Expert Profile

I am a competent and confident writer and editor with deep experience in academic humanities and social sciences as well as soil-conserving gardening. I have a BA in communication/journalism, an MA in four-field anthropology, and a PhD in cultural anthropology. I had a careers first as a commercial film editor and then as a university professor before starting my own editorial business, Rutabaga Writer. I am proficient in Chicago Manual of Style and have taken University of Chicago coursework in manuscript editing; I am also studied in New Oxford Style Manual/New Hart's Rules. I see editing as both wordcraft and diplomatic communication with authors; I love the artisanal practice of submerging myself in a text until I find the author’s voice, and then bringing that voice consistently to the surface. I have extensive experience working with authors whose first language is *not* English.