How to edit scholarly writing like pro

Info about my upcoming free masterclass

Hello Manuscript Workers,

If you’re an academic, you probably give other scholars feedback on their writing pretty frequently. You might be helping graduate students make progress on their dissertations or prepare papers for publication. You might be fielding submissions for an edited volume or special journal issue that you’re convening. Or you might have colleagues and friends who ask you to read their work and share your thoughts.

But did anyone ever actually teach you how to give feedback effectively? Do you ever feel like “I guess I’ll just do what my mentors did when I showed them my writing” might not be the best approach to helping your students and colleagues? Do you ever get frustrated when you give feedback and the person doesn’t seem to incorporate it or improve their draft by the next time you read it?

If any of these scenarios sound familiar to you, you might be interested in the free one-hour masterclass I’m offering on July 5th!

In this session, I’ll share with you the core methods I’ve developed over the past eight years as a professional editor for academic writers. You will learn the techniques I use to:

• focus on the right things in writers’ drafts (while ignoring stuff they shouldn’t worry about yet)

• give feedback that energizes rather than overwhelms and demotivates

• make sure my support aligns with the writer’s needs and goals

I’ll also tell you about the four pillars of scholarly developmental editing and give you some examples of the most common problems I encounter in scholarly manuscripts as a professional developmental editor.

This masterclass is intended for anyone who supports scholarly writers. That means I welcome faculty, grad students, editors who work in-house at book or journal publishers, freelance editors, and those who may be contemplating a freelance career or side-gig and want to know more about what’s involved.

There will be time for Q&A, where you can ask me anything about scholarly editing and about my upcoming online course, Developmental Editing for Academics (also opening on July 5th).

The masterclass will be recorded, so while live attendance is encouraged, you will get access to the recording either way as long as you’re registered.

Questions about the masterclass? Ask in the comments below!