Are your documents ready to be published? Little distracts a reader more than poor attention to detail, errors and inconsistencies. A linguistic call to arms has these premises: nobody wants to read bad writing.
On the other hand, great writing is a pleasure to read, makes you look good, and is good business. A good edit can be the difference between passing and failing, publication and rejection, and a cum laude and a summa cum laude. It also prevents a manuscript from being returned with the single instruction ‘Have it edited by a professional’ and the resulting time loss.
Based in South Africa, I’m a native English-speaking copyeditor (a.k.a. manuscript editor), proofreader and copywriter with years of experience across multiple fields and sectors.
I have assisted many authors to successfully submit papers to at least 70 academic journals and several conferences. The journals include Nature, Organization, Mortality, Academy of Management Journal, Geophysical Journal International, Leadership Quarterly and Harvard Business Review.
I take full responsibility for a document – as if I were the co-author.
Unless there is a time constraint, I go through every document thrice: once in soft copy and once in hard copy; I then apply the hard copy changes to the soft copy, ensure consistency of usages, run a UK/U.S. spell-check and check for double spaces. I also generate a checklist-format Notes page (rather than an alphabetical style sheet) that allows the author to contain and sign off the document. This reduces the time and effort an author needs to invest in getting a document publication-ready.
While at one time I invoiced through two editing networks (one in the Netherlands and one in Germany), I now work solely for my own account, via a respected and trustworthy financial institution. This has been consistently easy and glitch-free.
My clients include academics, consultants, university departments, and organisations concerned with policy, science and conservation in Europe (mostly from Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland), Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Qatar, South Korea, Taiwan, the UAE and the U.S.
I’ve had the rare opportunity to edit a paper by the micro-credit pioneer and Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Muhammad Yunus (Grameen Bank).
Four of my clients are Editors or Associate Editors of academic journals, and I have worked on editor introductions to journals (including Long Range Planning and Mortality).
I have also done work for various sub-organisations of and individuals connected to the United Nations and UNESCO, including the International Social Science Council (ISSC) as well as Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), HIM Heidelberg, the SDA Bocconi School of Management, Tecnológico de Monterrey, University of Munich, University of Pisa and the World Economic Forum (WEF).
To some, an editing practice that stretches back more than a decade may seem extraordinary. To me, it’s simply the careful process of delivering great writing worthy of the name Alphabet City™.
The sooner you contact me, the sooner I can assist you. Feel free to ask me for a cost estimate.
Increase your command of English via teaching sessions on Zoom
While English is too nuanced and intricate to be elementary, learning it does not have to feel like a chore. The alphabet is a gift, language is the original sharing app, literacy is a miracle, and English today contains an embarrassment of riches! Much pleasure awaits. Let’s dive in… For more about my teaching offerings, click.
What could be lovelier?
What could be lovelier than to get one word, every weekday, used splendidly in a sentence or paragraph, delivered gratis to your favourite social media platform? Click for more.
To view my copywriting work, visit house-of-ink.net