THE FREELANCER

  Editing Strengths

Four years as a regional staff editor for United Press International mandated speed and accuracy in reviewing and editing tens of thousands of words of copy every day. These skills were further refined in later years as I edited four magazines (Today's Officer, CompuWeb, AeroWeb and DefenseWeb) and three books (the 1997-98-99 editions of Defence & Security Review).

The magazines and books also provided experience in selecting the right writers for each assignment, choosing the topics to be covered and the approach to be taken, developing coherent themes for each issue, making certain others met their deadlines and giving the overall publication a common voice, without negating the individual styles of the writers.

While much of my recent work has been centered around aerospace, defense and computers, my overall background as a writer is sufficiently broad-based - and my ability to absorb new information and comprehend new subjects repeatedly demonstrated - to give me a rare versatility in writing about or editing articles involving any subject.

Working from my home office (and using a T1-level high speed cable connection), I can work through large volumes of material with great speed. For my own work, I use the latest edition of Word Perfect, but can accept or submit copy in any word processor format.

I have worked as an editor on both print and online publications (as well as video scripts) and feel quite comfortable in any format.