Summary

Teaching traditional grammar and punctuation, writing, spelling, editing, and proofreading | Commenting publicly on matters such as written and spoken communication, foundational grammar, spelling and pronunciation, and Australian literacy standards | Editing and proofreading books and all other types of publication | Self-publishing Grey Areas and Gremlins: A grammar and punctuation refresher and various course notes | Writing simple and complex documents | Presenting to writers’ and editors’ groups | Please see my CV, projects and testimonials.

Editorial Training Services

Since 1995, I’ve been providing public and private group training and one-on-one tuition in grammar and punctuation, writing, spelling, editing, and proofreading. My clients include companies, government and business entities, communication professionals, and executives.

Between 2011 and 2025, I taught face-to-face short courses in grammar and editing at Sydney University’s Centre for Continuing Education (CCE), in Newtown, Sydney.

I make my courses and presentations interactive and entertaining as well as educational. Participants’ evaluations are overwhelmingly positive.

Living Proof – Book Editing

I’ve been a self-employed editor since 1989. My services include:

• copy editing: preventing embarrassing errors from occurring in the finished document and bringing it to an acceptable standard for publication
• preparing editorial reviews: reading a printout of the typescript, annotating it to suggest improvements and raise major ‘author queries’, and composing a detailed itemised report
• structural editing: reordering sections of the text to aid navigability and flow
• writing: creating copy that’s pleasant, effective, alive, clear and enduring (‘making peace with the reader’) rather than waffly, ambiguous and ridiculous (‘making war with the reader’)
• rewriting: creating as few drafts as possible in order to maximise the impact
• proofreading: eliminating all typographical errors and layout problems.

I collaborate with corporate, government and business entities, as well as individual authors, to produce the best-possible publication. My imperative is editorial excellence, whatever the project.

Grey Areas and Gremlins: A grammar and punctuation refresher

Since 2003, I’ve been self-publishing my text-workbook Grey Areas and Gremlins: A grammar and punctuation refresher and developing various supplementary course notes and colour-coded explanatory handouts. Grey Areas and Gremlins is a simple, easy-to-use desk reference for anyone who wants to discover and apply ways to eliminate the common but avoidable errors that writers and editors make and encounter.

The cost of the printed book and its 10 accompanying handouts is $60 (no GST), including shipping within Australia, and the cost of the PDF version and handouts is $35. Order your copy of Grey Areas and Gremlins.

Writing

I write documents such as articles, submissions, synopses and blurbs. EXAMPLES: Regularly posting a ‘Grammar Guru’ column on LinkedIn (2024 and ’25) | Writing a submission for the Australian of the Year awards (2023) | Writing the ‘Language FAQs’ column for Government News and the ‘Editor’s Corner’ column for Newswrite, the magazine of the NSW Writers’ Centre (now Writing NSW) (early 2000s) | Contributing two articles to the former quarterly magazine Vegan Voice – ‘And So This Is Christmas’ and ‘Talking Turkey’ (mid-2000s) | Contributing the short story ‘Minnie and Me’ to the anthology Cat Tales: The Meaning of Cats in Women’s Lives (Spinifex Press, 2002) | Writing animal-advocacy letters and emails to organisations and politicians