Most authors that I work with know their topic inside and out, and they’ve read their drafts over and over. But it’s easy to lose objectivity when you are so engrossed in your work, isn’t it? Your paper becomes marred by murky passages where you know what you want to say but can’t get it quite right.

A talented editor will pull you out of the weeds by finding gaps in your logic or points that need clarification. I help academics at all career stages clarify their writing goals and move their projects forward, including:

• Peer-reviewed journal articles
• Academic books and edited volumes
• Book chapters
• Book proposals
• Materials for promotion/tenure review
• Feature articles

My schedule books up three to six months in advance. Please contact me as soon as possible to find out if I have room in my schedule or if I can take on your project using a team editing model.

Line-by-line (substantive) editing: If you are confident that your project has a clear argument, organization, and structure, then substantive editing is an excellent way to ensure it is ready for publication.

Unclear grammar and syntax can confuse the reader or make it difficult for them to grasp the significance of your research. I use several skillsets to provide an intensive editing service that examines your writing at the sentence level to suggest ways to make it clearer and more concise so that your readers easily grasp your arguments.

I also check for broken hyperlinks, add or update transition sentences so the text flows smoothy, and I confirm your work does not contain any factual errors or gaps in logic. As a last step, I use professional editing software to check that your document does not have any inconsistencies (e.g., spelling, capitalization, abbreviations, hyphenation).

If you still have questions about your document’s argument and overall flow, then I suggest considering a developmental edit instead. For journal articles, developmental editing is also a benefit when you have questions about journal fit, if you need help evaluating and responding to reviewer’s comments for a Revise & Resubmit, or you need to reduce word count to meet a publisher’s requirements. If you are in the early stages of writing, I can help you craft a compelling book proposal. See page-by-page developmental editing below.

Page-by-page developmental editing: A developmental editor is a big-picture editor who helps strengthen a manuscript’s concept, thesis, and structure, or who can help create a compelling book proposal.

Developmental editing is an in-depth approach that involves reorganizing, expanding, and/or tightening content; strengthening transitions; and clarifying a central argument.

At any manuscript stage, from brainstorming to full draft, I immerse myself in your writing and help you shape its argument and make its organization coherent. After discussing your writing goals and learning more about your target audience, I thoroughly read, analyze, and evaluate your manuscript and write a comprehensive report that assesses its overall strengths and weaknesses and provides a revision plan on the basis of this assessment and your stated goals. Sometimes this entails helping authors write a compelling book proposal for acquisitions editors, or revise a journal article or book manuscript before they submit or resubmit their project for publication.

Perhaps you have a wealth of material but are unsure how to convey it in a way that reaches your target audiences. Or maybe you have not even settled on what exactly you want to convey. A developmental editor can help translate an idea into a lucid and intriguing text.

After making revisions, some authors ask me to line edit the final document to ensure it is ready for submission/publication. (See line-by-line editing above.)

Proofreading: If you have received page proofs back from your publisher and need an extra set of eyes to ensure it is error free, I have a keen eye and a lot of experience proofreading these materials.

I’ll check the final document for minor, mechanical errors and to ensure it adheres to your publisher’s house formatting style.

References/Citations editing: Adapting citations and references to the publisher’s preferred style, and cross-checking that all references are cited in the main text.

In addition to these services I help scholars with their promotional materials (book chapter summaries, book jacket copy, etc.), I offer consultations on how to navigate academic book publishing and the journal submission process, and I conduct journal research to determine the best fit for your peer-reviewed article.

To get started, send me an email with details about your project or request a free consultation to discuss your work and expectations and to learn about my process and fees. I’ll then send an estimate for us to agree on before I begin the work. Using either Microsoft Word or Overleaf (for LaTex files), all edits are tracked so you can readily accept or reject my suggestions.

Please get in touch by email or submit project details in the contact form for an estimate.

In addition to the number of words, I assess the level of changes needed at the sentence level and the number of in-depth comments needed to improve the project’s logic, flow, or overall organization. Please get in touch by email or submit project details in the contact form for an estimate.