About Form and Style:

About Form and Style

The purpose of the form and style review is to edit a capstone manuscript to improve the writing and to ensure that the manuscript conforms to APA and the prepublication formatting requirements set by both Walden and ProQuest.

The team of form and style editors comes from both academia and the world of publishing. Part of our task as editors is to ensure that the mechanics of the writing are correct (grammar, punctuation, APA publication style). The mechanics are straightforward compared to the overarching task: ensuring clarity of expression. APA (2020) asserted,

The main objective of scholarly writing is clear communication, which can be achieved by presenting ideas in an orderly and concise manner. Establishing a tone that conveys the essential points of your work in an interesting way will engage readers and communicate your ideas effectively. Precise, clear word choice and sentence structure also contribute to the creation of a substantive, impactful work. (p. 111)

We editors do not critique ideas, but the way the ideas are expressed. We will comment not as a subject matter expert, but as a writing expert. Our goal is to ensure that the reader receives the intended message. We do this by upholding high standards of writing. If the committee advocates for the student as the student–writer, the editors advocate for the reader.