Hiccupping continually, the inebriated and ill-tempered Donner kicks Rudolph’s prosthetic nose across the snowy roof. It goes far before coming to a hard stop at the roof’s edge. Never to be outdone, a wobbly Vixen stumbles forward through the blizzard and hoofs the ball still farther, off the roof and all the way to the peak of the nearby mountaintop. As he stands by impotently and for the most part unseen, the nose-less yet bookish young Rudolph can still enjoy his pride in knowing to say that Vixen has managed to send his still-glowing prosthesis farther than Donner (not more far as his less erudite tormentors might say).

Given that it’s the evening of December 24 and the global trek to deliver gifts has yet to be undertaken, it seems advisable that Santa’s sleigh pullers don’t drink further. For the most part, and when not describing physical distance—and as Rudolph, of course, well knows—further is a stand-in for more or additional or moreover or to a greater extent.

Truth is, we can find plenty of examples of famous writers across the years using farther and further more or less interchangeably. The more that famous writers (mis)use words, the closer their (mis)usages come to acceptance by us all. And, let’s face it, your friends will just stare at you funny if you say you got something right and Stephen King or Jeffrey Archer or Charles Dickens got it wrong. Those wanting to train themselves for precision in what they say are wise to begin their writing careers by restricting their use of farther to physical distance. One could say more, but there’s little point to rambling on further, right?

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The PhD Doctor works with writers to prepare manuscripts for submission to publishers or, in the case of graduate student dissertations, review by and final submission to committees. Student work is always done with the knowledge and consent of thesis advisors.

An authors’ editor is enlisted by those whose native tongue is something other than English or inexperienced writers looking to produce written work to publication standard. 

The role of the PhD Doctor is to help clients say what they mean. The doctor works to whip language into shape to promote readability. If the subject of the work is beyond the scope of his experience, clients will find themselves explaining some specialized or technical knowledge to him. The good doctor needs to fully understand what is intended so he can help the client say it. Together, doctor and client strive for clarity and brevity in all that is written. This means finding ideal words, killing unnecessary ones, and recasting sentences for grammatical soundness or simply to deliver greater punch. Along the way, the doctor may craft more than one transitional statement or small paragraph to promote the logical flow of the story being told. Clients are often a little surprised and a lot pleased to see how small but important changes flush out the unclear and the disconnected to increase the cogency of arguments made. In short, the doctor helps clients sound like the geniuses they are. As the geniuses, clients create all content and ensure the format of their documents conforms to the prescribed academic styles of their disciplines.

It’s worth noting that a manuscript delivered by The PhD Doctor will almost certainly undergo small changes at the publishing house. This is to be expected for a number of reasons. For starters, a reputable publishing house has its own house style that governs everything from spelling to typographical choices, including how dashes are employed. It’s also true that when you’re one of many contributors to a publication, the editors of the volume will work to enforce continuity of style throughout the publication. They’re right to do so because style inconsistencies throughout a book are jarring to readers. Even those who don’t think they notice such things find it plain annoying if color appears in one chapter and colour appears in the next. Finally, editing, like writing, is in large part a creative exercise. There’s more than one way to fix a problem and, let’s face it, we all have preferences that can sometimes be strong. This is especially true of most editors, including The PhD Doctor. All that said,  the PhD Doctor is frequently lauded for helping writers deliver especially ‘clean’ manuscripts that require precious little copy editing.