Academic English Solutions
Dealing with your revised manuscript
After revising your paper, I will return it as a Word.doc with the changes made to your text appearing in color, typically red. Next, you will need to accept or reject the suggested changes made to your text. If you are not familiar with this editing tool of Word.doc, you may wish to read the description that follows below; otherwise, simply go straight to your text, either accepting or rejecting the changes as you see as appropriate.
In the menu at the top of your computer screen, choose Tools, scroll down and choose Track Changes, then move your cursor to a box on the right labeled Accept or Reject Changes. A box will appear on your screen in which you can a find a button to click to accept or reject each suggested revision. When it is not obvious why I made some change in your text, I explain why in a box labeled Comments, which appears on the right margin of the text. If you have trouble viewing the comments or words that were deleted, go the menu bar on the top of your screen and choose: View. Scroll down and choose: Online Layout, which will allow you to see the deleted words as well as comments and questions, usually highlighted in red font.
We may also make comments or ask questions about the meaning of the text if it seems confusing. I am typically able to propose an alternative sentence if the meaning is unclear, non-idiomatic, or grammatically wrong. In less common cases, where I could not understand nor even guess at what you were trying to express, I highlight such sentences and ask you to rewrite them, and return them for a final revision. Usually this is rare and no more than two or three sentences, so in these cases, I am glad to revise them free of charge.
After accepting or rejecting our suggested changes, you may need to do the final formatting as required by the journal, such as formatting of your references, or you may need to highlight changes made in color to the text if previously requested to do so by the journal. Note that I do not and cannot accept or reject changes to the text since the final version submitted to the journal needs to be authorized solely by the authors. I also do not mark any changes in red as requested by journals for resubmissions, nor format references. These are tasks typically done by the authors.
Please let me know if you have questions about any suggested changes by me that you do not understand. In addition, I typically include a description of the grammar and word usage rules I reference, as well as point out issues with other textual conventions in the comments, especially if I repeatedly correct a certain error and think you may wish to know why I made such a revision.