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Great writing is a pleasure to read, makes you look good, and is good business. No one wants to read writing that’s full of errors and inconsistencies.

To edit is to unlock a manuscript’s full potential and make its writing shine. A great edit has profound and astonishing transformative effects on the quality of a text and the experience of its readers.

A good copyedit can be the difference between publication and rejection, and a cum laude and a summa cum laude. It also prevents a manuscript from being returned with the instruction to have it professionally copyedited, with the resulting delays.«

Based in Cape Town, South Africa, I’m a native English-speaking copyeditor and copywriter with years of experience across multiple fields and sectors. I have assisted many authors to successfully submit to at least 91 academic journals and several conferences.

I take full responsibility for a document – as if I were the co-author. That is, I assemble hard-working sentences that can be inhaled like ice cream. This minimises the time and effort the corresponding author needs to sign off and submit the manuscript.

My clients include academics, consultants, university departments, and organisations concerned with policy, science and conservation in Europe, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Qatar, South Korea, Taiwan, the UAE, the UK and the U.S.

I’ve had the rare opportunity to edit a book chapter by Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize winner. 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’ve also done work for various sub-organisations of and individuals connected to the United Nations, including the International Social Science Council (ISSC), as well as the World Economic Forum (WEF).

I can help you get weeks, months or years of your hard work publication-ready swiftly. For instance, a
paper of 25 to 30 pages in 12-point, double spacing may require under two days’ worth of work.

The sooner you contact me, the sooner I can assist you. Feel free to ask me for a quote.

While I get most of my work from referrals, the following enable you to swiftly evaluate my work: What I do when I copyedit (three pages), Before and after copyediting (two pages), and Some common errors and proposed fixes (two pages). What these three documents (or all three in one) as well as a quote from me enable you to do is to completely de-risk your choice of copyeditor and the copyediting process. Exciting, isn’t it?!

You can subscribe to my (free) monthly language bonbon – About All Things English… – here. Why? Because the alphabet is a gift, language is the original sharing app, literacy is a miracle, and English has more facets than a masterly cut precious gemstone. Much pleasure awaits…

“Thank you Johan! It truly has been a pleasure working with you. You were very respectful. Honestly, this was very different to another editor, who thought it was appropriate to write ‘CARELESS!’ every time I misspelled a word. I am happy that I went with you instead!”
Marlies Koers-StuiverSocial Entrepreneurship, Centre of Entrepreneurship, University of Groningen, the Netherlands
"Dear Johan, Thank you very much for your excellent work. Best regards."
Peter HofmannProjektgruppe Wirtschaftsinformatik des Fraunhofer FIT, Universität Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
"Dear Johan, Thank you so much for the fast and perfect editing, also for the sentences you proposed for the abstract. Best regards."
Moritz BeckerInstitute for Information Systems and New Media, Munich School of Management, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, München, Germany
“Dear Johan, I really appreciate your careful proofreading. I am now checking details. Again, thank you very much for your professional editing service. Best regards,”
Fumikazu MorimuraAssociate Professor of Marketing, Kobe University, Graduate School of Business Administration, Kobe, Japan
“Thank you, Johan! As always, we very much appreciate not only your thorough edits, but also the Comments – hoping they help us to improve our English 🙂 Best regards from Berlin,”
Dr. Ulrike KlingerWeizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society, Berlin, Germany
Dear Johan, I just want to let you know that I am through without problems! It sounds much better with less words. Cheers,"
Prof. Dr. Carmen SchmidtProfessor for Political Sociology, University of Osnabrueck, Germany
“Thank you for the quality and flexibility of your work. These are the key qualities we look for in a consultant. Thank you very much for your support!”
Daniel KleinFormerly Senior Associate Consultant, Switzerland office, top-tier international consultancy
“Thank you so much for the last edit of my dissertation’s framework paper. You really did a great job here! Thanks to your effort, everything is now set to hand in my dissertation in the last days before Christmas.”
Peter HeinrichInformation Management Research Group, Department of Informatics (IFI), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
“Many thanks for your important intervention! We will now submit.”
Marina FiedlerSchool of Business Administration and Economics, University of Passau, Passau, Germany
“My paper has been accepted. Thank you very much for your helpful comments, revision and immediate last-minute help. Best wishes,”
Doris MasalChair for Public Management and Public Policy, Zeppelin University, Bodensee, Germany
“Dear Johan, Thank you very much for your edits and for your kind message. I went through the proposed optimisations, and am very satisfied with the final results. I already incorporated them into the final manuscript. Thank you very much for your efforts in providing such a nice language review of my work. I will carefully conserve your notes, as I learned very interesting material during this process. I will keep your coordinates in a safe place, and if you don’t mind, will advertise your services to my colleagues who are looking for editing. It was a pleasure to interact with you, and very educative. I wish you all the best, and will not hesitate to contact you if needed in the future. Kind regards,”
Ludovic RassPostdoctoral researcher, Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW), ETH Zurich; computational geoscientist and lecturer, University of Lausanne
“We are nearing completion of the book. You have done an amazing job and we are very grateful to have you as our editors!!! A big THANK YOU again to you, Johan, for all your work so far. I really appreciate your ability and willingness to cope with the sometimes erratic, spontaneous and annoying demands that this project has placed on you. Best regards,”
Dorothee QuadeLehrstuhl für Sozialgeographie, Institut für Geographie, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany
“Thank your very much for your help. That was really quick. I am more than impressed! Also, thank you very much for your additional material, which is really useful.”
Julia BrockmannChair of Organization and Management, Department of Business Administration, School of Business, Economics and Social Sciences, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
“Thank you very much, Johan! We very much appreciate your work, which has greatly improved our paper. Kindly,”
Ulrike KlingerInstitute for Mass Communication and Media Research (IPMZ), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
“Thank you, Johan, for your careful review of this [Netflix] case study.”
Günter Müller-StewensIFB Institute of Management, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland
“Thanks a lot for your support on this brochure. Best wishes,”
Felix IsbruchChair of Controlling and Performance Management, Institute of Accounting, Control and Auditing, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland
“Given the excellent quality of your last edit, I would like to ask you if you could proofread another paper for me.”
Peter HeinrichInformation Management Research Group, Department of Informatics (IFI), University of Zurich, Switzerland
“Thanks for your work. I’ve accepted all your changes and rewrote 8 to 10 sentences as you suggested in your notes.”
Giuseppe D’OnzaRisk Management and Internal Auditing, Department of Economics and management, University di Pisa, Pisa, Italia
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