Editing Experience
Editorial Intern, Cedar Fort (January 2015–April 2015)
Associate Editor, Jolly Fish Press (February 2013–August 2013)
Associate Editor, Stowaway Magazine (January 2014-April 2014)
Slushroom volunteer, Leading Edge magazine (January 2010-April 2014)
- Performed and assisted with various editorial tasks, including assessing acquisitions, performing substantive and copy edits, typesetting, and assisting with book pitching and ad copy writing.
Associate Editor, Jolly Fish Press (February 2013–August 2013)
- Read and offered feedback on submissions; edited fiction manuscripts for plot, character, and usage; prepared them for publication; worked with authors.
Associate Editor, Stowaway Magazine (January 2014-April 2014)
- Wrote articles and performed substantive edits, copy edits, proofreading tasks, and limited design tasks for the BYU student editing capstone publication, Stowaway magazine.
Slushroom volunteer, Leading Edge magazine (January 2010-April 2014)
- Read and offered feedback on story submissions, was occasionally assigned to perform edits on accepted submissions.
Other Related Experience
Writer, Beta-Reader, and Editor (November 2017-Present)
Manuscript Processor, Harold B. Lee Library Special Collections (December 2014–May 2017)
BYU Independent Study Course Tester (May 2014–August 2014)
Secretary, Harold B. Lee Library Special Collections (August 2012–May 2013)
- I became a member of several online writing communities frequented by published authors after participating in last year's Nanowrimo. I regularly read others' work, gratefully accept critiques of my own work, and offer different types of feedback to those who request it. None of this is professional work, but all of it is excellent experience.
Manuscript Processor, Harold B. Lee Library Special Collections (December 2014–May 2017)
- Process manuscript collections (organize and categorize large collections, keeping physical and intellectual track of all materials to facilitate later research) and assist with cataloging published items. Work side-by-side with the Arts and Communications curator to perform various organizational tasks and edit his ad copy, articles, and other writings.
BYU Independent Study Course Tester (May 2014–August 2014)
- Checked through various websites and servers to ensure that online courses are correct and functioning properly; made tactful suggestions for improvement when necessary.
Secretary, Harold B. Lee Library Special Collections (August 2012–May 2013)
- Accurately transcribed and corrected others’ transcriptions of audio interviews and 19th–20th century handwritten manuscripts.
Editing Samples
An excerpt from Beast Charming, by Jenniffer Wardell. Edited during an internship with Jolly Fish Press. My edits are in red, and my comments and replacements are all labeled "Mary-Celeste." Jennifer's comments are in blue. You can see in this sample that I edited not only for logic, clarity, and correct usage, but that I also tactfully suggested stylistic changes to the narrative overall. These changes were then accepted by her. Once the project was finished, Jennifer personally thanked me for suggesting the improvements that I did and for sensitively maintaining the overall tone she was going for.
Associate edits on "Dharamsala: Tibetan Spirit Reborn," an article by Dallin Law for the spring 2014 issue of Stowaway Magazine. Edits suggested by prior editors or the author himself were applied and other comments on this document were deleted to make my changes and comments easier to see. As an associate editor, I was asked to check facts and increase the overall clarity of the piece, as well as correct any usage errors I noticed along the way.
Practice Test. Here is a practice test I took during Marv Gardner's Basic Editing Skills class (ELANG 350) that demonstrates that I can also edit the "old-fashioned way" when called upon to do so.
Edits on "Style Guide for CARE International." During Marv Gardner's Basic Editing Skills class, we were asked to contact companies and offer to write style guides for their organizations. I heavily edited and added to the preexisting style guide for the STEALS.com website group, and I edited the style guides that others in my class created. I was later asked by STEALS.com to accept a copy writing position with their company based on this project, which I was unfortunately unable to accept. That style guide is available upon request. One of the best style guides by another classmate that I offered suggestions on is posted below. The highlighting, edits, and comments are mine.