Beth Battrick

Freelance editor based in Canberra, Australia

header Editor to the stars!

I offer editing services for books, web sites, reports, articles. Got complex language? Technical jargon? I can make it beautiful.

My passion for language, words and ideas has had me correcting people for as long as I can remember. While chasing words at university, I discovered a flair for precision that led to a career in editing and proofreading.

A Master of Arts (Linguistics) then deepened my appreciation of language and its complexity, and accreditation by the Institute of Professional Editors formalised my experience in refining and perfecting text.

Get in touch at beth.battrick@spoonfully.com for an obligation-free quote.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you offer services outside of Australia?

Yes! I have worked with clients from all over the world, and can navigate the subtle differences between American, British and Australian English.

Does my work need to be cleaned up before I send it to you?

Absolutely not. I'm here to help you polish and structure your work: together we will make your voice clear and strong.

What sort of editing do you do?

Get the list! Editing is a broad term that means getting text clean, finished and correct. Here's an explanation of the types of editing I do:

The more involved I am with your text, the longer it will take. These aren't cut-and-dry separate processes; it's more like a spectrum of how closely I engage with your work. If you're not quite sure what your text needs, drop me an email with a few details and we'll figure it out.

Sounds great! How can I get you to edit my work?

Easy. Send me an email with the following details about the work:

Attach an extract from the work (a few pages will do). I'll have a look and send you a price estimate based on your specifications and sample. If my estimate sounds good, you can send me the rest of the work and I'll have a closer look, then send you a statement of work and a confirmed or revised estimate. This will make sure we're both completely clear on what it is I'm going to do with your text and how much it will cost.

What format should I send my text as?

Ah, an easy one. Send me your text as any of the following:

Note that I can accept .pdf (Portable Document Format) for light proofreading only: since .pdf files don't make it easy for me to directly manipulate the content, significant editing is challenging.

Got something a bit unusual? Drop me a line and ask!

Do you accept work from international clients?

Absolutely! Since I work electronically, location is no obstacle. If you're overseas, mention it when you get in touch, so I know of any adjustments I need to make for language use or time zone differences.

What's your position on the semi-colon?

It's a beautiful, useful, but frequently over-fetishised piece of punctuation.

Experience

Years of editing legislation for Federal Parliament at the Office of Parliamentary Counsel gave me a fervour for plain language and the guts to take on projects of any size. Got complex language? Technical jargon? I can make it beautiful.

From there, I moved to ANU E Press, which lit my fire for proofreading academic texts, online publications and promotional copy. Let me help you get people excited about your work.

Get in touch at beth.battrick@spoonfully.com for an obligation-free quote.

Nice things people have said...

I recently worked with Beth Battrick at Teaspoon Consulting, and can highly recommend the service. I've told all my PhD colleagues about her!

I was so happy with how quick, professional and easy to deal with Beth was. She offered a very personal approach to editing my thesis and treated it with such care, reflecting all the hard work, sweat and tears that had gone into it over the 4 years.

Beth was super quick with editing and checking back in that she was maintaining the tone and meaning I was after. Her knowledge of grammar and language structure was amazing, and she had all the up to date political information reflecting current policy language.

Beth kept easily to an agreed upon deadline and was also very competitive in her pricing. However, the most valuable part of the service was the personal understanding she put into the thesis, and her insightful feedback.

I would recommend her to anyone.

Kate Levett, Research Fellow, School of Medicine, Sydney
Beth was quick to understand my content issues, and briefed me on her approach before jumping right in and transforming my droll, verbose waft into consistent, coherent content still bearing my tone. A fresh perspective, coupled with Beth's awesome editing skills have refocused my content, getting the message across more clearly than before.
Steven McPhillips
I have had the pleasure of working with Beth Battrick for two years on the editorial team at the Office of Parliamentary Counsel. Beth is an extremely competent and diligent technical editor. She has an expert understanding of English grammar, as well as a great eye for consistency of expression and terminology - which is so necessary in technical writing. Beth was able to quickly learn the complex rules that apply to legislative drafting and to discuss editorial issues intelligently and sensitively with the legal drafters concerned. One of Beth's greatest strengths was that she was able to prioritise her work and meet tight deadlines when necessary. I am very happy to recommend Beth as an excellent editor for any technical writing project.
Alison O'Hara
Office of Parliamentary Counsel

It has been a real pleasure to work with you, and I hope we get a chance to do so again too. Remind me to write more books that you can index, you have obviously done a really beautiful job.

Bernadette Hince, Visiting Fellow, Australian National Dictionary Centre, editor of Antarctica: Music, sounds and cultural connections.

It has been an absolute pleasure working with Beth on my science fiction/fantasy trilogy. Trusting someone with your 80 to 90-thousand-word work that you’ve spent years on can be daunting. However, I found Beth’s feedback to be fairly critical and able to assist me in making greater changes to strengthen my story. That is not an easy thing to do, especially since I am so invested in my characters and universe. I took all her feedback on board and in almost all cases I implemented her suggested changes. That is amazing. Her insight into flow and structure, and also into straightforward copyediting, has helped me develop my trilogy into an enjoyable work of art. Thanks, Beth!

Cara Violet, author of the Kaianan trilogy