Jane J.

I love the problem-solving aspects of editing and think that analyzing documents and determining how to make them perfect is a lot of fun. This is my happy place!

My academic training was in the humanities, and I would consider myself an expert in art history, music, and English and American literature. For the last 25 years I have specialized in making highly technical proposals respond to the interests of funding agencies and appeal to non-technical readers. As a result, I know a lot about national science policy and would consider myself an expert in National Science Foundation proposals. I am very comfortable editing documents with science and engineering content.

I am excited to edit anything! I especially like editing longer works like books, corporate reports, proposals, theses, dissertations, and journal and magazine articles, as they give me a chance to see more complex arguments unfold and observe how the writer manages details. But I also have edited personal statements, press releases, essays, resumes, permanent residency applications, catalogs, poetry, recipes, love letters, instruction manuals, syllabi, requests for political asylum, travelogues, field guides, romance novels, textbooks, scientific posters, eulogies, sermons, bar mitzvah speeches, concert program notes, packaging labels, PowerPoint slides---you name it. I am also the Queen of Cutting. If you need words reduced, I am yours to command! Love that stuff.

I have a research development position at a major research university. Every day, I work with faculty to develop, write, and edit proposals that win millions of dollars in grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, etc. I also edit faculty submissions to peer-reviewed journals. In my spare time, I am the soprano section leader in a local chorale and devote time to developing the arts in the community as the president of the chorale's board of directors. My two sons are professional musicians. I enjoy gardening, cooking, reading, playing Skyrim, and traveling. Someday, I'd like to visit Iceland again---this time in the winter---and stay in that ice hotel in Sweden!