Editing – Colleen O’Reilly

Colleen O’Reilly Editorial Services

As a freelance academic editor, I specialize in helping scholars and publishers in art history and other humanities fields prepare articles and books for publication. I am passionate about clear, compelling writing, and I use my expertise to support authors in bringing important projects to fruition.

Developmental editing: This service involves in-line editing and comments that provide feedback on the content of your project – the structure of the argument and the impact of your research.
Line editing: This is for more polished projects and focuses on clarity and language style.
Copyediting and references/bibliographies: I also offer editing that focuses on the final stages in preparation for publication, checking for consistency, perfecting small details, and verifying adherence to house styles.

I also offer consulting and editing services for materials such as job applications, fellowships and grants, educational materials, art criticism, and artist statements.

I edit using Word and specialize in Chicago style. I can use your publisher or organization’s style sheet or create one for your project. In addition to the experience I’ve accumulated through my PhD in art history, my own publications, and my teaching practice, I have honed my editing skills by completing the Poynter ACES Certificate in Editing, and I am engaged in ongoing training with ACES and the Editorial Freelancers Association.

I am always happy to set up a meeting and/or do a 1-2 page sample edit at no charge to see if I can be helpful to you. Please feel free to reach out to me at colleenwatsonoreilly [at] gmail [dot] com.

Testimonials from clients:

“I’ve worked with Colleen on several different projects – from contributing essays for art monographs and exhibition catalogs to articles aimed at an online audience. Whether providing broader feedback on the structure and overall flow of the narrative or improving my text grammatically, Colleen has been an invaluable collaborator and editor. Writing independently can often be a lonely process. I’m so delighted to have found such an experienced and highly knowledgeable editor and art historian with whom I can sound out ideas at the early stages of development or assess my writing in fine detail to maximize its potential. I’m continually struck by Colleen’s thoughtfulness and care in all our communications. I highly recommend Colleen for any editing commissions for academic or broader arts audiences.”

“Working with Colleen made the final stages of editing my dissertation go much more smoothly than they otherwise would have. She was able to tailor her editing services to my specific case and requests, and worked very quickly. Colleen also did a great job of clarifying my wording in various places without diluting the ideas I was trying to get across. Overall, I was very happy with Colleen and would definitely recommend her as an editor.”