Since 2008, I've been providing editorial support, copy editing, and proofreading services to a variety of customers, both academic and trade. I'm fluent in Chicago, MLA, and APA style manuals. My mission is to help you produce your best research and get it published.
As an experienced freelance editor, I understand that each project has a unique audience, and that each author has a unique way of communicating with that audience. I offer high-quality editing services personalized for your needs. Please contact me to discuss your needs and for a personalized quote, and to inquire about special pricing for students, those in precarious academic employment, or for those using multiple services. Many of the services below can be combined or scheduled in succession for a single project. If you don't see a specific service listed below, please do feel free to contact me and ask about it!
I offer a variety of services, including:
Line Editing Also known as stylistic editing, line editing entails careful stylistic editing on a sentence-by-sentence (or "line-by-line") basis. Together, we'll make sure your content is consistently and clearly expressed in polished, confident, and engaging prose. While copy editing and line editing share some similarities, line editing focuses mainly on style and does not generally include exhaustive editing for grammar, spelling, and other errors (although if I see them while line editing, I will certainly flag them or correct them for you!). Since manuscripts will need further revision by the author after line editing, subsequent copy editing is usually recommended.
Copy Editing The goal of copy editing is to produce the most readable, error-free prose. This is a very technical level of editing, which involves correcting grammar, spelling, and syntactical errors; identifying factual inaccuracies and unclear prose; and ensuring that the manuscript conforms to the appropriate style manual or house style of a publisher or journal. While copy editing, I may suggest minor changes to sentence or paragraph structure that would improve the clarity or style of your prose, as I would in line editing--but these are always just suggestions, and that is not the focus of a copy edit. Copy editing differs from proofreading in that proofreading takes place after typesetting and formatting, corrects only formatting errors and typos, and does not suggest changes for clarity or style.
Formatting You might not need an edit of your written content; maybe you just need to reformat a manuscript to ensure compliance with a journal or publisher's style or formatting. Formatting includes changing the shape, look, and layout of your document--changing line and paragraph spacing, margins, heading styles, header/footer styles, page number placement and ordering, etc. I can reformat your manuscript for you, or simply ensure that your formatting meets the guidelines and correct it if necessary. Formatting can sometimes be quite tricky and technical and can happen at a late stage in the publishing process, leading to stress for authors--I can handle it for you. Thesis/Dissertation Formatting Most universities require graduate students to format their theses and dissertations according to university-specific formatting guidelines. I can completely format your thesis or dissertation after all edits and revisions are made, or check and correct the formatting you have done. **Please contact me for information on student specials and pricing.**
Style Compliance and Conversion Academic writing and publishing usually involves compliance with a style manual, such as the Chicago Manual of Style or APA. These style manuals govern the conventions of writing, from whether an author should use numerals or words to express numbers and when words are capitalized or hyphenated, to how headings should be formatted and whether the passive voice should be used or not (and much, much more). I can check your manuscript for compliance with a style guide (I'm fluent in CMS, APA, and MLA) or even convert your manuscript from one style guide to another.
Reference Checking Style manuals also determine the style and format of your citations and references. A full audit for style compliance includes reference checking, but I can also just edit your references without editing the formatting of your entire manuscript. I can check only the accuracy and formatting of your citations and references list/bibliography, or do a thorough edit of your references by cross-checking your in-text citations/footnotes against your references list/bibliography.
Proofreading Proofreading is the final check of a manuscript before it goes to the printer, and it generally takes place after typesetting and after the author has received a “proof” of the manuscript (that is, the formatted and typeset document). While many academic publishers perform copy edits of the manuscript in-house or with freelancers, authors are usually responsible for proofreading. During proofreading I will correct errors and typos introduced during typesetting or missed in earlier stages of editing and ensure the accuracy and consistency of formatting, such as page numbers, running heads, the table of contents, etc. I will not suggest improvements to prose or read for accuracy and clarity of content. The time for that is in line editing and copy editing! In self-publishing contexts or when preparing a manuscript for submission to an agent or publisher, proofreading can involve one last look at the manuscript and supply final corrections of minor errors, typos, and formatting errors or inconsistencies.
Fact Checking Checking factual assertions in a work of non-fiction; in academic editing, this is a very labor-intensive job and will require much more time than fact checking for a trade non-fiction work.
Researching Gathering and reporting on specific information requested by an author or client, for example, collecting phone numbers, data sets, information on a specific topic, etc., and putting it into easily readable formats such as tables, a short report, etc.