General Information

Being an expert in a certain field need not mean being an expert in writing in that field. It is easy to overlook the infelicities and errors in your own writing anyway, no matter how talented you are. An outside eye, especially one with skills to spot flaws as well as to strengthen style and substance, is almost always useful. That is where I come in, reading what you have actually written (as opposed to what you think you have written) and enhancing its communicative efficacy in various ways.

I offer proofreading, editing, and ghostwriting services for academics, creative writers, lyricists, bloggers, students, businesses, and more. Not only do I hold a PhD in Philosophy and an MA in English from Texas A&M University, I regularly publish in reputable magazines (including Quiddity, Hobart, Pleiades, and the African American Review) and peer-reviewed journals (including Philosophical Forum, Theoria, Philosophical Studies, and Studies in History and Philosophy of Science). I have also served as the copyeditor and proofreader for The Southern Journal of Philosophy. In this position, which I held while earning an MA in Philosophy at the University of Memphis, I helped scholars ensure that their writing was free of grammatical as well as substantive inaccuracies and that it aligned with in-house style guidelines. Check out the bio section, particularly my academic and creative pages, to learn more about my qualifications. And for a good example of my own voice on the page, check out the writing section.

The degree of substantive editing and ghostwriting I can provide in areas beyond creative writing and philosophy is limited. But given my elaborate education in the humanities, coupled with fifteen years of experience teaching culturally and ethnically diverse students, I know what it takes to sharpen any piece of English writing, enhancing its readability and trustworthiness. I have collaborated, in fact, with authors in a variety of domains (sociology, physics, law, economics, memoir, fantasy) on a variety of projects (articles, reviews, books, bibliographies, indexes, grants, proposals, performance pieces), and I am always excited to widen my repertoire.

My rates, always negotiable, are a function of (1) the level of involvement requested, (2) the length of the text, (3) the stipulated deadline, and (4) your financial circumstances. What you request might not neatly fit into any of the tiers below. It might even end up shifting in the process of working with me. All that is okay. The tiers, which highlight the four main specificities of my service and move from less to more in regards to the degree of thoroughness and collaboration expected, might help you articulate what is best. Please look them over.

All topics, by the way, are welcome—even, and perhaps especially, topics that other firms and freelancers turn down for being too taboo. All types of writing are welcome as well: papers for journals and conferences, book reviews, proposals, short stories, creative nonfiction, poetry, technical memos, social-media posts, cover letters, resumés, grants, product descriptions, and so on. Feel free to contact me for more information.

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Service Tiers

Proofreading

Proofreading, which amounts to line-by-line scanning for cosmetic mistakes missed in the editing stages, is the service to choose if you want your writing checked merely for spelling, punctuation, grammar, and formatting issues. At this tier, which mainly concerns buffing away glaring errors of structure, clarity, and citation (changing “effect” to “affect” or “accomodate” to “accommodate” or “it’s” to “its”), expect me to modify the flow and clarity of your writing in the smallest of ways (if at all). Even though my attention here does not range far beyond that of automated software like MS Word and Grammarly, having a human look over your document will almost always be worthwhile. Computer programs, after all, slur over errors like consistency in spelling (“color” and “colour”). They might autocorrect words to ones you did not intend (“fuck,” not “duck”). They often fail to red flag jargon, or lack of transitions, or that you switched tenses, or that you used “grate” when you meant “great,” or that your indentation or reference or font or margin styles are inconsistent, or that you are missing a “the” or an “an,” or that your sentence constructions are monotonously repetitive, or so on.

Since it assumes you want to give a professional finish to a manuscript that requires no editing (no fact-checking, revision, structural changes, tone adjustments), proofreading is the quickest and cheapest of the writing services I offer.

For a quick example of proofreading, first consider the following bit of text.

Everything in the Bible are true, the Bible itself, after all says that everything in the Bible is true. Live a righteous life!

A proofread version should look more like the following.

Everything in the Bible is true. The Bible itself, after all, says that everything in the Bible is true. Live a righteous life!

Notice what I have done here. (1) I fixed the agreement between the subject “everything” and the verb “are” in the first part of the argument. (2) I fixed the comma-splice by using a period to separate two independent clauses. (3) I added the missing closing comma after the premise-indicating phrase “after all.”

As you can see, proofreading is like a final check of yourself in the mirror before going on a date. For a more detailed example, consider checking out the following pdf file.

Copyediting

In addition to covering all that I do at the “proofreading” tier, the central focus of copyediting—which goes into more nuanced checks of structure, clarity, and citation while also starting to take a look at your general approach and content—is to improve your flow and clarity as well as to point out errors more substantial than misspellings, or misuse of dashes, or so on. To help you make your manuscript smooth and engaging for your intended audience, you might expect me to suggest changes in word choice and sentence structure as well as to point out not only cliché, jargon, wordiness, awkward phrasing, taboo words, redundancy, inflated language, lack of transitions, and jarring shifts in tone, but also even unclear meaning, irrelevant content, fallacious reasoning, false propositions, unsubstantiated claims, and weak connection between reasoning and thesis or between detail and goal.

Since it assumes you want to make the best out of writing that has already undergone substantive editing but still might need someone to spot—although not necessarily fix—any glaring errors in your approach and content, copyediting is the most typical of the editing services I offer.

