Is your writing ready to make an impact in the world? Little distracts a reader more than poor attention to detail, errors and inconsistencies. A linguistic call to arms is based on the fact that no one wants to read poor writing.
In contrast, 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 copyedited 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 81 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. I have the author’s back.
Unless there is a time constraint, I go through every document 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 notes page that allows the author to contain and sign off the document. This minimises the time and effort an author needs to invest in getting a document publication-ready.
While at one time I invoiced through an editing network in the Netherlands and one in Germany, I’ve been independent for several years.
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 book chapter by a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
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).
The sooner you contact me, the sooner I can assist you. Feel free to ask me for a cost estimate.