often she would comment on or question content, something I found very helpful. Her style is very hands on, fast pace, to the point and challenging. She is incredibly smart and will tell you what she thinks and sometimes it feels like she is tearing apart your thesis-baby. Sometimes the edited version came back with more BLUE (her editing) than my initial writing which sometimes made me feel I would never make it. I even had a few sleepless nights over it. However, it was always for the better as it forced me to sharpen my thinking. As she tells you from the beginning: she will go as far as she believes you can go, she will push for the best possible thesis you can create. As I said: she has a very high standard! So as her client it was important to know for myself and tell her when it was good enough. The result: my thesis was graded a 3.8/4.0, with gratification…. Cathalijne Oudijk, Marketing Director INSEAD EMCCC Wave 18 Throughout my EMCCC thesis journey, Kah Ying had been patient partner for me. I am an “amateur” in thesis writing. Her strength lies in helping a client stay focused on the theme, as well as organizing and structuring the thinking that fits the requirements of a thesis. Through her, I learned that I should be disciplined and stay focused on the theme, analyze the data, and derive the conclusion from the research study. She knows precisely where citations are needed; after all, there is always someone ahead of you who has probed a notion that you thought had just popped into your mind. The effective use of citations to structure a convincing thesis is also her strength.  Her experience as writer/editor makes your thesis well-articulated and sharpens your writing. The thesis journey I had gone through is something I will never forget. I admire her work ethics and professionalism in my writing. I would like to recommend Kah Ying for both experienced and inexperienced thesis writing.  Kazuko Hirata Representative of K.K. ToughTouch HR Consultant and Executive Coach INSEAD EMCCC Wave 18 "Dear Kah Ying, I have submitted my paper last night and I am very pleased with the result. I wanted to express my gratitude for your hard work and professionalism. It's clear that you deliver your feedback with a measure of concern, and I can understand why. But for me, it was a blessing to have someone take my assignment so seriously and set the bar high where it should be! So, thank you, I truly appreciate your hard work! I hope our paths will cross again in the future." Orly Eitan, Organizational Behavior Lab Manager and Entrepreneur (June 2016) "Working with Kah Ying for my thesis was a pleasure. I felt that because she enjoys what she does so much, she went the extra mile to ensure that not only was my grammar perfect but also that I had organised my content and structure appropriately. It resulted in a couple of rewrites without which i would not have done as well. The lessons I had learnt from her on how to organise  my content were invaluable." Karen Chia, Executive Director, Heritage Trust Group (November 2015) "I highly recommend Kah Ying’s editorial services. She upgraded my INSEAD thesis significantly. Kah Ying is an extremely inspirational and professional editor who throughout the editing process, gave me honest and professional feedback, whilst challenging the clarity and logic of my paper. It was not always easy to receive her frank and direct feedback, but eventually it paid off remarkably!" Anat Amit-Eyal, Transition & Change Consultant (August 2015) "Kah Ying was recommended to me by a EMCC wave 14 member with a word of caution that “if you have a weak heart, Kah Ying is not the right person as she is very direct and questions everything”. I did not have a problem with this working style as I needed someone who is thorough and who could guide me.     Working with Kah Ying was challenging as she takes interest in ensuring that I produced a solid fact-based research paper and her insightful feedback helped me organize my research framework and content with so much clarity. I would like to THANK Kah Ying for being instrumental in providing me with the guidance in developing an outstanding research paper. My thesis graded by INSEAD EMCC Professors received 3.6/4 and this grade is described as “Excellent work, the project is outstanding across multiple areas." Sheila Shanmugam, GroupM, General Manager, m/SIX (August 2014)

"Kah Ying was a blessing for me. She helped me to frame my thoughts and I became clear about the path I wanted to take for my thesis. Thereafter it was a difficult journey made simpler with her excellent editing skills. I would recommend her to anyone intending to write their first thesis or are struggling to become clear." 

Suman Kishinchand BALANI, Founder & Principal Coach of Strengths Coaching Asia (August 2014)

  

"Kah Ying is a great partner during my final leg of my thesis journey. Her superior editing advisory has certainly helped strengthen my argument. Kah Ying pushed me for clarity of thinking through her gentle questioning. This proved that she took interest in my thesis topic. I sincerely appreciate Kah Ying's effort as my running mate in the daunting journey of completing my thesis." 

