Peter J. Francis
HyperGraphix Proofreading Services
In this world of instant communication, it is not important where you are located on the planet. Documents can move around the world in the blink of an eye. Even though billions live and work in other languages, English is a dominant language in academic discourse. However, not everyone is fully fluent or confident in written English. Some people call me a grammar nerd, but I love to help craft good writing.
My goal is to help the world to communicate in English. Many of my clients are not native English speakers. I work to ensure their documents flow with native-like English that meets academic expectations. Others grew up in homes where the English spoken was non-standard. That shouldn't prevent them from achieving their academic goals. Regardless of your level of English, I work to ensure that your writing reflects your knowledge and research. Growing up in a home where I was constantly corrected for grammar errors gave me an unfair academic advantage over more recent immigrants and working-class families. I'm dedicated to sharing that privilege.
I offer personal editing and proofreading services to clients around the world through three websites: HGPublishing.com (for undergraduate academic writing, personal, and business documents priced in US dollars); ThesisProofreading.com (for graduate-level essays, thesis, and dissertations, priced in US dollars); and iProof.ca (for all types of documents, including thesis and dissertations, priced in Canadian dollars). Please use my Contact Form for support for any of these sites.
Some editors require you to do a back-and-forth to get a job done. Send an email inquiry. Get a reply. Agree a price. Send a document. Get an invoice. Pay the invoice. Wait for your document. Not with me. Upload the document, make the payment, and get your document back within 24 hours.
My Background
I've been writing professionally for 45 years. I graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1974. Originally, I planned to study zoology. I attended the University of Western Ontario, in London, Ontario, for three years. However, I did not complete my B.Sc. Instead, I jumped into writing—first at the university student newspaper, then at a community newspaper, Satellite Community News. In 1979, I moved to British Columbia, where I wrote freelance for the Georgia Straight, and then attended Simon Fraser University, where I graduated with an honors degree in English in 1987. During my time at SFU, I worked on the student newspaper, The Peak, serving as News Editor in 1981. After graduation, I worked at the University of British Columbia student newspaper, The Ubyssey, in production, and then moved to the accounting and managment consulting firm Deloitte (then Touch Ross, which merged with Deloitte, Haskins and Sells in 1990), where I oversaw proposal writing and several client and internal newsletters. In 1991, I launched HyperGraphix, with a vision of providing desktop publishing services to Vancouver clients, including the Vancouver Opera Society, as well as some law firms, an investment company, and several small businesses. In 2004, I returned to SFU, where I earned a B.A. in Education, followed by a post-baccalaureate in special education in 2010. Over the years the focus of my work at HyperGraphix has shifted from design and production to strictly proofreading and editing. Since 2010, I've been building a clientele of graduate and undergraduate students, businesses, and individuals around the world for whom I provide 24-hour response proofreading and editing services. For more information about my professional qualifications and to see independent recommendations, visit my profile at LinkedIn, a network for professionals.
One World Community
I feel privileged to live in a developed economy and to have had access to education. I want to extend a hand to people who wish to better their lives. HGPublishing supports Kiva, a non-profit organization that provides microfinance loans to entrepreneurs around the world.
My clients
Because of the geographic proximity to Vancouver, home of the University of British Columbia, and Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, I tend to edit essays for many of their students. But I have also served clients around the world in such diverse locations as Greenland, Sweden, Switzerland, New Zealand, Brazil, Australia, Namibia, England, and the U.S. from Washington to Florida. Since I was educated both in the U.S. and Canada, I am familiar with both American and UK English. I may subcontract some work to other editors when the volume is more than I can handle, but I personally review every submission before it is returned to my clients because it is my personal reputation on the line.
Free Grammar Help
I offer free grammar help because it keeps me on my toes. Your questions often send me prying into reference books to find the rules behind the errors. Your questions make me a better teacher and editor. Similarly, my essay writing advice helps me hone my skills for my own students.
Professional Editing Services
The focus of my business right now is helping college and university students navigate through their essay writing difficulties. I don't write essays; I think that's just wrong. But I do fix grammar for people who have done their research and know what they want to say. Using "Track Changes" in MS Word, I show them every error so they can improve their writing skills.
After more than 25 years in the print production business, I tend to leave design-heavy projects to people trained more thoroughly in graphic design. Getting the right person for the right job is key to spending your publishing dollar wisely. Check out my hints for saving money on desktop publishing. I prefer to be involved in projects where grammatical skills are the priority. Everyone has their main skill set and mine is getting the words right. It's common to see both printed and web material full of grammatical errors. I'm shocked to see a multi-thousand dollar ad campaign with terrible errors that damage the credibility of the business trying to promote itself.
Although I'm retired from full-time teaching, I'm still limiting my editing work to projects of a manageable size that I can do with the time I have available. However, I'd be happy to consider any requests.
As the technical complexity of the world wide web increases, content creation is increasingly in the hands of technical competent but grammatically challenged techno-nerds. Why pay top dollar for design and production services to create web pages that have terrible grammatical errors? Stop the madness! Let me help you make your web pages grammatically perfect.