Rachel Finnegan
Trading as: Irish Academic Editing
Based in: Piltown, Co. Kilkenny
Professional memberships
Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland
Educational qualifications
PhD (Classics), National University of Ireland, 1991
BA Hons (Classics), Trinity College Dublin, 1986
Training and professional development
Diploma in Webediting, College of Media and Publishing, UK, 2019
Writing Plain Language, Plain Language Commission, 2019
Rewriting and Substantive Editing, Publishing Training Centre, UK, 2018
Proofreading Theses and Dissertations, CIEP, UI, 2018
Progress in Editorial Skills, Publishing Training Centre, UK, 2017
References, CIEP, UK, 2016
Diploma in Proofreading and Editing, College of Media and Publishing, UK, 2015
Languages
Latin, Classical Greek
Experience
I was an academic administrator for three years (Royal Irish Academy), a lecturer for 17 years (Waterford Institute of Technology), an academic head of department for three years (Waterford Institute of Technology), and now specialise in academic proofreading and copy-editing. I am also the author of six academic books (all published), with a seventh to be published in 2020.
Services offered
Proofreading, copy-editing, editorial training, thesis conversion
Media
Academic documents (books, journal articles), art books, official reports, cultural documents (exhibition catalogues, labels, etc.). I also help clients to convert dissertations into publishable format.
Subject areas
Arts/humanities, social sciences, education, business/management.
I specialise in referencing (converting references from one format into another, compiling reference lists and bibliographies).
Clients include
Academic publishers, publishers of art books, cultural/academic/research institutions, writers/researchers, government departments/agencies.
Examples of work undertaken
Irish Academic Press (Dublin) (Copy-editing)
Straw, Hay & Rushes in Irish Folk Tradition, 2015
The Poetry of Vision: Rosc 1967–1988, 2016
Chief Butlers and Earls of Ormonde, 2017
Irish Academic Press (Dublin) (Proofreading)
Viking Dublin: The Woodquay Excavations, 2015
Colourpoint Educational Books (Structural and copy-editing)
Northern Ireland Government and Politics, 2016
Routledge (Copy-editing)
The Idea of the PhD: The Doctorate in the 21st Century Imagination, 2017
Ludvig Holberg, 1684–1754, 2017
The Ludi Saeculares of Septimius Severus, 2017
Health Policy in a Time of Crisis, 2017
The Routledge Companion to Strabo, 2017
Churchill House Press (Tralee, Co. Kerry) (Proofreading)
Abbeyleix: An Irish Home and its Demesne, 2017
Irish Ceramics at Churchill, 2017
Greylag Press (Enniskillen) (Proofreading)
Irish Art at Castle Coole: The Familiar is Transformed, 2017
Self-published Books (Copy-editing)
Tom Seaver, 1916 Fingallian Rebel, 2015
Cian Foley, Don’t Eat for Winter, 2017
Brian Murphy, Private Life, 2018
Senan Cooke, The Enterprising Community, 2018
Alan O’Neill, A New Conversation with Men, 2019
Testimonials
“Rachel is an exceptional editor: astute, thorough and utterly reliable. I cannot recommend her highly enough” (Fiona Dunne, Managing Editor, Irish Academic Press and Merrion Press).
For further client testimonials, see the Testimonials page of my website.
Additional information
I have been a tutor for the Diploma in Proofreading and Editing, College of Media and Publishing, UK, since September 2016. I have also been Head Tutor and Academic Compliance Manager for this online college since January 2020.