Editorial Services
For thirty years I have copy-edited and proofread hundreds of books, chapters, and journal articles. The subject matter has ranged from the Humanities (fiction, poetry, literary criticism, collected works, history, political affairs, international relations) to the Medical and Social Sciences (medicine, well-being and disease, public health, and psychology) to the Physical Sciences (physics, astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, computer science, and AI). I’ve also edited theses and dissertations on these subjects.
My clients have included Oxford University Press, Elsevier Science, Academic Press, Random House, The Lancet, British Archaeological Reports, The Independent News Group, Griffith University, University of Bangor, and Practical Action. Authors and productions editors have provided glowing feedback on my work.
In addition, I’ve develop-edited manuscripts for nonnative English-speaking authors.
I can work on paper or on-screen, editing in Microsoft Word, with ‘Track Changes’, and in Adobe Acrobat, using its special proofreading stamps and Comment tools. I’m quite versed in the style guides of Chicago Manual of Style, American Psychological Association, and New Hart’s Rules, following the grammar, punctuation, and spelling rules of American or British English.
As an editor, I’m very thorough and detail-oriented, communicating with the author throughout the process to ensure the editing meets their needs. My editing and proofreading include the following:
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Checking that a manuscript is consistent in style and structure, spelling, hyphenation, punctuation (and mathematics where applicable), that all of its elements are present, including footnotes or endnotes, figures and tables, chapters and appendices.
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Confirming agreement between a table of contents and chapter headings, as well as between cross-references and their designated targets.
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Ensuring the accuracy of facts, dates, historical events, and names of people and places.
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Reading the text for clarity, precision, and conciseness, suggesting changes where necessary.
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Compiling a list of queries for the author that can be resolved when the editing is complete, in a tidying-up phase, or resolved at agreed-upon stages throughout the job.
With the return of an assignment, I will also include a stylesheet detailing the spelling, punctuation, capitalization, formatting, and styling (as well as number and mathematics layout, if present) I’ve followed throughout.
If you’d like to hire my editorial skills, please use my Get in Touch page, specifying the service you need, your manuscript’s word count, and its schedule. Once I’ve seen a sample chapter, I will be able to provide a quote based on this information.