Professional Editing
Resumés • Cover Letters • Websites
Services I Offer | The Editing Process | What It Costs | Work With Me
Applying for a job, college, or graduate school can induce a lot of stress, worry, and writer’s block.
For one thing, it’s a high-stakes writing situation—a lot is riding on just a few pages of text. For another, the evaluation process happens mostly or entirely out of your sight, so you may never know who your reader was or what they liked and disliked about your application.
The whole thing can feel like a game whose rules are hidden from you.
As a professor of technical and professional writing, I understand the rules of the game. My day job is teaching people how to apply to jobs, internships, and schools—in fact, I’ve written a fair bit about the topic. I understand how to analyze job ads to discover the must-haves and nice-to-haves an employer is looking for, and I know how to craft application materials so that they guide the reader’s eye right to your best qualifications.
Let me help you get noticed with your next job or college application.
Services I Offer
Every application has its own particular requirements, and I will work closely with you at the outset of a project to determine which of my services are right for you. The following are the main types of editing services I offer for job and college application projects, though I’m open to others if that’s what you need.
Click each to learn more.
Modern resumés have to be crafted for both human readers and software that automatically analyzes and evaluates applicants, making applying for jobs more complex than ever. Additionally, many hirers request that applicants fill in textboxes in online forms to aid their process. Because of these factors, I work with clients to produce a variety of resumé types according to their needs, including these:
- Master Resumé: A comprehensive list of one’s skills, degrees, certifications, experience, recognitions, and achievements, a master resumé is the pantry from which one can cook up job-specific resumés as needed. It also provides consistently formatted content that can be quickly pasted into online application forms, and it is a great resource when preparing for interviews because it can remind one of key anecdotes and experiences to reference in answering questions.
- Tailored Resumé: A one-page, carefully designed document that guides the reader’s eye to the most critical info, a tailored resumé is typically crafted for a specific job or for a few closely related jobs. I provide a Word doc (for future editing) and a machine-readable PDF (for submitting).
- College Application Resumé: Specifically designed for use in college and scholarship applications, this resumé has to convey a specific message: Though young and relatively inexperienced, I understand the commitment necessary to succeed in college and have demonstrated my ability to persevere. I work with high school students to wrangle their work, school, extracurricular, and volunteer experiences into a form that reviewers will find impressive.
Here are a few anonymized sample resumés that I’ve worked on for past projects (click to see full-size):
Where a resumé paints the broad picture of who you are, a cover letter tells employers the story of how you are uniquely qualified for a position by focusing on a few key anecdotes and examples of your skills in action.
I work with clients to analyze job ads, determine what employers are looking for, and craft concise yet powerful letters that maximize their chances of scoring an interview.
Here are a few anonymized sample cover letters that I’ve worked on for past projects (click to see full-size):
Because modern job searches are no longer based around only a resumé and cover letter, I work with clients to craft effective LinkedIn profiles as well as personal websites where they can showcase their skills and abilities in greater detail than traditional application materials allow.
Feel free to check out my own (personal website and LinkedIn profile as examples of what I can produce:
College and scholarship applications often ask for essays, writing samples, or statements of intent as evidence of an applicant’s abilities and teachability. While I cannot write such documents for you, I can help with any and all stages of composing essays and choosing samples, such as the following:
- Analyzing prompts to understand what evaluators want to see
- Brainstorming topics for writing and narrowing down ideas
- Substantive feedback on early drafts
- Proofreading and polishing of final drafts
- Choosing writing samples most likely to impress
- Proofreading writing samples to best reflect one’s ability
The Editing Process
Though no two editing jobs are ever quite the same, the typical process for working together on a job or college application goes something like this:
Query & Initial Meeting
You contact me and describe what you are looking for, sharing with me copies of whatever existing application materials you have as well as specific job ads or application documentation.
We have a meeting—over Zoom or in person—to discuss the parameters of the project, when you need the work done, and what you want the final product to look like.
Contract
We sign an editing agreement, a simple contract that details the following:
- a description of the services to be performed
- a timeline within which the project will be completed
- the terms of payment
- a confidentiality agreement
Editing
I perform the work as agreed, providing regular updates about my progress.
Depending on the situation, we may meet additionally to generate and refine content for resumés and letters. We might also trade drafts back and forth over email, collaborate on a Google Doc, or work from a shared file in a Dropbox folder—I’m open to the workflow that best suits your needs.
Delivery & Follow-Up
I provide the agreed-upon products for your review once I’m finished.
If any minor follow-up work is needed (materials sometimes need a little tweak or two when used for more than one application) I’m available to help at no additional charge.
What It Costs
The cost of the work depends on the scope of the project, the deadline by which you need it done, and my current volume of jobs—so I always recommend contacting me as early as possible to make sure you get the best deal.
When working on resumés and cover letters, I typically charge a flat fee for the work, so you’ll know up front exactly what the cost will be.
When working on more complex projects, I typically charge an hourly rate (for example, editing multiple drafts of an application essay or developing a portfolio website). In this case, the editing agreement will include an estimated total cost for the job, but the final fee won’t be determined until the job is finished.
Rest assured though: My estimates are extremely accurate, and I will never exceed the estimated time without prior authorization from you. If it ever looks like more time will be required than estimated, I’ll first discuss with you how I might redistribute my efforts to get you the most value for your money within the estimated time.
Work With Me
Professional editing is a skilled trade requiring a high degree of expertise and lots of experience to do well. With a doctorate in technical communication and nearly 20 years of experience, I have both.
Contact me today and let’s get started!
