Sample Portfolio

Not sure what you’re getting from a Laura T edit? These samples, primarily from my MA dissertation so as to maintain my clients’ privacy and confidentiality, can give you an idea of how I mark up in various environments, my processes, and assets you receive, like a project-specific style guide.

How I Work

A screenshot of a page in Adobe Acrobat with blue editorial markup and the comment pane.
Proofreading generally means I use Acrobat comments on a PDF.
Screenshot of a Word page with invisible characters shown and Tracked Changes in red.
For copyediting, I generally edit in Word with tracked changes.

What I Use

Screenshot of Wildcards tab in PerfectIt with project-specific rules.
I use a highly specialized product called PerfectIt and customize it to your project.
Word VBA window showing a macro named "ExtractCitations."
Macros in Word and Excel automate some checks, but nothing replaces a careful manual review.
Screenshot of a Word document in Draft view showing Styles applied.
Tagging with MS Word styles makes your documents more palatable to typesetters and designers.
Screenshot of an Excel table of endnotes.
Excel helps me with reference checks and more.

What I Do

Below are before-and-after editions of my grad school dissertation. The main change was to go from a UK audience to a US audience. (“Americanizing” is one of my popular services.) Some changes to spot between the versions:

  • Improved readability and accessibility
  • Simplified reading paths
  • US spellings and vocabulary
  • Chicago Manual of Style rules applied (e.g., capitalization, numbers, and dashes)
  • Punctuation (e.g., quotation marks)
  • Abbreviations made consistent
  • Full endnotes instead of in-text citations
  • Reference formatting and consistency
  • Alt text added to images
  • Redrawn timelines as vector graphics
  • Word Styles tagging
The-Continuing-Need-for-Gay-Bookshops_1ed
Continuing-Need-for-Gay-Bookshops_2ed

What I Produce

In addition to a marked up manuscript file, I often supply other assets.

Screenshot of a project-specific style guide
I provide (or maintain and update) a style guide with every edit.
I redraw text-heavy images as clean, editable SVG vector files.
Four photographs of gay bookshop storefronts.
I do basic picture research and gather permissions info.

How I Write

In everything I do, communication is key. My writing style depends on the project, but for an example of the quality of my writing, see this except from my grad school dissertation.

chapter-4_writing-sampleDownload