Support aimed at graduate students working through the long (and often overwhelming) process of developing a thesis or dissertation. As we work together, I help students in transforming complex research into coherent, well-structured, and polished projects while helping them navigate the demands of long-form academic writing.

Depending on where you are in the writing process—at the initial stages of organizing notes and assembling a first draft, or making final revisions to a full manuscript—I can help you clearly articulate your central argument and its place in the existing scholarship; organize your evidence and support in a logical and persuasive manner; balance academic tone with readability (we’ll use some jargon, but maybe not all the jargon); and ensure that your formatting is consistent and correct. We can also work together to ensure you remain focused on your project over an extended timeline without becoming overwhelmed.

Support for writers preparing grants, fellowships, program applications, research statements, personal statements, and other high-stakes materials. These types of applications and proposals typically ask you to do more than describe your research or work: they ask you to make a case for the significance and feasibility of your work, as well as how it aligns with this particular opportunity. Additionally, most ask applicants to submit a number of different materials with the intention of drawing out a full and complete picture of both the applicant and the project in question for the review committee. Trying to navigate these different elements as well as how to keep each element ‘on message’ without being redundant can easily become overwhelming.

I help writers to craft applications and proposal materials that work together to form a persuasive, focused, and harmonious package. We work together to identify the ‘thesis statement’ of your proposal as well as those aspects of your story and work to highlight; to make your expertise accessible for a wider audience; and to effectively articulate the significance and relevance of your work. I review application and proposal elements individually, but ultimately my overarching focus is on how these elements work together to build a unified and effective narrative.

As academics and experts in our fields, it is easy to become so immersed in our own work and research that, as writers, we can lose sight of the bigger story we have to communicate. Developmental editing can be a useful initial step in the revision process before attention turns to refining prose at the sentence-level or to making final corrections. This type of editing considers the project as a whole with the goal of clarifying the project’s central claim and ensuring that the argument is organized in a clear, logical, and cohesive way. As your editor, I read to see where your argument is strongest, where the structure may need rethinking, where the reader may need more context, and where the significance and value of your work could be made more visible.

Line editing begins with the understanding that strong ideas still need clear, graceful prose in order to reach readers effectively. Once the larger argument and structure are in place, I focus on your manuscript at the sentence- and paragraph-level to refine and polish the prose, to ensure that complex ideas are clearly communicated, and that your project speaks to both your specific discipline and your intended audience. I consider elements such as word choice, syntax, and transitions; look for sections that have become repetitive or overly-dense; and work to maintain the integrity of your individual voice.

Copyediting is one of the final stages of revision, when the argument and structure are set and the prose has been polished. At this point, the focus becomes creating a text that is technically clean, correct, and consistent. I review the writing for grammar, punctuation, spelling, usage, formatting, and citation, while also noting places where wording may still be unclear or awkward. The goal at this stage is to produce an error-free, final version of your manuscript that is ready for submission or publication.