Mary Anne Carswell

Expert professional editing and formatting of academic documents for over twenty years. Meticulous attention paid to both language and visual presentation, for clarity and beauty in the final text.

I enjoy ongoing long-term relationships with many of my customers. People who come to me to get their master’s theses edited often approach me later to work on their doctoral dissertations, and afterwards may hire me to help prepare  their work for publication. I have helped several authors through the process of turning their dissertations into books.

As writing coach, I will shepherd your book through to publication.

Academics whose first language is not English value my language editing skills. Corporate clients have hired me to create and maintain house style guides.

Academic documents can become very complicated in their formatting: interviewees’ quotations, figures, and extensive and numerous tables all present challenges. When formatted correctly, visual elements enhance and support your meaning.

An expert in APA and Chicago styles, I have led Editors’ Association seminars in Editing in APA Style and Onscreen Formatting of Academic Documents. I am familiar with the formatting guidelines of many universities and publishers and am used to working within them.

Let me know if you have used AI in preparing your text or reference list. I will edit your AI-generated text, and I will fact-check the reference list for you.

Authors who plan to self-publish will appreciate my expertise in editing, formatting, and book design.

I am very interested in texts that demand special attention to formatting and design, such as poetry.

I’m also a retired psychotherapist, in private practice for more than 30 years. I have enjoyed the combination of my two careers! My work as a psychotherapist taught me how to listen, and my work as an editor has taught me that there are times when I must speak up as well.

For sanity, I play classical piano.

One academic client said:

“In both my academic and professional careers, I have never encountered such a professional technical writer as yourself. Editors of your calibre, who meticulously research, format, edit, and proof documents with intelligence and speed are rare and coveted. As you know, one’s dissertation is sacred and my willingness to whole-heartedly hand it over to you was the direct result of your intellectual understanding of theoretical debates, academic language, and the academy itself. My supervisory committee praised the complexity of my thoughts precisely because your invisible hand had guided the text to clarity and comprehension.”

Another client said:

“Mary Anne approached the book from both sides, the vision and experience that was mine, and the inquiring mind of the reader who must make sense of all that I was making reference to. When I read the book now, her contribution is so seamless that it is more my work than the text I first wrote. I feel as if it came from my pen with all this richness.”

Others have said:

“It’s really impressive. I am glad I found you.”

“What did I pay the other editor for?”

PC. Office 365. OneDrive. Microsoft Word 365. EndNote 20. PerfectIt 6. Editor’s Toolkit Plus. Dropbox. Dragon Professional Individual (formerly Dragon Naturally Speaking) voice recognition software, version 15.61.

MEd (Counselling Psychology). MA (English). One year law school. All-but-dissertation PhD (Medieval Studies). 

Voting member, Editors Canada. Clinical member (retired), Ontario Society of Psychotherapists.

References gladly supplied.