FORM
IS
FUNCTION

I make texts better by making writers better.

Producing clear and complex texts, such as academic papers and dissertations, is hard, even for highly competent language users.

My style of editing involves acting as a sparring partner for the writers I work with. By asking the right questions, I give my writers focused and thoughtful feedback and insight so that they can produce nuanced texts on complex topics that nevertheless have clarity and a solid flow of information.

I believe that form does not follow function, but form is function. An example from history is the round robin, a petition in which the signees wrote their names in a circular pattern, so that none of them could be identified as the ringleader. It was often used by sailors as a precaution against the severe and harsh punishments for disobedience.

My background is as a teacher of English for Academic Purposes, and a researcher in English social-historical linguistics, specialising in questions of language standardisation, usage and prescriptivism, and language attitudes.