01344 827287Freelance professional copyeditor
I work mostly on postgraduate textbooks in the humanities and social sciences, but I also work directly with new authors of fact and fiction.
In no particular order, the subjects I copyedit include: history, literature studies, politics, international relations, economics, economic geography, transport geography, geomorphology, media studies, business, research methods, ecology, linguistics, philosophy and psychology.
I’ll turn my hand to most things, but know when I won’t add value so I don’t taken on jobs in the hard sciences, for instance.
An Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading , I've been running my own copyediting business since 2007. I edit in both UK and US English, and a lot of my academic authors are non-native speakers of English.
I also work directly with first-time and more experienced authors, often on such things as memoirs and thrillers. I don’t, however, work with students on text that is going to be marked.
The English language is a slippery thing, constantly evolving.† It’s important your copyeditor has an ear for that change and growth, so that your writing is right, current and appropriate for the intended readership
In short, a professional copyeditor can help you make sure the written word doesn’t let you down.
As an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading, I’m also bound by our code of practice .
† Here’s an example of just how slippery English can be, using a term close to my heart. Copy editor, copyeditor, copy-editor? Copyedit, copy edit, copy-edit? Well, yes – they can all be right!
The Oxford English and Collins dictionaries choose copy-edit but copy editor (Collins reckons that the closed-up version is American!). Chambers doesn’t have it at all, which isn’t much help when trying to choose the ‘right’ way to write it. The Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading closes up both – copyedit, copyeditor. Many online dictionaries have the combined form – copyedit, copyeditor – and this form is most common in US and Australian dictionaries. The Canadian OED agrees with the UK one. Many other words have the same jungle to fight through, and copy editors/copy-editors/copyeditors are here to help.