ABOUT ME
My qualifications and experience: I received my PhD in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2004 and have worked as an academic editor since 2008. My clients include professors from both the United States and countries across the world including Germany, Korea, Israel, India, Italy, Austria, Tanzania, and many others. I have experience editing books, journal articles, book chapters, conference presentations, grant proposals, and other academic documents. I am grounded in social scientific methods, literature, and statistics, and have a strong background in writing organization and grammar. As someone who was trained in academia, I understand the pressures of academic writing and am flexible, working with you to meet your needs. I am willing to work closely with you to understand your goals and fit academic editing services into your budget, large or small.
Why I became an editor: I have always loved words and writing. I was that kid who looked up a word in the dictionary and then read the definitions of all the words on the entire page. During college and graduate school I found that I loved the process of writing—taking a group of rough ideas and shaping them into a clear and eloquent piece of prose that efficiently communicated my knowledge and ideas. To me, that final polished product is a thing of beauty. I learned that revision (and revision and revision) is an essential facet of the writing process—and I fell in love with my red pen! Since starting Harvest Editing, I have enjoyed the luxury of focusing on writing and revision, and the opportunity to delve more deeply into matters of grammar and style. It is gratifying to help clients with a process that is often overwhelming. I get great satisfaction from working with writers to improve the readability of their text and allow their ideas to shine through more clearly.
Nothing is more satisfying than to write a good sentence.
~Barbara Tuchman
The inspiration for Harvest Editing: I chose the name Harvest Editing because it reflects both my family's history and my perspective on editing. On my father's side, I come from a long line of farmers, men and women who valued the land and the food it could provide with a lot of hard work and judicious care. On my mother's side, I come from a line of women who enjoyed school and lifelong learning, even when the wider world did not encourage women to pursue academics. Both of these lineages have had a significant influence on my own life and career. I view editing as a type of harvest—a collaborative process in which a client and I attend closely to a manuscript to produce the best possible written product.