I’m a Chicagoland-based copyeditor who is passionate about helping writers communicate effectively and meaningfully with their audience. Whether you’re looking to improve reader engagement with marketing materials or elevate the quality of your manuscript, I have the experience and knowledge needed to help you achieve your desired results.
I earned my specialized copyediting certificate from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Extended Studies in March 2022. I had worked at the corporate headquarters of a financial services company—primarily in marketing—for over 20 years, starting as an administrative assistant and departing as a project manager. The pandemic and my approaching milestone birthday prompted me to assess my situation, and I decided to follow a different path.
I approach each project with collaboration in mind. This is your manuscript, and I will make recommendations using my skills and knowledge to help you produce the best version of your document to share with your audience. As the author, however, you decide which suggestions you want to incorporate. My strategy is to partner with my clients, learning their writing style (voice) while earning their trust with strong, impactful, and knowledgeable copyediting that elevates their work.
Contact me to learn more.
Hi, I’m LeeAnn.
Copyediting
Copyediting, or copy editing (depending on whether your style manual is The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th Edition, or The Associated Press Stylebook, 57th Edition), is about fixing sentence structure and changing words with a focus on grammar. Occurring after big picture developmental editing, copyediting focuses on mechanical style, such as identifying and correcting or questioning (called querying) issues of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, punctuation, treatment of numbers and numerals, abbreviations and acronyms, use of italics and bold type, and treatment of special elements such as tables, charts, and lists.
My copyediting approach* generally involves a first pass reading to gain a sense of the overall work—whether a novel, short story, or marketing materials—to support both the author and the reader. Understanding the path from beginning to end helps inform the next pass, where I turn on Track Changes within a copy of your document and make recommendations or changes accompanied by Comments to advise based on knowledge, experience, and style guide rules (decisions documented in a style sheet); e.g., when do you use words vs. numberals in text? Should an Oxford/series comma be used; if so, when? Should punctuation go inside or outside quotation marks? [Hint: it depends on the punctuation and quotation marks being used (and whether using UK or US English)!] The final pass provides one last check to ensure no errors were accidentally introduced and that any outstanding queries have been addressed. Along with the final pass and style sheet, I’ll have created an executive summary with notes on what works well and what major changes are incorporated, which we’ll review together during a scheduled call.
My goal is to improve the flow and readability for your audience while maintaining your style, your voice. Recognizing that the manuscript/document is not mine, my role is to support and elevate your work to the best of our combined ability. We’ll determine the best way to communicate and provide changes within the contract. Contact me to learn more.
* Contract detailing project between Client and Ready Edits LLC supersedes example(s).
Proofreading
Proofreading is the final step before sharing your work with your audience. This comes after copyediting, providing the opportunity to polish and refine your prose by correcting any remaining typos, double words (e.g., “the the” or “and and”), grammatical errors, punctuation, spelling, and formatting issues. While proofreading doesn’t replace copyediting, this critical function will often use the style sheet compiled by the copyeditor to ensure consistency in usage throughout the document. You can expect me to correct errors introduced during file conversion, formatting, or typesetting, or missed by another copyeditor, when proofreading your work.
Why Ready Edits?
I have always loved words and reading. As a project manager at a financial services company, it was my responsibility to ensure corporate documents were clear, coherent, consistent, correct, and approved by the Law department before sharing with the public. I created and edited presentations for internal and external audiences and service communications to cardmembers. I helped identify risks and their mitigations for products and services that the company took to market. In 2021, I decided to leave corporate life and follow my desire to help others create the best version of their passion projects by enrolling in the copyediting certificate program through UC San Diego, Extended Studies. I would love to help elevate your manuscript into the best version possible.
Contact me to schedule a time to discuss your project and see if we would be a good fit to work together.
