Adrian S
Bridgetown, Western Australia
“Clarity. Consistency. Confidentiality.”
Specialist subjects:
Editing formats:
Education:
B.S. in Business (Economics),
Monash University, Gippsland Campus, Melbourne, Victoria
1982–1988 [part-time]
B.A. (English & Comparative Literature)
Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia
1996–1998
Favorite referencing style
APA is my preferred referencing style because I love the hanging indents in the reference list.
Why I became an editor
I love taking on new challenges. Also, since I love English and hate grammatical mistakes, proofreading and editing seemed like a natural extension of what I do in my business.
I'm an old hand who left the routine of "regular" management behind to start my own financial services company. After running this company for many years, I'm now using my love of the English language and literature, as well as my enjoyment of creating training packages, websites, and reading, to start a new phase of my life with proofreading and editing.
I've always enjoyed helping people develop as individuals and businesses, so proofreading in the commercial and academic sectors is a natural choice for me.
Background and experience
Born in England, now living in Australia.
Wrote and edited marketing and promotional articles for various businesses.
Compiled and presented training packages for financial departments of businesses.
Created and am currently operating my own financial services business, Accounts Receivable Solutions.
Developed and am currently operating my own training excellence business, Training Excellence.
Built WordPress websites for small businesses and nonprofits.
Managed customer service in the banking industry.
Worked in the fraud investigations and complaints departments in the banking industry.
Taught English at a senior school level.
Educated various businesses about wine.
Managed a commercial international manufacturing company.
Why I love proofreading and editing
To me, proofreading is the critical step that enables a business to present itself accurately to the public and to its competitors. Mistakes are costly and cause delays.
Proofreading academic work is essential for both the student and the work to be published.
In all cases, that's what makes editing and proofreading special to me: helping to get the message across clearly, consistently, and confidently.
Favorite book:
Fiction: Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien or most of Thomas Hardy's work
Nonfiction: Start with Why by Simon Sinek
Hobbies:
Reading
The English language
Music
Wine
Creating websites
English football
Editing tips:
I like to enlarge the font or sometimes change it completely to help me see all the small punctuation marks.
Then I print the document for a first reading to catch obvious errors and read it aloud to catch other nuances.
I also recommend developing a checklist and using it with your own style guide to supplement the client's.