Thesis Paper

[ilyushin]

A friend of a friend wants me to check a thesis paper. I have no idea what to charge. I would normally do it for free, but worry that the person will volunteer me to do others. Any idea what would be a good price to charge for checking the thesis paper?

[Scott]

I've done this before, and I have usually asked them what would be a fair price. It depends on the length and complexity of the paper, but the last one I did, the person offered 3,000 baht and I accepted. It was rather long, but he had excellent English, so there was very little work involved.

I've always done it more or less as a courtesy for someone (usually a friend of someone I know, or a former student etc.). I've done a few of them for free for older adult students who have gone back to school--but I've always been rewarded with a lovely meal, a night out etc.. These were people that I knew quite well and wouldn't feel comfortable in charging.

Let us know what happens others are interested I am sure.

[ilyushin]

I've done this before, and I have usually asked them what would be a fair price. It depends on the length and complexity of the paper, but the last one I did, the person offered 3,000 baht and I accepted. It was rather long, but he had excellent English, so there was very little work involved.

I've always done it more or less as a courtesy for someone (usually a friend of someone I know, or a former student etc.). I've done a few of them for free for older adult students who have gone back to school--but I've always been rewarded with a lovely meal, a night out etc.. These were people that I knew quite well and wouldn't feel comfortable in charging.

Let us know what happens others are interested I am sure.

Thanks Scott! It is a 170 page paper and the language needs work.

[Scott]

I've done one that was in the neighborhood of 100+ pages, but it was scientific and there were loads of pages with tables, charts and other things that didn't require much reading. Also loads of statistical analysis. I had helped with it off-and-on for a while (informally), so when I got the final draft it was pretty much ready to go with just some minor corrections. I don't remember what I got for it, but I would guess around 3,000 baht.

I worked for a company part-time teaching English, so the General Manager, it was his paper, would tell the staff to put down extra hours.

I never really calculated it because the class and the General Manager were so very kind to me. Sent work crews over to fix the wiring in the house, pump out the septic tank, get my vehicle fixed etc. etc. The GM had very good written English. It's hard what to charge if it is a struggling student.

Best of luck.

[marquess]

Usually the going rate is between 80-150 per page with double or at least 1.5 spacing, the lower range for nearly perfect English and maybe even higher than 150 if is terrible.

[zaphodbeeblebrox]

I charge 200 baht/page for Thai/100 for westerners. How do you double-pricing critics like that! Truthfully, many of the thesis papers written by Thais that I have edited are cut and paste from the internet. This involves considerable rewriting, justifying a higher price.

[GarryP]

I have done a number of these. Those I did for freinds as a favor were done free. For others I have charged anywhere from 5k to 20k. The great difference in price is due to the number of pages and the quality of English. Before being pinned down to a price, I always demand that sample chapters are provided first. Some of the work I have seen was atrocious and could not be corrected as it was incomprehensible in the first place. Thus, in such cases you spend a lot of time going back and forth with the author in order to hammer out something that resembles a thesis.

To conclude, always demand to see the paper or part of it first, then estimate how long you think it will take you to complete and double or triple that time, then you can start thinking about a reasonable figure.

There have been some I wish I had never taken on despite being well paid for them. With 90 percent rewrites it should have been me earning the MA or Phd, not the original author.

Edited to correct grammar errors, spelling, etc.

Edited November 23, 2010 by GarryP