Background + Qualifications
I’ve been editing since high school, which as far as I can tell is when people figured out I was a walking dictionary and started bringing me their school papers and family newsletters. Here’s a few highlights from my life as an editor:
- During college I worked as a freelance technical editor for the University of Maryland College Park engineering department.
- My first job out of college was a proofreading internship at the American Geophysical Union.
- My second job was at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, where I answered phones, tracked down timesheets, and edited technical reports the size of War and Peace. If you’re curious about the kinds of things I worked on during my time with the NRC, I’m credited on page xiii of International HRA Empirical Study – Phase 2 Report: Results from Comparing HRA Method Predictions to Simulator Data from SGTR Scenarios.
I also edited a friend through graduate school, which she swears was a contributing factor in her 4.0 GPA, and was unofficially titled “the unfair advantage” while my brothers were still bringing me their school papers.
What I Do
I will:
- Bring your English up to publication standards. I work with a lot of non-native English speakers, who need help getting their writing to the level of English expected by most English-language journals.
- Edit literally anything that can fit into a Word doc. In the past I have edited college essays, school assignments, technical engineering reports, white papers, resumes, and more. Don’t see your document on the list? Ask me anyway!
- Provide feedback on your creative writing project, whether it’s an essay or a story. (Please note that I am not a scientist and cannot provide feedback on technical papers.)
I will not:
- Do your homework for you.
- Fact-check your work.
- Format your work. That said, if you send me something that looks like this, I will send it back like this and tack on a $20-$50 headache fee, depending on the length of the document.
- Provide “free samples.”
- Edit pdfs. I accept Word documents only.
Turnaround + Fees
My current fee is $0.02 per word, unless you also incur the aforementioned headache fee. (If it makes you feel any better, I’ve never actually had to charge the headache fee.)
My editing speed works out to about 10 pages/hour, and I can usually send things back in 1-2 days. Same-day turnarounds are possible, depending on my work schedule and the length and complexity of the document(s), but carry a rush turnaround fee equal to 50% of the original editing cost.
I can generally meet requested deadlines, but will accept or reject on a case-by-case basis. As a side note, I am located in the U.S. EST time zone. Please keep that in mind when requesting specific turnaround times.
NOTE: I do not work during U.S. Federal holidays.
Legal Jargon
A page is a piece of paper with writing on it. A post-it note would be considered a full page. So would a square of toilet paper. I reserve the right to refuse documents written on either of these things.