Lucy's Technical & Personal Editing & Writing S...

In addition to providing editorial feedback in creative writing group participants over the years and serving as a judge for five years for a Maryland novel writing contest providing editorial suggestions to all contestants, I have provided editing and writing support for non-creative projects for over 40 years, on tasks ranging from short paragraphs, essays, and letters required for college, job, and immigration visa applications; to resumes; to programs for fundraisers, church services, and dance events; to legally-related letters, motions, briefs, and opinions; to technical documentation, to journal articles and chapters in academic textbooks; to full length dissertations in both engineering and social sciences and in literary arts. A substantial number of the persons I have worked with have been non-native English speakers writing for English-speaking readers. I enjoy not only working with the word-smithing itself but also with the individuals, helping them build their own skills and confidence at completing whatever writing tasks are challenging them in whatever context (e.g., facing a deadline, facing a dissertation committee, facing an administrative body or legal forum) they find themselves. Everything - the unique writers and their unique voices, projects, goals, readership targets; editing at all levels from finding the missing commas to moving a paragraph from the beginning to the ending of a particular project, to successfully putting myself in the writer's shoes such that I can give value added to their projects, to getting paid for something I love, to hearing how well the target audience (whether a dissertation chair or a college admissions office or a future employer or just a general public reader) appreciated or received or was moved by or acted upon the resulting written work.