Professional memberships
Professional Member, Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP)
Editors’ and Proofreaders’ Alliance of Northern Ireland (EPANI)
Educational qualifications
BA International Marketing and Languages; MA Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies (First Class); Advanced Creative Writing: Open University modules (First Class); Higher Diploma in Education (First Class).
Training and professional development
- Developmental Editing with Sophie Playle (SfEP recognised), 2018
- Practical Mark-up for PDF (SfEP), 2017
- Progress in Editorial Skills: Copy-editing and Proofreading (PTC), 2017
- Re-writing and Substantive Editing (PTC), 2016
- Advanced Copy-editing with Margaret Aherne (PTC), 2015
- Core Copy-editing Skills with Andrew Steeds (PTC), 2015
- Editing in Word with Anne Waddingham (SfEP), 2015
- Non-fiction Editing with Fergal Tobin (Publishing Ireland), 2015
- Basic Proofreading by Distance Learning (Merit) (PTC), 2014
- Fiction Editing with Fergal Tobin (Publishing Ireland), 2013
- Using Language with Fergal Tobin (Publishing Ireland), 2013
- Proofreading Problems (SfEP), 2013
- Introduction to Web Editorial Skills (SfEP), 2012
- Introduction to Proofreading (SfEP), 2012
Languages
Italian and French
Experience
Freelance editor and proofreader since 2012; secondary school English and EFL teacher from 2000 to 2012; copywriter for an advertising agency and co-editor of The Irish Hair and Beauty Journal from 1997 to 1999. I was short-listed for the Cuirt New Writers Fiction Prize and long-listed for the Fish Publishing Poetry Prize in 2013.
Services offered
Developmental editing; line editing; copy-editing; proofreading; manuscript assessment. I edit on-screen using Track Changes, use PerfectIt and can proofread on-screen and on hardcopy using BSI symbols. New Hart’s Rules and Butcher’s Copy-editing are my main references when not following an in-house style guide. Aside from the mechanics of editing, I enjoy excellent relationships with both publishers and authors.
Media
Novels, short stories, academic books, theses, online and promotional materials
Subject areas
Fiction (all genres); non-fiction (memoir and biography, academic humanities subjects, comparative literature); educational texts and short-story collections.
Clients include
Irish Academic Press/Merrion Press, educational publishers, independent publishing service providers, independent authors
Examples of work undertaken
Henry McDonald, Two Souls (2019); Cormac Moore, Birth of the Border: The Impact of Partition in Ireland (2019); Seán Harnett, Client Confidential: Spooks, Secrets and Counter-Espionage During the Celtic Tiger (2019); Educate.ie, Excellence in English 2021: Language and Literature, Leaving Certificate; Educate.ie, Excellence in Texts 2021: King Lear, Leaving Certificate Higher Level, Educate.ie, Kingdom 1: Junior Cycle English, Richard O’Rawe, Northern Heist (2018); Martin Dillon, Crossing the Line (2017); Richard O’Rawe, In the Name of the Son (2017); Fiona Whyte and Seán Malone, Without a Doubt (2017); Jennifer Birkett, Samuel Beckett: Undoing Time (2015); Christopher Fauske, Louis MacNeice (2015); Eimear O’Callaghan, Belfast Days: A 1972 Teenage Diary (2014); Bryan Fanning and Tom Garvin, The Books that Define Ireland (2014).