Meet Our EditorsBetterEdit draws on a network of tertiary-qualified and industry-experienced editors, writers and other skilled individuals. Each editor is carefully tested during a hiring process. Editors
Administration
Editor ProfilesAlexa Grunner
BA (UQ), DipEd (UQ), MA (Bond). Alexa's love of language began with teaching German, French and English for four years at high school, followed by 16 years' teaching English as a Second Language to Bond University students, as well as privately. While at Bond, Alexa taught Academic English, using a communicative task-based philosophy of language learning. Alexa's Applied Linguistics courses consisted of teaching linguistics, computer-enhanced language learning, language testing, and her responsibilities included theses supervision and examination as well as language teacher training. Naturally, writing is a large part of academic work, especially as Alexa was constantly developing new teaching materials and course outlines. Proofreading and editing essays, reports and theses also became an ever-growing responsibility and interest for Alexa, so after her semi-retirement in 2001, she continued to work as an editor of student work. Alexa is fascinated by the vast array of topics she encounters and enjoys working with students from all nationalities.
Allen Oakley
PhD, BEc (Hons), University of Adelaide. Allen's experience with writing and editing was integral to his 30 years as a university researcher and lecturer. Although his particular discipline was Economics, most of his research and teaching extended into cognate fields. These included Economic Philosophy, Intellectual History, including the History of Economic Thought, and Business Finance. His record as a published writer includes eight sole-authored books and one edited book, together with many articles contributed to academic journals and edited book collections. Writing for many different academic publishers exposed Allen to a large range of very strictly applied editorial processes and standards, as well as to an equally large range of editors and proofreaders. Academic writing also demanded that he develop extensive referencing and indexing skills. Writing and editing were part of the everyday routine for a university academic. Allen's work included the writing of conference papers, the writing and re-writing of his own lectures for a wide range of university courses in economics and related fields, and the writing of research grant applications. A significant amount of his time was also spent dealing with the written work of others. This included the assessment of student essay writing and the supervision of students writing dissertations and theses up to and including PhD level. Among the students with whom he worked were many whose first language was not English. This posed additional challenges and exposed Allen to the particular editorial requirements of this group of students. In much of this day-to-day university work, there were particular editorial standards to which Allen was expected to conform. This served to broaden and compound the experience Allen had with the processes of editing as part of his research writing and publishing. It was because Allen found all the editorial aspects of his research, writing, and teaching so interesting and challenging that he chose to take up editing as a part-time profession in retirement.
Geoffrey Alan Foster
PhD (IT) and DipCompSc, University of Queensland; BA and MA in Mechanical Sciences, Cambridge University. Geoff has been a lecturer in Mechanical Engineering, University of Queensland, and also at the Tertiary Education Institute, University of Queensland. After retiring in 1995 he worked as a freelance editor until starting PhD studies in 2001. He worked in the field of aero-engines at Rolls-Royce, Ltd, in the UK. He lectured mainly in thermodynamics and related fields, but has a general acquaintance with other areas of mechanical engineering. He has had an interest in computer-mediated education and has written papers in this field; he has also published in other areas of higher education theory and practice. Geoff has a general interest in computers and information technology and has just been awarded a PhD in information technology (on the topic of help systems in Microsoft Word). He has edited books in ecology, psychology and education (amongst other areas), and papers and theses in a variety of fields. He edited and contributed to a house journal at the Tertiary Education Institute and has compiled and written handbooks and collections of seminars. He is familiar with computer based bibliographic tools (EndNote, Bookends) and competent in the use of library research databases as well as the broader Internet.
Ian GrangeMSc Soil Science, BSc Soil and Land Resource Science, Graduate in the Royal Society of Chemistry (GRSC Pt I). Building on a foundation of research and development in the UK chemical industry for five years, Ian went on to study for his BSc (Newcastle, UK) and MSc (Aberdeen, UK) in Soil Science. This was followed by further research work in agricultural science, principally based in SE Asia, in conjunction with academic teaching and student supervision. Ian worked with the Thai Department of Agriculture, before making the move into academia. During his time with Mahidol University in Bangkok, Ian developed a joint MSc programme in Environmental Management with the University of San Francisco, being in part responsible for the design, writing and delivery of course materials. During this time, copy-editing and proofreading was an important component of his duties, both for the work of the students themselves, but also for the international promotion of the institutes Ian was involved with. During this time he also worked closely with UNESCAP in proofreading some of their publications. Ian is currently working toward the completion of his PhD with the University of Sydney, conducting research into the mechanisms controlling organic matter turnover in soils. He is also lecturing on a part-time basis, with a focus on soil management issues, and is supervising students with their project work. Ian has over thirty publications, principally related to agricultural research, but also in part related to the social and economic aspects of implementing such research findings. In recent years Ian has been working with online editing companies and through this has gained an excellent foundation of experience in a range of topic areas requiring copy-editing and proofreading. Much of the work has involved editing proposals, theses, dissertations, assignments, essays, reports and academic papers, though he has also worked on novels, books and plays.
