Skills and Software
Pitmans Elementary and Intermediate Secretarial Certificates, with Distinction for typing (90 wpm)
Basic French and Italian
Windows 7 Professional and Windows 10, Microsoft Office Professional 2013 and 2016
Adobe Reader DC
PDF-Xchange (with BSI stamps)
Photoshop Elements 15
Training and Continuing Professional Development
1989–90 BPIF Introduction to Print Technology (CCHE Cambridge)
1992 Book Production: The Sequence of Processes (Publishing Training Centre at Book House)
1993 Specialist Copy-editing: Law (Publishing Training Centre at Book House)
1994 Typography; Taking Disks from Authors; On-screen Editing (Publishing Training Centre at Book House)
1995 Managing Editorial Freelancers (Publishing Training Centre at Book House)
1996 Managing Projects (Publishing Training Centre at Book House)
1998 SGML/XML: An Introduction (Technology Appraisals); Time Management (Publishing Training Centre at Book House)
1999 Assertiveness and Influencing Skills (Publishing Training Centre at Book House); Quark Xpress (Windows) Basic and Intermediate (Kluwer)
2000 Quark Xpress (Windows) (Spring Training)
2002 Working for Non-Publishers (SfEP)
2003 Web Editing and Proofreading (SfEP)
2005 Training for Trainers (SfEP)
2008 Editing in the Oracle/Stellent Content Management System (Capgemini)
2011 Travel Writing; Food Writing (Arvon Foundation)
2013 Feature Writing (Guardian Masterclasses); Stock Photography (Royal Photographic Society)
2015 Seth Godin’s Freelancer Course (Udemy)
2016 Photoshop Elements 15 (DVD Training UK)
2018 Editing with Word (SfEP); Macro Workshop (SfEP); PerfectIt 3: Introduction and Advanced (Cadman Training Services)
2019 Editing for the Web Masterclass (Copyediting.com/Erin Brenner); The Editor’s Place in E-book Development (Editors Canada)
2020 Grammar Arcana (American Copy Editors Society (ACES) masterclass); Storywriting (Creative Warehouse/Simon Hall); Enforcing House Styles: Customizing PerfectIt for Advanced Users (ACES); PerfectIt 4: Introduction (Cadman Training Services); Editing Cookbooks: The Little Things Matter (ACES masterclass); How Google Can Help You Verify Content and Write Stronger Headlines (ACES); ALLi Self-Publishing Conference (Alliance of Independent Authors); National Creative Writing Industry Conference (NCWIC)
2021 Query Letter Masterclass (Jane Friedman); Headlines That Work: How to Capture Readers’ Attention on Any Platform (ACES); Editing in a Multilingual World (ACES); Small Changes, Big Difference (ACES); Non-fiction: Place and People – Masterclass with Rory MacLean (Arvon Foundation); ALLi Self-Publishing Conference (Alliance of Independent Authors)
2022 ALLi Self-Publishing Conference; MS Word Heroics—Tech Cheats (Editors Guild); More about Singular They: Editor’s Use of Comprehensive Style Guides to Make Decisions about This Shifting Pronoun (ACES); Working with Self-publishing Authors (ACES masterclass)
2023 Writing, Editing, and Communicating in Architecture (ACES masterclass); Exploring Craft: A Masterclass in Copyediting from the Author of Dreyer’s English (National Press Club Journalism Institute); ChatGPT: The Threat, The Promise, and its Effects on the Editing Industry (ACES)
Education
1985–88 The University of Essex, Colchester, Essex
BA (Hons) English and European Literature (2:1)
Year 1: The Enlightenment, Literature, Linguistics, Philosophy
Years 2 and 3: English and European Literature (major), Russian Literature (minor)