STEM vs Humanities has been a long debate for years. Usually, when we talk about academic proofreading, we talk about academic journals in general without specifying which streams we are talking about, but it cannot be overlooked that the proofreading and editing process for different streams and subjects also varies greatly.
The majors work under different circumstances and conduct their research in different fields based on different criteria. Very often, the reality that they are living in also varies based on the lens that they use to analyze.
Penguin Books had to reprint 7,000 copies of a book because one of the recipes called for “salt and freshly ground black people.” They could have avoided this if the author had gone for professional proofreading.
Although people usually believe that proofreading is just about grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure, academic proofreading goes beyond the surface-level editing of your work. It also includes identification of bias, and errors in units of measurement, among many other small subject-specific edits.
How Academic Proofreading Services Adapt to STEM and Humanities Writing Styles
Academic proofreading services are not one-size-fits-all. The criteria differ for all subjects, and so do the editing standards. To understand this difference, let’s do a STEM vs Humanities analysis through the eyes of a proofreader.
STEM studies are data-driven, and so the researchers don’t spend a lot of time on making the language too ornamental. Writing is seen as secondary here; experiments and calculations take the lead. So the main focus of the proofreader is making sure all calculations are in place, alongside making the language clear, coherent, and grammatically correct.
Whereas for the Humanities, Language is the tool to express their work. It is rich, diverse, and elaborate. A proofreader here has to be extra careful not to make any major changes that may change the interpretation or intended tone of the work. Further, the proofreader must also be well-versed in style guides like MLA. AMA and has to check the accuracy of citations as well.
Despite the differences in editing standards, the benefits of getting your work proofread remain high for both streams.
Academic Editing Services for Technical vs. Theoretical Content: A Discipline-Specific Approach
It is probably the biggest stereotype of the time that STEM majors lack the ability to understand society and view it in an anthropologic way because everything is numbers and facts for them and they find it difficult to factor the scope of human error where humanity research works usually focus on a sociological analysis of the society in general.
But even without the stereotype, the content and motives of STEM and Humanities vary a lot. While one is entirely technical, the other focuses on theoretical content.
Academic editing changes its criteria based on the subject matter, the type of content being conveyed, and the intended audience. Whether you’re working on a technical report filled with formulas and calculations or a theoretical paper full of conceptual frameworks, professional academic editing services adjust their approach to preserve your intent while enhancing clarity, consistency, and presentation.
For a proofreader to edit a scientific paper on acceleration, they must know what the study is about, and to edit a research paper on Marxism, they must understand the argument themselves first. For this reason only, the best proofreading companies have separate subject experts for proofreading.
While editing technical content, accuracy comes first and foremost, requiring extra attention to maintaining consistency in units, figures, symbols, and terminology, while also focusing on pointing out inconsistencies between textual descriptions and quantitative data.
Whereas for Humanities journals and papers require more nuanced thinking, with the focus being on strengthening the logical flow between abstract ideas or hypotheses, while enhancing the academic tone without flattening the author’s voice.
Does Proofreading Price Per Page Vary for STEM and Humanities?
Research papers for STEM are usually fact and data-based and therefore don’t have a lot of pages or written content in them; they are usually between 5 to 15 pages. whereas Humanities research papers rely completely on words to convey their message and therefore are longer. On the other hand, a PhD thesis for both streams can vary from 1000 pages to almost 10,000 words. This difference in length reflects the fact that STEM research is quantitative while research in the humanities is qualitative.
Proofreading companies usually have fixed prices per page for general content, but if you require a subject specialist, you may need to go for premium packages, which are slightly more expensive. For example, if you are a STEM writer, your work probably needs more attention and knowledge of the subject, especially if the paper is highly complex and requires more than general knowledge of the subject, which can be time-consuming for a proofreader, therefore increasing the cost.
Humanities papers, on the other hand, are usually more focused on language, flow, and argument structure. These documents often include longer sentences and abstract ideas that require careful editing to maintain clarity and tone. So if there is no deep editing required, the price can be significantly lower.
It is important to understand these differences before going for any proofreading service. This is why the best academic proofreading companies assign subject-matter experts who can navigate both the technical rigor of scientific writing and the layered complexity of scholarly interpretation in the humanities.
