Brad W
Schenectady, United States
“The error-free message is best received. ”
Specialist subjects:
Editing formats:
Education:
MA in Cinema Studies
New York University
2003–2005
BA in English
SUNY Oswego
1990–1994
Favorite referencing style
I find Harvard referencing style the most straightforward and easy to use.
Why I became an editor
As my interests and life experiences broadened, my connection with writing, editing, and proofreading maintained a thorough line of working with language. Proofreading and editing allow me to exercise a certain literary/critical element of my mind while leaving the pressure of content generation up to someone else! Clients get a backstop on their work, ensuring their ideas come across free from errors and distractions, in the manner and voice best suited to the message and context.
Background and experience
My role as an editorial assistant for Film Comment magazine included light copy editing and proofreading. As a publicity executive for Magnolia Pictures, I wrote, edited, and proofread content for marketing materials and press releases for film campaigns. As a journalist for the online film journal Reverse Shot, I conducted and transcribed interviews with film talent and wrote in-depth critical pieces and short reviews on current films, trends in cinema, and cinephile culture.
Why I love proofreading and editing
When proofreading and editing, you get to apply a certain framework to the inexact and unruly world of language and personal expression. What is "correct" sometimes remains unclear, even in proofreading. Yet what I enjoy most about proofreading and editing is the attempt to apply some sort of structure to what may be chaos, wielding—with something close enough to certainty—the "final word" on which corrections and slight alterations help reveal the best version of the author's work.
Favorite book:
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller.
Hobbies:
When not proofreading, I try to concentrate on writing projects, other sources of income, playing guitar, cooking, and entertaining my cat.
Editing tips:
I find it essential to first familiarize myself with how the original text reads and try to grasp as much of the content as I can. This baseline understanding can help inform decisions going forward.
