Dr Puck Fletcher

Specialism

Copy editing, developmental editing, proofreading, and bibliography

Academic and other non-fiction writing

Expertise and experience

I have been editing since 2007 and have worked extensively on the following:

monographs
edited collections
journal articles
referencing and bibliographies
catalogue and database entries
exhibition text for libraries and museums
learning resources.

I work on a wide range of subjects and periods with particular expertise in the arts and humanities and the early modern period. I am proficient in working with texts that discuss non-English languages and sources, adept in all the major style guides and referencing systems, and experienced in working with clients for whom English is not a first language.

I also have experience working on:

technical and medical reports
journalism
white papers
website copy
blog posts.

Qualifications and training

BA/MA(hons) in English Language and Literature (University of Cambridge)
MPhil in Renaissance English Literature (University of Cambridge)
PhD in English and HPS (University of Sussex)
Training courses in proofreading and copy editing (CIEP)
Training courses in public/media engagement and communicating academic subjects accessibly
CELTA

testimonials

Freya Sierhuis and I co-edited a Special Issue of the Sidney Journal last year. As everyone knows, the final stages of editing a volume are an overwhelming task in the modern university, which makes so many other simultaneous demands on our time. We asked Dr Fletcher to do the hands-on editorial work of matching styles and weeding out errors and inconsistencies. We had both worked with Puck on academic tasks, so we knew who we were dealing with. Puck is an outstanding editor, meticulous, unbelievably industrious and efficient, with a scrupulous eye for bibliographical detail but also an academic’s sense of argument and the broad intellectual concerns of a project. It is hard to overstate the rarity of such a combination of skills. Our deadline was no longer a problem as the issues were taken out of our hands. Replies came back within hours, anxieties disappeared. Within a fortnight, what had seemed a Herculean nightmare was under control. We cannot recommend Dr Fletcher’s work highly enough.

Professor Brian Cummings, University of York

Dr Puck Fletcher proofread and provided an index for my latest book, The Grace of the Italian Renaissance. I couldn’t be happier with the work. It is meticulous, thoughtful and sharp: and it saved me countless blushes! Dr Fletcher is efficient, eagle-eyed and a pleasure to work with. I cannot recommend their services highly enough.

Professor Ita Mac Carthy, University of Durham

I’ve worked with Dr Fletcher on two recent projects. About a year ago, I commissioned Puck to compile the index for my book Meditating Death (OUP 2020): Puck did the work so proficiently and with such a keen eye for detail that when my colleague Christopher Young and I were looking for someone to copyedit a volume we were editing for CUP, I had no hesitation about asking Puck to work with us again. To quote my colleague, Puck’s editing was “brilliant”: not just delivered on schedule, and precise and immaculate on style and formatting, but also full of really helpful suggestions for improving expression and clarity. It’s worth highlighting that it wasn’t easy material: fifteen chapters, covering every medieval language from Spanish and Old Norse through to early Russian. Puck has a wonderful sensitivity for language as well as for the conventions of different subjects and disciplines. I highly recommend Puck, and am sure these won’t be the last projects we work on together.

Dr Mark Chinca, University of Cambridge

I reached out to Dr. Puck Fletcher for copyediting work on my book manuscript ahead of a press deadline. From start to finish, Puck was clear about the timeline, prompt in communication, and flexible in working with my own work schedule. Puck helped me note discrepancies in my source materials, and also provided me with valuable insight about the overall shape of the project’s argument. They also went above and beyond in helping me recover a file during a particularly stressful moment in my editing! I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Puck’s services to others, and look forward to using their services again for my future work. It’s been a true pleasure working with Puck on this project!

RH, Assistant Professor

It has been a great pleasure working with Dr. Fletcher. Puck is professional, quick, and flexible, and has a great eye for detail while keeping the bigger framework in check. I worked with Puck on two different projects. The first was slightly uncommon, namely a database project from the AHRC-funded project “Making Visible: the visual and graphic practices of the early Royal Society” [at CRASSH, University of Cambridge], containing about 4,500 entries that needed checking on language and consistency. Over the course of 4 months, my colleague and I worked with Puck in the most constructive way. Puck was able to point towards inconsistencies, typos and full-on mistakes, but even more, they went above and beyond to check quotations and references, and keeping up the spirit! Puck has been vital for making the database ready for the public (the database is currently being integrated in the Royal Society Picture Library, see https://pictures.royalsociety.org/home).
Puck also copy-edited an article for me, which was another great experience. With great precision and knowledge about language, structure, argumentation, and reference systems, Puck was able to improve my article in so many ways.
All work was delivered on time (even when we were sometimes late), and the comments I/we received were always useful, delivered with a healthy dose of humour, and, probably most importantly, positively critical. I can highly recommend Puck, and look forward to working together again in the future.

Dr Sietske Fransen, Bibliotheca Hertziana - Max Planck Institut for Art History

I commissioned Dr. Fletcher to help me revise a chapter and prepare it for publication in the book Ambiguous Selves: Contesting Gender Binaries in Literature, Film and the Media published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Dr. Fletcher was always very prompt, highly professional and went above and beyond when giving incredibly detailed and constructive feedback, even generously offering the options of both a works cited file and a bibliography, and helping me to refine my abstract and biography. They made sure to explain editing and revision processes step by step, always giving me plenty of options. Dr. Fletcher offers a warm and humane service, combined with supportive and practical comments.

I believe that Dr. Fletcher’s editorial input has been invaluable, I highly recommend their wonderful service, and I wouldn’t hesitate to commission them for work again.

Dr. Ludovic Foster, independent scholar

Dr. Puck Fletcher is a natural-born linguist. I did request her support reviewing and proofreading a manuscript of my [journal article]. From my experiences working with her, she is highly professional, be responsible, timely deliver, knowledgeable, caring, flexible, understanding, reliable, punctual, helpful, sincerely comment, optimistic, be able to work with trust, reliable, friendship and a peace of mind. If English is not your first language or you are searching for the specialist for help and support. In no doubt, I highly recommend contacting Dr. Puck Fletcher to deliver a master piece of work for your success.

Mr. Monta, IBM Thailand

I highly recommend Dr Puck Fletcher for proofreading and copyediting work. Puck worked on a large co-edited collection with contributors from 5 countries that needed to be corrected and brought into the US house style of an academic press. The press’s reader noted that the “typescript had been prepared beautifully.” We couldn’t have managed this without Puck’s excellent work and the care and attention brought to each and every sentence and reference. The work was outstanding, professional and always on time.

Dr Chloe Wigston Smith, University of York