How can I help? mark@markalleneditorial.com
As a copy editor, my goal is to make sure the author’s point is understood.
I help authors find the right words, clean documents of distracting typos,
match usage to preferred style, and make sure clarity is achieved
so honest ideas come through.
Photo by Ann Allen
About Mark Allen
Mark Allen has been helping others improve their writing since he was a teenage editor on his high school newspaper. He edited professionally for 20 years on newspaper copy desks and for 15-plus years as a freelancer. He has improved articles on emerging technologies, university accreditation self-studies, curriculum materials, scholarly papers, policy papers, news stories and analyses, marketing documents, blog entries, business-to-business and business-to-consumer emails, nonfiction books, and more.
He is president-elect of ACES: The Society for Editing, the world's largest professional association for editors. He has taught extensively on writing and editing, including developing the math and numbers section of the intermediate editing certificate program for the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.
What I edit
I've been a generalist since my newspaper days, finding pleasure in learning about a variety of topics and working with authors from diverse backgrounds. Here are some areas of recent focus:
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Emerging technology: For a university-affiliated lending library, I help make technology accessible to everyone. I've been immersed in artificial intelligence and generative AI, blockchain and cryptocurrency, autonomous vehicles, 3D printing, augmented and virtual reality, cloud computing, and more.
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Health: I edit articles for hospital magazines and scholarly papers on public health.
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University accreditation: I've edited successful accreditation self-studies for universities, programs, and colleges.
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Nonprofit foundations: My favorite work (don't tell the others) is helping foundations and nongovernmental agencies make the world a better place.
Partial client list
A great joy of freelance editing is the variety of clients it brings me in contact with, affording opportunities to learn with every one. Here are some of the organizations I've head the pleasure of editing for over the years:
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American Journalism Project
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Apple Tree Institute
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BillMoyers.com
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Brooklyn College
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Cheapism
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Cities of Service
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Columbus State Community College
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The Conference Board
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Equity Methods LLC
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FiveThirtyEight
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Harvard Education Publishing Group
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International Center for Transitional Justice
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International Fact-Checking Network
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Johns Hopkins University
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Keck Medicine of USC
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Kennedy Krieger Institute
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The Knight Foundation
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Learning Mate
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Microsoft
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MIT Horizon
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National Endowment for the Humanities
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National University
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Nationwide Financial
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The Ohio State University
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Plan International
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Red Flag Group
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Roto
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Skoll Foundation
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Trilogy Education
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UMass Transportation Center
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United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
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Universita Campus Bio-Medico di Roma
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University of Kansas
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University of Maryland School of Nursing
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Virtual Lab School of the Ohio State Collaborative
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Women Enabled International
A short usage quiz
Editors will fix your spelling and grammar errors, and they also tackle pesky questions of style and usage. Here are a few examples where you can test yourself, and more style points are in the FAQs below.