International Education Policy Copyediting
LEAD COPY EDITOR · BOSTON COLLEGE INTERNATIONAL STUDY CENTER
Fifty-four chapters. Authors from around the world. One encyclopedia that still needed to read as a coherent whole. I lead-copyedited an international reference work on education policy and reading curricula, bringing clarity, consistency, accuracy, and fluency to highly varied manuscripts while preserving the expertise, meaning, and individual perspectives behind them.
PIRLS 2016 Encyclopedia: Education Policy and Curriculum in Reading
MAKING 54 CHAPTERS READ AS A SINGLE PUBLICATION
As Lead Copy Editor, I edited the 2016 PIRLS Encyclopedia in its entirety—a 54-chapter international reference work documenting reading education policy and curriculum worldwide. Working with manuscripts contributed by country experts, many of whom were non-native English speakers, I applied rigorous quality control while navigating differences in writing style, terminology, and English proficiency across chapters.
The finished encyclopedia gives researchers, educators, and policymakers clear, consistent, and reliable comparative information while retaining the expertise and perspective of its international contributors.
From Redline to Publication
Some chapters required far more editorial intervention than others. The Oman excerpt below offers a particularly strong example: its author was an Omani national education policy expert for whom English was a third language. The copyedit required substantial work at both the sentence and structural levels to transform complex passages into fluent, precise English without compromising their meaning or the author’s expertise.
The result also illustrates the standard I brought to the project. My review was so thorough that the Center’s Executive Director eliminated the planned second round of copyediting—good for the production schedule, though less good for my freelance income.
Extensive line-level and substantive revisions clarify complex passages, resolve grammatical and structural issues, and improve manuscript flow without altering its substance.
The same passage with revisions incorporated: clear, concise, natural English that preserves the author’s subject-matter expertise, intended meaning, and perspective throughout.
ACROSS COUNTRIES
My editorial work extended across all 54 chapters, bringing consistency, clarity, and rigorous quality control to country-specific education policy and curriculum content written by subject-matter experts from around the world.