Professional writing and copy editing

I tailor my writing to meet my audience, focusing on conveying information to both technical and non-technical readers.

In addition to my work as an analyst, I served as my team's copy editor and ad hoc report drafter while at Trellis Strategies . I conducted final copy edits on nearly every report. I checked reports for basic spelling and grammar as well as clarity for an audience unfamiliar with the research process. I also ensured that each report correctly implemented branded formatting standards to maintain consistent and high quality products. In addition to copy editing, I often collaborated on drafting reports. I converted statistical output created by other team members into concise and readable prose which guided additional analyses and provided a foundation for the final deliverables.

Between 2020 and 2023, I worked as an editing assistant on the Handbook of Amazonian Languages, edited by Patience Epps and Lev Michael. This Handbook is a four-volume project providing reference grammars for each language or language family in the Amazonian region of South America, with each chapter written by experts on that language. As editorial assistant, I quickly established formatting guidelines for each chapter based on the guidelines provided by the publisher. I checked abbreviations and references within each chapter for internal and cross-chapter consistency, checked for typographical errors, and lightly edited for style where necessary. In some chapters, the editors required more extensive editing; in these cases, I made substantial updates to the prose, including drafting explanations of the analysis based on the data provided. In conjunction with the editors, I established a standardized workflow for chapters in the project, provided realistic timelines for completion of work, and met scheduled publishing deadlines. I also provided feedback to the editors on more substantive analytical issues, especially in cases where similar issues arose in multiple chapters and a standard approach had to be established. When my time with this project came to a close, and I worked with the editors to train my replacement, and modified our workflow to meet updated guidelines from the publisher.

I have also periodically worked as a freelance copy-editor, providing editing assistance to non-native English speakers on their academic writing (dissertations and papers). These jobs required me to work within the needs of the individual author, adjusting my approach based on their needs for the project. I also have experience with grant writing, having successfully written proposals for fieldwork and research funding, including a successful application for a Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowship for language learning from the Department of Education and a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (NSF-DDRIG, No.2024000) .