Vocaboly.com

[dave]

I wonder if I could hear some thoughts on an idea I have?


I'm studying for a doctorate in the UK, but may have to give this up
because I am rapidly running out of funds, and the rules over here
concerning work are *very* strict - if I tried to do a part-time job
and was found out, I'd very likely be deported.


I was recently asked by a fellow PhD student, one whose first language
isn't English, to check his thesis for grammatical errors, and though
this took quite a while to do, I really enjoyed the work, and when I'd
checked and corrected it, his thesis was accepted after only a few
further changes.


This has got me wondering if I could advertise this service in US
colleges, have the theses/dissertaions emailed to me as Word
attachments, email the finished product back and have payment sent to
my US bank account.


The trouble is, being the sort of person I am, I naturally assume any
scheme I try will be doomed to failure, and tend to see nothing but
snags. This is why I'm asking for any thoughts or advice anyone in this
ng might be able to give.


An obvious first question: is this service a legitimate one? Certainly,
doing someone's academic work for them would be helping them cheat, but
I'd simply be rephrasing their work into good academic English, mainly
with students for whom English was a second language. So, is this
something I can legitimately advertise?


Another problem is that I have no idea of what to charge (and being
someone who has rather low self-esteem, I tend to underestimate the
value of anything I do, and so under-charge). I'd thought basing my fee
on the length of the thesis, at $5 per thousand words. Is this too
much? Too little? any advice here would be very welcome.


The third big problem is of course finding work. My idea was to make up
an ad in Word (about 6 inches by 4), and email the student bodies of
various colleges, telling them about my service, and asking them to
print out the ad and put it on an appropriate notice-board. Would this
work, I wonder?


Anyway, as I say, any thoughts on this subject would be very gratefully
received - I've only a year or so to go, and I'd hate to have to give
up just because I couldn't support myself.


Thanks in advance


Dave