the Cost of Freelance Editors

I paid a freelance internet editor to edit a 27 page research paper I wrote for a graduate level class. The paper was only edited for grammar and usage, not content.

I found an editor on the internet who sent me copies of her credentials. She claimed to have a lot of corporate experience in a field relating to the topic of my paper. She claimed to have an advanced degree in writing and have experience with technical writing. I was given a quote of $25.00 an hour and an estimate of 5 hours. I was told it would be done with 4 days. Well, I did not get the paper back for 12 days. When I did get it back it was a terrible product. Just reading through the first few pages I saw a lot of things she'd changed that were not grammatically correct and some things that just made the copy more difficult to read. She had changed several technical terms that made it clear she did not have the experience in the field she'd claimed to. She also said it took her twice as many hours as she'd estimated. Because I'd signed the contract and it stated it may take up to twice as long and cost twice as much as the estimate I did pay her even though I had to have it re-edited.

I really got taken, you should take serious steps to make sure this doesn't happen to you. In retrospect one thing I would have done differently is to have her edit the first page and let me review it before hiring her for the entire project.