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Valerie can line edit just about any document to correct grammatical and mechanical errors, improve style, remove redundancies, and strengthen clarity.
She is also capable of taking a more hand's on approach -- i.e., working closely with the writer through various stages of completion -- with literary manuscripts, self-help and business books, and educational materials.
Global politics and economics, self-help (especially productivity), gardening, and real estate.
Valerie is a college professor (literature and composition) with over 20 years of teaching experience. She peer edited any number of academic articles before they went to publication. She has also edited a number of committee memos, proposals, and administrative rules, not to mention student essays. She is natural for textbook and study guide editing projects.
Valerie has worked with several nonprofit organizations over the years, both as a volunteer and as a paid writer. She has edited education and science grants, brochures, speeches, and web content.
Having worked in higher education most of her adult life, Valerie understands the nonprofit world. She knows how to construct a successful grant, how to organize a fundraising campaign, and how to appeal to donors. Thus, she has a level of knowledge that not only makes her capable of quickly line editing nonprofit materials but also allows her to perform more substantial editing to check for voice and effective marketing techniques.
Valerie loves reading business books, especially on soft topics like productivity, habit formation, and entrepreneurship. Perhaps that is because she became a small business owner herself a few years ago.
One thing she dislikes about business writing is the excess of jargon and hyperbole. Her red pencil is ready to tighten up your business book, article, or web content so that it offers substance, keeps your readers engaged, and improves your return on invest.
There are no fewer than five Congressional candidates in Valerie's Facebook friend list right now, a reflection of the fact that she has always traveled in political circles. She has written and edited campaign materials off and on her entire adult life, working with individual candidates and organizations like Emerge America. She has also written and edited political speeches.
Valerie knows the type of content that can capture an audience's attention and what is unlikely to appeal. That makes her a natural for editing political web content, speeches, blog posts, and direct marketing campaign materials.
Valerie is a health and wellness writer with years of experience writing articles and blog posts for a variety of clients. She specializes in doing proper research and applying that research in order to craft articles that help people lose weight, understand why they are sleep deprived, learn how to reduce stress, and explore alternative medicine.
As a health editor, she can improve the credibility of an article by adding sources or make the central argument more clear by unpacking jargon and wordy sentences. Valerie can make your health writing smarter and more vibrant.
"Can you take a look at this?" is a question Valerie has been asked more times than she can count over the years. As a friend, or for a fee, she has edited papers in a number of academic fields ranging from her own discipline, literature, to astronomy and engineering.
She is capable of doing both light and intensive editorial work to improve the clarity and flow of complex topics, including work where English is not the writer's first language.
As a content writer, Valerie specializes in writing both standard and long-form blog posts. She has written hundreds of them for clients in real estate, health, education, legal, travel, business, home improvement, and relationships. She is also an experienced blogger with her own business website.
Valerie's blog writing experience allows her to transform tired blog posts into new brand new content that will drive readers to your site. She is able to update research links, hone SEO, and make the content sparkle.
Valerie has acted as a developmental editor on several book length projects, taking the work from conception to final draft. The projects she worked on were in the theory of higher education, business (productivity and entrepreneurship), cultural anthropology, and personal finance. She worked with authors to organize chapter materials, gather sources, and polish final drafts.
She has also worked to ghost-write several books for clients, translating their thoughts and ideas into successful ebooks.
Valerie worked in the screenwriting industry for five years, maintaining close contact with several mainstream Hollywood producers. One of her original scripts attracted industry attention and was in development for years; an adaption she wrote was optioned by a production company.
Through trial and error -- and lots of meetings-- she learned how to craft a voice. She is especially good at editing down video scripts so that they are crystal clear.
