Attentive reading, thorough comments, a text you feel confident about.
In addition to working as an ESL instructor at the K-12, university and continuing education levels, I have developed and taught my own writing skills classes for both non-native English speaking and native English speaking university students in both Turkey and the United States.
Whether you have an academic text, web content or a project description, you need an attentive eye that doesn’t just see your text on the level of the sentence, but that takes your prose into consideration as a whole. Finding an editor who can do this, and who is familiar with a variety of linguistic registers and lexicons especially related to Creative Writing, the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, isn’t as straightforward as it seems. I work with you from beginning to end—from speaking with you about your prose style to how you want your final text to come across. I work on three different levels of editing: 1) from proofreading for grammar and correcting awkward syntax, to 2) elevating the sophistication of your vocabulary and making prose flow more naturally, to 3) providing more in-depth comments and suggestions regarding your argumentation and content. The type of editing you’d like is up to you; it’s my goal for you to be satisfied with your final text!
- Literary Texts (fiction and nonfiction)
- Academic abstracts & articles
- Job & PhD applications
- MA theses & PhD dissertations
- Grant & Project Proposals
- Web content
Editing Tiers
Different texts need different kinds of attention. You can choose, or we can decide together, from which type of editing your text would benefit most. Prices work along this sliding scale:
1) Proofreading: for grammar and correcting awkward syntax
2) Copy Editing: elevating the sophistication of your vocabulary and making prose flow more naturally
3) Content Editing: providing more in-depth comments and suggestions regarding your argumentation and content
How does it work?
I use the track changes function on Microsoft Word (.docx) so that you can follow and accept the changes made. Usually, a text that gets edited will take about 1-2 rounds of back and forth between us.
- Send an email along with your text (or a large portion of it), what kind of editing you’d like, and your timeframe for a free consultation (deca@sas.upenn.edu)
- You, or we, decide from which kind of editing your text would most benefit
- I send you back a sample of the editing work, price quote and estimated finish time
- If you think we can work together based on the edits, our timeframes match up and we’re on the same page with the kind of editing you want/need, we get to work!
- I send you back edits in track changes. If your text is just being proofread, we will most likely only need to exchange the text once between us. If your text requires more in-depth editing, I need to ask for clarification and/or you’d like me to provide comments regarding your content or argument, it is likely we will read over and exchange your text 2-3 times between us so that we address your needs thoroughly and make sure we get it right.
Word on the Street
I have been working with Deanna as an editor/proofreader of my texts for three years now. I honestly don’t know what I would do without her services. She is an attentive and careful reader. She has the ability to understand the specific context for which a text has been written. Thanks to her multilingualism, she understands what it means to write in English as a non-native speaker. On top of that, her solid background in theory allows her to provide useful insights on the content of academic texts. I have made a lot of progress in written English since I started working with her.
I’m incredibly enthusiastic about Deanna’s work! I’ve had the opportunity to be the recipient of Deanna’s help for edits on research projects, abstracts and academic texts that were edited in English, but also, for her translation work (from Italian to English). The care dedicated to her lexical choices and her attention to syntax makes her consulting is unrivaled! However, their real added value is Deanna’s ability to establish an open and constructive dialogue by recommending topics for reflection and bibliographic references to strengthen the text also at the level of content. You can stop your desperate search for an editor, you’ve found the right person!
Graffiti and photograph by Cinzia D’Emidio
Deanna Cachoian-Schanz 