Gog Soon Joo, Senior Director - Training Partners Group, WDA HQ  (August 2014)

"I had the insight to enroll the help of Kah Ying Choo, a professional editor. She provided me with extremely detailed guidance on my writing and I must say the paper would have been a disaster without her help. It's excellent value for money." 

Florence Bernet, Talent Development Coach and Consultant (August 2014)

"Kah Ying assisted me to develop and complete my INSEAD master thesis in 2013. 

When I was introduced to Kah Ying, I expected someone to help me to enhance the language, paragraph and sentence structures; I found much more in Kah Ying. She first was honest in her assessment: as painful as it felt, her ability to ring the alarm bell clearly and loudly was essential for me.  

Kah Ying then helped me to redirect the whole thesis topic, based on evidence I had collected and the likelihood I would be able to make a convincing argument. She then assisted me to shape, review after review, my document, so that I could quickly penetrate into the subject matter, which helped to bring all the pieces together in a coherent manner. 

Working with Kah Ying was extremely effective and essential; I was challenged in my thinking and writing and I needed this. My thesis was finally satisfactory which I would not been able to achieve without her assistance.  

I enjoyed our collaboration during these several months. Her subtle sense of humour helps as well to deflect the tension sometimes. I would like to work with Kah Ying again and would recommend her to anyone looking for a great support for any complex structured writing project." 

Christophe Grimont, Founder of Grimont Transition Consulting and Coaching (August 2014)

"Kah Ying is the most brilliant and was of immense help to me.  She does high-quality copy editing with good turnaround and goes the extra mile not just editing, but also providing quality feedback.  Her comments makes one think and re-think of the writing and the research findings.  She also does consultation if you need help with your research framework, content review and writing.  She challenges you to think deeper about your content and your findings without pushing the boundaries.  She is very familiar with the CCC thesis requirements so therefore she comes highly recommended by INSEAD CCC students and I am very confident that she will be of great help when it comes to your research and thesis writing.  Kah Ying is in INSEAD’s list of recommended copy editors."

Lucia Ballori, Director, Faculty Administration and Support, at INSEAD (August 2014)


"I highly recommend Kah Ying’s editorial services! She is an extremely passionate and inspirational editor who pushed me to make my INSEAD thesis the best it could be. Throughout the writing process, Kah Ying exposed the gaps in my writing whilst challenging its clarity and logic. As a result of her incredible attention to detail and editorial prowess, Kah Ying has made me a better writer, both at work and personally. Working with Kah Ying was a true joy and her encouragement has raised my overall confidence in taking on future writing projects. And, I would, of course, use Kah Ying!"

Gene Cleckley, Lead Manager, APAC Employee and SEA Communications (August 2014)

"In 2014, I engaged Kah Ying to copyedit my Organisational Psychology Masters thesis paper, based on the Qualitative Research approach, Interpretative Phenomenology Approach (IPA). It was a very busy time for me as I had several competing commitments. My goal was to pass, however my final grade exceeded my expectations. 

What I really appreciate about Kah Ying is her deep experience in the area of Qualitative Research, her ability to challenge my ideas, and her ability to support me write a sound paper in a very short period of time. Kah Ying was patient and provided constructive criticism especially when I was drawn in several directions and started to lose focus." 

Rudi Doku, Change and Transition Consultant (August 2014)

About Choo Kah Ying's full-day workshop, "Writing an Academic Research Report", at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, August 2014, for lecturers:

• Important and interesting. 
• A very insightful session.
• Useful session though arranged at a busy time but there is never a best timing. Appreciate the effort to organise this for our growth and development.
• Kah Ying is a great facilitator. She oozed confidence and charm.
• The workshop was very good, insightful but tiring! :)

My Copy Editing Services: Copy editing and "teaching" through comments

My Copy Editing Services (contact me: kchoo7@gmail.com)

This is a description of my copy editing process for most writings:

Before I returned the document that I have copy edited, I would have gone through the client's original document twice -

First revision.

1.   I make changes to the writing to improve clarity of meaning and phrasing.

2.   In other instances, when the meaning of the writing is unclear, I will insert comments and queries for the client in a blue font, which are highlighted in yellow, thus making these passages far easier to read. 

