Qualifications & Training

I hold a BA Honours in Linguistics from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (graduated 2012). My undergraduate majors were Linguistics and English Literature.

I am an Accredited Text Editor (English) through the Professional Editors’ Guild 2022 Accreditation Test, a rigorous assessment benchmarked against international best practice.

I have attended workshops and short courses on plain language, grammar, fiction editing, house style & consistency, referencing styles, punctuation, structural & stylistic editing & levels, proofreading on PDFs, getting to grips with grammar, peculiarities in academic writing.

I am committed to continuing professional development (CPD) and therefore regularly enrol for courses such as those above, engage with fellow editors in online forums, and read relevant articles to stay abreast of the latest in good editing practice, English usage, conscious language, tech tools and other aspects of the editor's craft!

Experience

I have been working as a professional editor since 2014, mainly editing academic works (dissertations, theses, articles, chapters, conference papers, proposals and the like).

Notably, I served as style editor for the 2021 Springer Nature book, Non-Western Identity: Research and Perspectives, ensuring consistency of APA Style across all 16 chapters (see acknowledgement on p. xiii of the front matter).

Before becoming a full-time freelancer, I worked in communications, events, educational administration and artist management. Common to all of these roles is the ability to get a message across clearly.

Professional Membership

I am a member of the South African body the Professional Editors’ Guild (PEG).

Philosophy/Focus/Approach

I am your partner and my aim is for you to shine through your writing. I definitely don't take credit for your brilliant ideas.

I am not here to judge or pick apart your writing (I'm not your supervisor, reviewer, marker, lecturer, boss, manager).

Please do not imagine me as a monster wielding a red pen (in fact, one of the first things I suggest when I return the manuscript is to change the colour of your tracked changes in Word. Nobody needs that red-ink negativity in their lives!)

I strive to use conscious language (terms that are not biased or likely to cause offence, especially to marginalised groups) so that you may be sensitive to your audience, even when discussing difficult topics.

I support the use of plain language (ensuring that a text is understandable at first reading). This involves:

shortening long sentences (or breaking them up into more 'digestible' chunks);
replacing uncommon, outdated or difficult words; and even
improving the visual presentation of text (e.g. by creating a bulleted list, like this one!).

Client testimonials

Read what others have to say on my Client Feedback page.