Everyone who writes needs an editor.  Whatever it is you are writing, a careful editor will help you bring out the best in your work.

I have been a writer for a number of years, publishing in both scholarly and popular venues, winning a few awards and having some cover stories along the way (please see my Writing Samples).  I've never had a piece that was not improved by a good editor.

I've also for a number of years been an editor myself; Write/Edit is my effort to make my editing services better known.

What I offer is seasoned, thoughtful, and thorough analysis of your work.  I can help you find the theme and the flow--the 'music' if you will--of your writing.  I can help you find what's missing, what's needed, what should be added, taken out.  I'll even find typos, misspellings, grammatical errors (to be honest, something I can't help myself from doing).  Perhaps just as importantly, I can offer a critical but supportive environment, in which we can work together--one-on-one--to make your work as good as it deserves to be.  (All edits and comments are done using the 'Track Changes' feature of Word, supplemented with discussion by e-mail, phone, or in-person.)

I specialize in the following editing work:

• Grants

Grant writing requires clarity and precision. It doesn't matter what the field is, if a funder cannot clearly see what you are about, you won't get the grant.

As Senior Grant Writer/Editor at UMass Lowell's Office of Research Administration, I worked with a number of faculty on their grant proposals, for both external and internal funding, and also contibuted as an author to a successful 5 million dollar grant application to the National Insitute for Occupational Safety and Health.  I've also participated in several training sessions at the Foundation Center in New York City.  I am thus very familiar with the grant world and grant writing.

I will work with you to insure that you are giving the granting agency the information they require in the order they want it presented (having things in order can make or break a grant proposal).  I will help you present your proposal in the clearest and most positive way possible.

• Dissertations

I won't write your disseration for you; I did one--my own--and that was enough.  I can, however, suggest ways to make your dissertation--or thesis--better, by helping you see how the organization and presentation of your hard work might be improved.  And, let's face it, after many months (or years) of working on a dissertation it's not always clear how to improve the writing, and, most importantly, finish the thing.

• Books

Often this entails taking the dissertation and turning it into a book.  Publishers, even the academic press, want to sell books--and are under increasing pressure to do so.  So, no, they don't want that detailed literature review you labored over.  They want something that retains its intellectual rigor but is also accessible and readable.  Sometimes you'll find a good in-house editor, sometimes you won't.  I will work one-on-one with you to produce a book manuscript that is more likely to find a publisher, or address the changes a publisher who is interested in your book has suggested.

• Articles

Articles too may often initially be drawn from a dissertation and will need to be translated from dissertation-speak into English.  Whether you are writing for a scholarly journal or a popular medium, through careful editing and research into just what it is the publisher wants, I can help you improve your chances of getting published.

• Newsletters

Both at UMass Lowell and at Dana-Farber's Center for Community Based Reasearch (where I was a project director for The Organized Labor and Tobacco Control Network, I worked with colleagues to produce newsletters, brochures, other informational materials, and reports.  If you need an editor or writer to develop such material on a part-time or temporary basis (or full-time for that matter), I would be interested. 

THE BOTTOM LINE

• My normal fee is $75 and hour.
  • $50 dollars an hour for non-profit community-based organizations.
  • A 20% discount for work over 30 pages.
• I will perform an initial analysis of your work for no fee, and provide you with a rough estimate of how long the editing may take.  Payment is due upon completion of editing work.

CONTACT

I can be most easily contacted at:

• gdelaurier@comcast.net    or,
• gdelaurier@gdelaurier.com

--Greg DeLaurier, Ph.D.