Sara Edits Everything

Editors give “spit and polish” to written documents of every kind.  If you’ve read a novel, a biography, a magazine, a newspaper article, or a manual for your toaster, and found it easy to understand and digest, you’ve been quietly helped along by an editor.  Some editors just check punctuation and grammar, while others completely restructure works by an author who seems to need “an assist,” and content editors choose what you will and won’t read in their publication(s).  A great article explaining this is:

Gary Kamiya’s “Let Us Now Praise Editors”

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/kamiya/2007/07/24/editing/index.html

Also, the entire publishing industry is trying to deal with the advent of the “blogosphere,” which puts the printed word in a precarious position, especially editors.  Some in the industry are trying to ignore the blogosphere, others embrace it.  Reading tools like the Amazon “Kindle” and the Barnes and Noble “Nook” constitute an attempt to deal with the digitalization of reading.   The famed (albeit controversial) editor Tina Brown has gone to digital reading matter entirely, with her site, “The Daily Beast,” which has been loudly declaring the end of printed matter for several years:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/item/elegy-for-print-journalists/obit/

Whichever side of the fence you’re leaning toward, just remember that it’s better jump down than to fall.

Hello All,

As the URL indicates, my name is Sara, and I am an editor.  In point of fact, I live for editing!  Making all different types of documents, from college papers, to professional articles, to web content, as clear and polished as possible, is my specialty.  What do I mean?  Well, while many people do not have “the rules” of grammar, punctuation, and syntax memorized, they will still find a properly punctuated work easier to read than an unpolished piece.  Editing simply enhances the flow of the language, and, therefore, the overall experience of the reader.  That being said, I’m here to offer my services to anyone who might need them.

I can edit in the MLA, AMA, APA, AP, CMS and Turabian manuals of style.  If you don’t know what those style names even mean, that just means it’s time for me to hand out my first free tip about editing: Know your styles.

MLA = Modern Language Association (used mostly for English papers, in an academic setting).

AMA = American Medical Association (used mostly for medical papers).

APA = American Pshycological Association (used in psychology/social science papers).

AP = Associated Press (used for journalism, and sometimes, for business).

CMS = Chicago Manual of Style (used for history papers, and often, for business and periodicals).

Turabian = a manual of style created by Kate L. Turabian, similar to the CMS.  This can be used for any type of paper.

Stick around!  I’ll be handing out more free tips and resources, about editing and publishing, in future.

Thank you,

Sara Meyer