Chitralekha Manohar |

Featured

Hi! I help policy research and social science authors from around the world communicate their ideas clearly and effectively.

I run The Clean Copy, a boutique editorial services agency. We edit policy documents, journal articles, dissertations and research reports in the social science and policy research domains. Having worked extensively with EFL and ESL authors, my team and I are particularly skilled in polishing up reports, papers, and dissertations to make them submission-ready. We offer a fast, highly customisable, and affordable service. Please email me at [email protected] for a free sample (under 600 words).

The Clean Copy

The Clean Copy is a small team of editors who enjoy working on research manuscripts to make them clear, compelling, and error-free. Working as a team allows us to take on larger projects at shorter deadlines. We follow a two-step editorial process in-house where every document is rigorously checked to ensure the edits are as thorough as possible. We are particularly skilled in editing documents in the clean energy, economics, ecology and environment, sustainable development, sociology, and anthropology domains. Senior editors on the team are also members of the CIEP.

Our editorial process includes (but is not limited to) the following services:

• Reading the text carefully for grammar, punctuation, syntax, and tone
• Applying the style guide
• Checking the flow of the argument at the paragraph and section levels
• Ensuring that an appropriate level of information is provided for the intended audience
• Making sure of consistency in the use of abbreviations, formatting, hyphenation, and punctuation
• Suggesting options to rephrase sentences to make them more clear, crisp, and elegant
• Checking correlations between the text and tables/figures
• Formatting references
• Querying any missing information, including citations
• Running tools to catch typos and other errors

We primarily edit on Word using Track Changes. We are also familiar with editing on LaTex editors (Overleaf) and Google Docs.

Clients
We have worked with authors from the following universities and organisations:

Universities: University of Oslo, Norway; University of Heidelberg, Germany; University of Leiden, The Netherlands; University of London, UK; University of Edinburgh, UK; University of Connecticut, US.

Organisations: Pearson UK; EPICENTER, UK, Major Rugby League, US; Frost & Sullivan, UK.

Subjects

We edit and proofread development sector reports, briefs, and blogposts, academic books (including multi-author works), theses, dissertations, and journal papers. Our areas of specialty include policy research (sustainable development, multilateral organisation reports, policy briefs, economic policy); economics; development studies; anthropology; sociology; ethnography; art history; ecology and environment; water management; political science; international relations; migration and mobility; climate change (climate finance, climate negotiations, clean energy, energy policy); mental health; psychology; movement and dance; area studies (India; South Asia); medical ethics; works by authors who speak English as a second language (ESL) and those who speak English as a foreign language (EFL) .

Training and education

Mentorship, Society for Scholarly Publishing, 2019

Medical Editing (SfEP) 2017

Copy-editing 4: Mentoring (SfEP) 2016

Copy-editing 3: Progress (SfEP) 2016

MA Humanities, Manipal University, India

BA English, Stella Maris College, India

Unsolicited feedback

Often, clients send us feedback without us requesting it. Here is what they had to say:

~ “Thank you very much for the very helpful copy edit of my paper. This indeed improved the paper tremendously” - journal author (ecology and environment)

~ “Thank you so much for the edits. The comments and edits will help make the output more easily readable to people who are new to the subject. Thank you also for reformatting the headings, this was something we had missed while writing.” - think tank researcher (policy research)

~ “Thank you for sending in the edited article on such short notice. I did go through the article, and the comments are helpful in filling in gaps in my argument, especially a key bit in the introduction. Will resolve them, accordingly.” - think tank researcher (policy research)

~ “Thank you so much Chitra. We also got that suggestion from A but we didn't know how to do it. Your comments make it much easier.” - think tank researcher (policy research)

~ “Simply put, it's terrific! I was a little worried as to how the last two chapters would shape up. But now happy with your subtle editing. Thanks so much!” - author (economics)

~ “Thank you for the edits – much appreciated. It’s precise work, exactly what we’re looking for.” - think tank coordinator (economics)

~ "The grant proposal which you edited last summer has been approved." - independent researcher

~ "Thank you so much for the edits and comments. I have been addressing the edits on the policy brief, and with each section I complete it reads so much better." - think tank researcher

Testimonials

"I have found the team at Clean Copy to be responsive, timely, and very professional in our engagements over the year. They are always keen to do better, that's a great attitude to have in all collaboratives. May their tribe increase!"

Alina Sen, Council on Energy, Environment, and Water

"Chitra and her team worked with our network for over a year with excellent results.

She is a thorough and fast editor, who has the ability to go through lenghty academic texts by non-native speakers and make them much easier to read. Chitra has always ensured that our in house style is rigorously followed and that the turn around times are kept short.

If you need high quality, reliable editorial services for reasonable prices, I can highly recommend Chitra and her team!"

Adam Bartha, Director at EPICENTER, European Policy Center

"I am an anthropologist and recently I finished my dissertation project on contemporary art. Because English is not my mother language, I was looking for an editor who would offer me a professional English editing. I searched for somebody who would support me with a confident and productive but also expeditiously processing of editing to enable me improving my work on high academic standard.

Chitra Manohar met all my expectations and we shared some months of intense and supportive exchange for which I am very grateful. In this regard, it is with great pleasure to recommend Chitra Manohar as a professional editor for those who need a reliable support for their academic writing projects."

Cathrine Bublatzky, Heidelberg University

"I worked with Chitralekha Manohar for the editing and proofreading of my PhD dissertation in anthropology – in the field of migration and political ecology – for which she provided a great help and did an outstanding job. The work was very challenging because it needed to be accomplished within a tight schedule so as to meet the submission deadline. Being no native speaker, I greatly appreciated Chitralekha’s capacity to edit my English so as to meet academic standards while maintaining the meaning clear and improving the overall clarity of the text. The collaboration was very fruitful and I am very thankful for Chitralekhas rigorous work. I therefore warmly recommend her."

Matthieu Bolay, University of Neuchâtel

"I am a Chinese student who did PhD in the UK. As English is not my first language, I have to resort to someone professional to help me with my papers. Luckily, I found Chitralekha on the website of sfep. Until now, she had helped me with five of my articles and met my expectations. She offers detailed and professional editing work and provide suggestions wherever it is possible. I highly recommend her to everyone who needs proofreading and editing service."

Xin Pan, Queen Mary University of London

• Editor
• Proofreader

• Anthropology
• Art & culture
• Business & finance
• Earth sciences
• Ecology
• English as a second language
• Environment & nature
• Environmental science
• Psychology & psychiatry
• Reference
• Humanities
• Political science
• Social sciences
• International relations
• Sociology
• Media studies
• Performing arts
• Public policy
• Philosophy

• Editorial training
• Project management