m susan.schmidt.13097

Susan Schmidt, PhD

Beaufort Writing Group Developmental Editor

I advise authors how to revise manuscripts with the same mindfulness as pruning apple trees. Among Top 10 Editors in New England. A client’s agent says, “Sharpest improvement I’ve ever seen from 1st draft to 2nd.” I polish scholarly and popular history and science, journal articles, dissertations, novels, memoirs into publishable books. In structural critique, I recommend how to shape, focus, fine-tune narrative voice, tone, trajectory to target an audience. I talk to a client so vocabulary and inflection sound like her voice. To refine an argument, I may advise moving Chapter 6 to Chapter 1, or introducing a character as trustworthy before someone accuses her. As retired English professor, I am a master stylist. As copyeditor and proofreader, I mark grammar, spelling, punctuation, syntax, structure, word choice. I address clarity, consistency, repetition, flow, transitions. I change passive to active voice and multisyllable nouns to a strong verb. In a popular-science book, we moved differential equations to sidebars, added topic sentences, divided 200-word sentences and eight-syllable words; reviewer praised his “crisp writing.” I copyedit for many writers who use English as a second language. I am fluent in French and German. I have a PhD in American lit; Masters in Environmental Sciences and British Lit; postdocs in botany and bioethics. My poetry books: Drought Drought TorrentialLet Go or Hold Fast, Salt Runs in My Blood; my nonfiction: Landfall Along the Chesapeake (Johns Hopkins UP); my novel Song of Moving Water. My poems won 2020 Golden Prize, 2018 O’Day Prize, 2016 Applewhite Prize, 2012 Guy Owen Prize; appear in NC Literary Trails. For 30 years in university, I taught literature & environmental decision-making. I worked as scientist, journalist, sailboat captain. I had grants from Fulbright, EPA, NSF, NEH, NEA, AAUW. I trekked New Zealand, Camino de Santiago, & Cornwall Coastal Path, paddled Alaska, surveyed birds in Kenya, Costa Rica, & Ecuador. When not editing, I row and walk my Boykin Spaniel on the beach.

 

 

Beaufort, NC
US

Business phone: 252-269-0032

Email: susu@susanschmidt.net
Email: susankiwi15@gmail.com

http://www.susanschmidt.net

More information: View PDF file

Years in the field: 40
Years freelancing: 25

m susan.schmidt.13097

Susan Schmidt, PhD

Member at Large

I advise authors how to revise manuscripts with the same mindfulness as pruning apple trees. Among Top 10 Editors in New England. A client’s agent says, “Sharpest improvement I’ve ever seen from 1st draft to 2nd.” I polish scholarly and popular history and science, journal articles, dissertations, novels, memoirs into publishable books. In structural critique, I recommend how to shape, focus, fine-tune narrative voice, tone, trajectory to target an audience. I talk to a client so vocabulary and inflection sound like her voice. To refine an argument, I may advise moving Chapter 6 to Chapter 1, or introducing a character as trustworthy before someone accuses her. As retired English professor, I am a master stylist. As copyeditor and proofreader, I mark grammar, spelling, punctuation, syntax, structure, word choice. I address clarity, consistency, repetition, flow, transitions. I change passive to active voice and multisyllable nouns to a strong verb. In a popular-science book, we moved differential equations to sidebars, added topic sentences, divided 200-word sentences and eight-syllable words; reviewer praised his “crisp writing.” I copyedit for many writers who use English as a second language. I am fluent in French and German. I have a PhD in American lit; Masters in Environmental Sciences and British Lit; postdocs in botany and bioethics. My poetry books: Drought Drought TorrentialLet Go or Hold Fast, Salt Runs in My Blood; my nonfiction: Landfall Along the Chesapeake (Johns Hopkins UP); my novel Song of Moving Water. My poems won 2020 Golden Prize, 2018 O’Day Prize, 2016 Applewhite Prize, 2012 Guy Owen Prize; appear in NC Literary Trails. For 30 years in university, I taught literature & environmental decision-making. I worked as scientist, journalist, sailboat captain. I had grants from Fulbright, EPA, NSF, NEH, NEA, AAUW. I trekked New Zealand, Camino de Santiago, & Cornwall Coastal Path, paddled Alaska, surveyed birds in Kenya, Costa Rica, & Ecuador. When not editing, I row and walk my Boykin Spaniel on the beach.

 

 

Office Closed Monday April 8.

The EFA Offices will be closed Monday, April 8, 2024. We will reopen on Tuesday, April 9. Job postings, discussion list subscriptions, and other customer service requests may not be responded to until then.

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