Janet Hussein
PhD Land Management University of Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K., MSc University of Stellenbosch, SA., Diploma in Proofreading & Editing, Australian College of Journalism, Certificate IV in Assessment & Workplace Training, Certificate in University Teaching. Janet is a Research Fellow at Griffith University and has twenty years of academic experience in the environmental science field, working in U.K., Africa and Australia. Apart from research work, Janet has been involved with lecturing and distance education for many years and has written and edited teaching materials, journal papers, books and conference proceedings. Her work as editor of a small science journal for a number of years, saw her dealing with a wide range of material ranging from infectious diseases to the role of women in science. She is an advocate of open-access archiving which allows world-wide access to research material, particularly important for those researchers working under difficult conditions in developing countries. She is a trustee of the Electronic Publishing Trust for Development (www.epublishingtrust.org) and has been a guest editor for INASP (www.inasp.info) which is an interdisciplinary body of the International Council for Science (ICSU). Janet has worked with students and staff from many different cultural, religious and linguistic backgrounds and enjoys helping them to achieve the best possible outcome for their written material.
Janie Busby
PhD (Cognitive Psychology), BSc (Hons I) (Psychology), University of Queensland. Janie has writing and editing experience both through tertiary-level teaching and her own publications. She has edited many different types of manuscripts across a wide range of fields. Janie holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons I) from the University of Queensland, with a double-major in Psychology. She also has academic experience in Computer Science and the Biological Sciences. In 2005 Janie received a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from UQ for her thesis examining the development of memory and planning during the preschool years. Janie has tutored and lectured in Cognitive and Behavioural Psychology, Computer Science and Statistics over several years. She has published in several journals, her papers primarily discussing issues in developmental and comparative psychology.
Julie SmithBA (Hons) in English and History, University of York, the UK; RSA Diploma in Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Adults (Dip. TEFLA). Julie has taught English as a Foreign or Second Language for over 15 years in various different countries. This centred on the teaching of grammar and sentence structure and included components of teaching writing skills and correcting numerous written texts, hence increasing her awareness of the problems that students experience with English. She taught academic English at universities in China, Thailand and the UK. During this time she conducted intensive courses in academic writing skills, and worked in collaboration with colleagues to develop the materials and methodology used on these courses. She also corrected numerous pieces of academic writing, whilst editing transcripts and brochures for Amnesty International (Thailand) and Non Government Organisations (NGOs) in her spare time. In recent years, she has applied this extensive experience to the field of editing. She has gained experience of a variety of materials and subject matter, including a large number of dissertations, academic assignments, distance learning materials and the papers for conference proceedings, together with short stories, novels, newsletters and web pages.
Keith McLennanBA (First Class Honours in English Literature; Modern History, French), University of Sydney, MA (First Class Honours in English Literature, University Medal), University of Sydney. Having taught English literature for ten years in the universities of Sydney and NSW, Keith is well acquainted with both the major writers in English and the needs of students generally. He is particularly well acquainted with political and military history, modern German history, and art. Keith has edited several company annual reports and two PhD theses, one on Japanese craft and the other on Taiwan art history in the twentieth century. He has also worked on business documents for Chinese companies, e.g. the California Gardens real estate development in Beijing and the Baoshan industrial district in Shanghai. In April 2004 Keith published an article on a Sydney Holocaust survivor ("Walking among the Shadows") in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Sue-Ellen GowerCertificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training, Diploma in Professional Writing - Professional Editing and Proofreading. During her freelance editing career, Sue-Ellen has edited book manuscripts (fiction), undergraduate assignments, training manuals and online training courses. A career that has spanned such diverse industries as Hospitality Management, Office Administration, Workplace Training and Assessing, Information Technology, Employment and Jobsearch Training has provided Sue-Ellen with skills and knowledge in a many areas. Currently working as a book editor to seventeen authors for an electronic publisher in the USA, she divides her time between a busy freelance editing career and writing. She has published two books to date.
Terry Martin
BA (Monash), Grad. Dip. Adult and Further Ed. (U. of S.A), Grad. Dip. Multicultural Ed. (U. of New England). After studying for a BA at Monash University, Melbourne, from 1966 to 1968, Terry completed a Graduate Diploma in Adult and Further Education at the University of South Australia in 1987, followed by a Graduate Diploma in Multicultural Studies at the University of New England, NSW, in 1990. His focus was on language teaching methodology and the psychology of adult learning. Terry has travelled extensively, living out of Australia for almost half of his adult life in Europe, Asia, North America, Africa and the Pacific Islands. During all this time he developed his love of languages (he speaks four competently). He had periods of teaching English as a second language in Germany, Japan and Australia, including four years in Migrant Education in South Australia and seven years at ELICOS, in the University of Queensland, largely teaching English For Academic Purposes. Terry published his only book, Wood Dreaming, in 1995 and is working on his second book now. He continues to write on art-related topics for various international magazines. For seven years he was Editor-in-Chief of the US quarterly journal, Turning Points, and is a Contributing Editor to other American journals.
Will Grant
BA (Hons. 1) Political Science, PhD. Political Science, University of Queensland (to be submitted August 2006). Will has extensive experience in the writing and editing of a variety of social science and humanities fields. While completing his PhD in political science, Will has also taught classes on a variety of topics at the School of Political Science and International Studies at The University of Queensland, has edited a peer reviewed journal of political studies, and has published a variety of scholarly papers on political theory and contemporary politics in India. Will has experience editing in a range of fields, including Politics, Philosophy, Economics, Geography, Cultural Studies, Law, Asian studies and others.
Ready to try? |
Angela Vink
Back to Top
Click Here To Submit Your