How I do it
I prefer to work on screen using MS Word’s editing facility. I will correct your spelling and punctuation and help you re-word obscure passages for clarity by making notes and suggestions in the margin. I will, of course, work in hard copy if that’s your preference.
Note that the Deans and Directors of Graduate Studies, in conjunction with the Council of Australian Societies of Editors, has developed a policy that requires the editing of research students’ theses to be in hard copy. However, recognising that this is a counsel of perfection and that many students prefer to work electronically, I have developed a compromise system that allows us to work via e-mail without using “Track Changes”. While “Track Changes” is a useful component of MS Word, it can also tempt students to accept all changes without consideration or even without reading the work!
I can do a much better job if you allow me plenty of time. I like to see a thesis or other long work chapter by chapter as you go along, finally giving the whole manuscript a last copy-edit before you submit it.
NOTE: If you don’t send the work chapter by chapter I must receive the entire thesis or book at least three weeks before your submission deadline – and that would be for a thesis or a novella of up to, say, 20,000 words in length. The longer the work, the more time it takes! A 100,000ww book needs at least three months!