For a quick example of what might occur during copyediting, first consider the improved bit of text from above.

Everything in the Bible is true. The Bible itself, after all, says that everything in the Bible is true. Live a righteous life!

While decent at the level of punctuation and grammar, a good copyeditor might point out, among other things (such as the fishiness of the argumentation), (1) that no citation has been given for the claim that the Bible does say this and (2) that there is no clear connection between the first two sentences and the last. The author, in turn, might rewrite the passage as follows.

Everything in the Bible is true. The Bible itself, after all, says that everything in the Bible is true (see 2Timothy 3:16). Since the Bible says that it is important for each of us to live a righteous life, each of us clearly should try to live a righteous life.

As you can see, copyediting starts to belong more or less to the creative process itself (since, unlike with proofreading, it dips into the territory of criticizing structure and material). Whereas a proofreading would reveal a sentence fragment or an extra comma, a copyediting might reveal that a certain character is wearing moccasins and then all of a sudden (in the very same scene) cowboy boots. For a more detailed example, consider checking out the following pdf file.

Substantive Editing

In addition to covering all that I do at the “proofreading” and “copyediting” tiers, the central focus of substantive editing—which goes into more nuanced checks of your content and approach while also helping you rectify even the deepest problems with what you say and how you say it—is to overhaul your writing and organization as well as your ideas and reasoning. To maximize the rhetorical and aesthetic impact of your manuscript, you can expect me to formalize your arguments and offer objections while also reordering sections and changing your cadence when need be. In addition to helping you refine your thoughts or pacings or characterizations or so on in such a way that each part of your manuscript clearly guides the reader toward some ultimate end (whenever applicable, of course), I might also connect you to like-minded writers and publication venues and relevant experts.

Since it assumes you have completed a workable draft still in need of revision even at the level of approach and content, and since it also requires—if we are really going to ensure an excellent product tailored to your exact needs—taking the time to understand you and your narrative as well as the context and goals and intended audience of your piece, substantive editing is the most expensive of the writing services I offer—aside, of course, from ghostwriting.

For a quick example of what might occur during substantive editing, first consider the improved bit of text from above.

Everything in the Bible is true. The Bible itself, after all, says that everything in the Bible is true (see 2Timothy 3:16). Since the Bible says that it is important for each of us to live a righteous life, each of us clearly should try to live a righteous life.

A substantive editing will indicate, among other things, that the argument for the claim “everything in the Bible is true” begs the question. The supporting evidence—namely, that the Bible says that everything in the Bible is true—already assumes that the conclusion is true. The fact that the Bible itself says that everything in the Bible is true supports the claim that everything in the Bible is true, in other words, only if we already assume what we were trying to prove: namely, that everything in the Bible is true. I might recommend, after pointing out the fallacious reasoning, that the author give something more like the following argument.

(1) If the Bible is the word of God, then the Bible is inerrant.
(2) The Bible is the word of God.
Therefore, the Bible is inerrant.

The controversial premise in this obviously valid argument is premise 2. In developing a case for premise 2, I might invite the author also to account for the following potential counterevidence: (1) that other holy books seemingly claim inerrancy while at the same time seemingly contradict the Bible, in which case the Bible and such other books cannot both be inerrant; (2) that the Bible itself appears to be contradictory in certain areas, in which case it appears not to be inerrant (since A and not-A cannot both be true); (3) that it took centuries to figure out what books of the Bible were canonical and which were not, which leads to doubt about whether past humans mistakenly incorporated “errant” texts into what we now regard as the complete Bible.

As you can see, substantive editing belongs squarely to the creative process and in some instances can come close to ghostwriting (since, unlike with copyediting, it is open to second-guessing the author as well as to offering suggestions even on big-picture matters such as how best to support a thesis, or how best to represent a character, or how best to organize the chapters, or how best to leave the reader wanting more). Whereas a copyediting would reveal that a certain character is wearing moccasins and then all of a sudden (in the very same scene) cowboy boots, a substantive editing might question whether the character is even the sort of person to wear moccasins or cowboy boots in the first place. For a more detailed example, consider checking out the following pdf file.

Ghostwriting

Collaborating with you to craft a manuscript that meets your vision, that gets your stories and ideas and arguments ready for the world to appreciate, is the central focus of ghostwriting. The goal is to craft a manuscript that brings into focus, in a readable and memorable way, what still might remain largely in a brainstorming haze. I never ask for any rights to the final product. You have complete ownership and do not need to acknowledge me in any way (even if you played a minimal role in the process).

Since it assumes you are at best in the planning phase of your writing and do not necessarily even have a draft, this is the most expensive of the writing services I offer.

I accept only a small portion of ghostwriting requests. Given the time-consuming nature of the service (ongoing interviews, collaboration sessions, rounds of revisions, and so on), requests I accept are almost always in my core areas of expertise (poetry and philosophy) or concern generalist topics that do not require me going through extensive training or conducting research in areas far removed from the humanities. I do take on projects in areas beyond my competence if the price is right, of course. But there are various freelancers, as well as firms with teams of experts, that will most likely be able to provide a quicker turnaround for a better price in such cases. I am happy to direct you to alternative ghostwriters if that is best!

For a detailed example of ghostwriting, consider checking out the following pdf file.

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