Ms Susan Hamilton

Featured

I particularly enjoy proofreading ELT materials and anything to do with education.

I'm professional but friendly, and available year-round, often at short notice.

I am always looking to broaden my client base, so please get in touch.

Media

• Books 
• English language teaching materials
• Websites

Qualifications and awards

• MA French & German (St Andrews University, Fife, Scotland)
• Postgraduate Diploma in Publishing (West Herts College, Watford)
• TEFL course (1 month, International House, London)
• Diploma in Life Coaching

Experience

• Freelance proofreader / copy-editor since 2003
• Desk editor, Butterworth-Heinemann, 1999–2002

Recent training

• Professional copy-editing (SfEP, 2012)
• Introduction to web editorial skills (SfEP, 2011)
• Proofreading mentoring scheme (SfEP, 2010/11)
• Proofreading problems (SfEP, 2009)
• Working with non-publishers (SfEP 2006)
• Brush up your grammar (SfEP, 2006)

Recent clients

• Cambridge University Press
• Westchester Education Services (USA)
• Pearson
• Integra
• Hyphen
• Helbling
• MCG Content and Language Network (CLIL), Madrid

Subjects

• English language teaching (ELT)
• Education
• Travel

Languages other than English (French, German); can give basic proofreading instructions to a designer in Spanish; can understand very basic written Italian

testimonials

It is more than a pleasure, it is a delight, to comment on Soo Hamilton’s amazing aptitude.

She is meticulous in observation and perceptive as to meaning. Inappropriate ‘that/whichs’, ‘its/theirs’, figure numbers, missed or redundant citations, and caption glitches (unnoticed in three previous editions) were caught.

If perfection and clarity are your goals, combined with a pleasant personality, I know none better.

Ronald Jackson, author of 'Wine Science'

A BIG thank you Soo for the high quality of your copy-editing. You gave me exactly what I was looking for. Because so much editorial work had already gone into my book, I knew there would be few major changes needed and so asked you to get "super fussy" with details.

This you did and I accepted around 95+% of your suggestions. Sometimes a small point you brought to my attention got me to look at the bigger picture of what I was attempting to say, and I was then able to edit a whole sentence to enhance its clarity.

I highly recommend Soo to any author or publisher who needs a manuscript edited to the highest standards.

Leo Searle, author of 'Breaking Out of Your Mind!' (www.leosearle.com)

Hi Soo

I continue to be super-impressed with your keen eye to detail! 

I very much appreciate the professional approach you've taken, along with the very personable comments. You have certainly surpassed all of my expectations and made the editorial experience, which I sometimes find almost intolerable, very pleasant.

I hope our paths cross again and again in the future.  (The next edition definitely needs you!)

Dr. Bill Doerner
College of Criminology & Criminal Justice
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306-1273

Author of 'Victimology'

Soo is a meticulous copy-editor who always meets deadlines no matter the complexity of the project. I recently had the pleasure of project managing a Student’s Book that Soo copy-edited. Soo netted so many important catches, producing a much cleaner end product. She went above and beyond – I highly recommend her copy-editing services! 

From the start, Soo devoted extra time to ensure she fully understood the brief. Throughout the project, she skilfully juggled the demands of copy-editing with a detailed style guide. She also invested the time when necessary to help iron out complicated style issues.  

In the project, we produced content for roughly 120 hours of in-class instruction to a complex brief with demanding deadlines. The Student’s Book in the course came with extra documents such as a scope and sequence, flashcards and additional resources and interactive activity briefs, but Soo never let those competing demands stand in her way. She dug into the stylised manuscripts and addressed content queries in a manageable way. Another part of her job was to extract audio scripts for the audio production team. She handled the task perfectly, checking and double-checking at every stage. Again, I highly recommend Soo’s editing services.

Jennifer Collins, freelance Project Manager, Hello English Up (for CUP)