This aspect is a particularly important part of my work on academic writings: Apart from clarifying the writing of the clients, I also provide teaching points and suggestions to help them to re-think their approach and their arguments.

Second revision.

3.   I review my own editing work to remove any additional errors that I had not caught in the first reading, as well as mistakes in my own corrections.

4.    As the copy is ‘cleaner’ after my first revision and I do have an understanding of the entire piece, the second revision will also be helpful for me to look at the document from a "big-picture" perspective and provide additional insights to the client.

Due to a bug that I had experienced with the "Track Changes" function in Word (which seems to be triggered by copy-pasted text from some other sources and leads to the rearrangement of letters in the text and renders words into gibberish), I will no longer be using this function. 

Here is my workaround solution: 

I will be sending back two documents: 

Document 1 (the version that I copy edited) will contain changes that I have made directly to the text (changes will not be highlighted or noticeable). Comments will be inserted in blue font and highlighted in yellow to stand out from the text.

Document 2 will be a merged document: it combines your original document and my copy edited version, thus showing up all the changes I have made in "Track Changes" mode. 

In case there are any bugs, my copy edited version that is not in the "Track Changes" mode will still contain the changes that I have made and can be compared with the merged document. This is thus a safeguard.

Please feel free to query me about my workaround solution. This is the best thing I can do, as I cannot be sure when my clients might have copy-pasted passages from sources (Internet/PDF articles) that could trigger this bug.

Editing and Charges

My rates for the editing process are as follows (as of June 2014):

Copy editing of academic and commercial writings: SGD0.075/word (based on the word count of the original document).

Intensive copy editing of academic and commercial writings: SGD75/hour. Please query me for more information.

Rewriting of commercial writings: SGD0.15–0.30/word. 

My Charges and Approach

The charge-per-word approach allows clients to know what the total cost would be. Based on the number of words and my existing workload, I would provide an estimated timeframe for the deadline. I can either return the document section by section, or in entirety.

With clients based in Singapore, I typically ask for a 50% payment up front in the case of individual clients. Due to the nature of the work, in which I may not meet my clients in person, the payment approach is based on a sharing of trust:

In paying for the work up front, you trust that I will perform the task. On my part, I recognise that you are serious about having me do your work.

Once the payment is received, I will send a receipt to the client via email and proceed to do the work.

When I have emailed the edited text (upon completion), I will issue an invoice — the payment period is seven days to provide time for the review of my work. At this point, I have to trust that the client will make payment for the remainder of the editing work done.

Thus far, my experiences with private clients have been positive. I hope that it will continue so that I can maintain this practice.

With clients based overseas (not in Singapore), I will ask for 100% payment up front in the case of individual clients. Payment will be made via Paypal. Please note that the client will be responsible for all Paypal fees. (I will provide the estimate of the fees.) 

Once the payment is received, I will send a screenshot of the actual amount I have received from Paypal (after Paypal fees have been deducted) as a confirmation of the payment received.

One-on-one coaching in academic writing (in-person or Skype)

COACHING IN WRITING

Those who prefer undivided attention and want to focus fully on their writings can seek my assistance on a one-on-one basis through individualised mentoring sessions and reviews.

The chief objectives of the first session of an academic writing consultation for clients doing their theses are as follows:

• Formulate the research question(s): Your thesis is fundamentally about addressing the research question(s). Thus, it is important for you to frame it (them) in precise terms. 
• Develop a thesis template (Introduction to Conclusion): This template provides a guiding framework and a sense of direction for the research and writing process by clearly demarcating the scope of the research study.
• Acquiring the knowledge and skills in academic writing: This is helpful for individuals who are unfamiliar with the structure of the thesis and the academic writing stye.
• Brainstorming ideas, concepts, and themes: It is sometimes beneficial to be able to bounced off your ideas about the different aspects of your thesis with me to determine what should or should not be included, or where they should be placed, in your thesis.

Cost: SGD90/per hour (Skype or in-person). If travel is required, travel costs (back-and-forth by taxi) will be added. 

Actual costs will be pro-rated according to the amount of time spent. 

Subsequent sessions can be helpful in supporting the clients during the different phases of their thesis writing process, especially when paired with my copy editing services.

Contact

Ms. Choo Kah Ying, kchoo7@gmail.com