March 29, 2009
One of my clients, a graduate student in Engineering, needed some immediate help identifying grammatical and other language errors in a researched journal article that was due to the publisher within two days. I kept in touch with him daily to make sure that he understood that I was available to help at a moment’s notice. I let him know how I intended to address his concerns and how he could locate me. He brought a printed copy over to the cooperative grocery store where I often volunteer. That same afternoon, I spent an hour and a half marking his article with detailed editor’s notations, and called him when I was finished to report my progress and my time spent. He picked up the article soon after that. During a follow-up phone call I made to him in order to let him know he could ask me any possible questions about my marks on his paper, he told me that he noticed my “excellent” attention to detail.
August 24, 2009
I got a phone call at 9 a.m. on Sunday morning (yesterday, in fact) from a client I had worked with several months previously. This client needed some last minute editing, or as she put it, “another pair of eyes” on an essay for the preliminary examinations to become a Ph. D. candidate. All three of the essays that were written for this examination were due to be handed in the following day. On the phone, we worked out an agreement for a start time and a maximum hour limit of 3 hours. Although I was doubtful about being able to read through two essays of 20-30 pages each that evening, I agreed to do my best. As it turned out, by 5 p.m. that evening, she realized that there was really only one essay that was in such dire straits, especially in terms of organization, that it would need my undivided attention for the entire 3 hour time span. I went through the whole thing that same evening, despite having to teach early the next morning, and finished by 9:20 p.m. I made a lot of changes, both local and global, to the essay. I’m now thoroughly convinced that the writing is much more linear and closer to what my client’s prelim committee wants.
