From Formatting Chaos to Submission-Ready: Full Dissertation Edit in Under a Week
Overhauling Headings, Citations, and Style for a Polished Final Submission
In early April 2025, I had the opportunity to work closely with a doctoral candidate to transform a complex, partially formatted dissertation into a submission-ready document. Over the course of just a few days, I completed a full structural and stylistic edit, ensuring compliance with institutional guidelines and APA 7 standards.
When this phase of the project began, the document had major formatting inconsistencies, particularly with heading levels and table/figure captions. Some paragraphs were mistakenly styled as headings, and the table of contents (TOC), table of figures (TOF), and table of tables (TOT) were incomplete and misaligned. The client was understandably overwhelmed.
Here’s how I guided the project to completion:
Day 1: Began with document reformatting, focusing on correcting heading styles and caption formats. Worked through 128 pages of the 215-page document in the first session.
Day 2: Completed all heading corrections and figure caption adjustments. I addressed problematic use of heading styles (e.g., bold/italic paragraphs due to incorrect Level 3 formatting) and ensured consistency throughout. Having worked on chapters 1-4 in the months prior as the student wrote each one, in this phase I also edited Chapter 5 for clarity, citation style, and flow—shifting from repetitive parenthetical citations to integrated narrative citations, improving readability and academic tone.
Style Consistency: Standardized terminology, replacing “artificial intelligence” with “AI” consistently after first use, per APA 7 conventions.
Day 3: Finalized the TOC, TOF, and TOT, corrected remaining heading errors, removed unnecessary page breaks in the Appendices, and created a clean PDF for consistent formatting across devices.
Final Deliverables:
Fully edited Word document with clean, consistent formatting
PDF version for submission
ReciteWorks report to confirm APA compliance
Total time invested: 6 hours
Result: One very relieved and confident doctoral candidate, ready for final submission.
This project showcases my ability to quickly and thoroughly handle large, complex academic documents, offering both editorial precision and supportive guidance through stressful milestones.
Ready to polish your dissertation? Book your APA 7 Dissertation Edit today!
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