Melinda Masson

Melinda Masson – Editor

13+ years, 250+ college-level titles: communication, education, law, leadership, political science, psychology, research methods, and more.

Overview

Nice to meet you, authors!

Nicknamed "Dictionary" in the fifth grade, I'm a lifer when it comes to wordsmithery.

That was the year our class read and performed Macbeth, and reaped the consequences when the kid in the title role ran amok at rehearsal—Mr. F, believing he could bore us into Shakespearean shape, passed out pages of four-simple-sentence clusters, each of which we were challenged to combine into a single complex sentence.

"Sentence combining," he called it, or "the building blocks of copy editing," as I recognize it now . . .

How I won second prize at the Math Super Bowl that year but squandered the school-wide spelling bee trophy on "interrelated" we will never know.

The point is, I learned to love and respect the craft of writing and realized that I, already a devourer of fiction, could (no, would!) read for a living.

After earning my bachelor's degree in literature from the College of Creative Studies at the University of California–Santa Barbara in 2000, I fancied pursuing poetry or becoming the next "great American novelist," and I could have gone the reading teacher route, but like my home town I kept coming back to that fine-tuning, fact-checking feeling.

And that—catching errors and striking them "out, damned spot!"—is what I'm here to share with you, to help you present your best work.

With thanks,

Melinda M.

EXPERT: American Psychological Association (7th ed.), Chicago (17th ed.).

PROFICIENT: American Medical Association (11th ed.), Associated Press (55th ed.), Bluebook (21st ed.).


Services
Non-Fiction
Business & Management Education & Reference Humanities & Social Sciences Math & Science Political Science & Current Affairs Sex & Relationships
Languages
English (US)

Work experience

SAGE Publishing

Oct, 2007 — Present

Edit academic textbooks and reference works. Ensure consistent style and accuracy.

Abella Publishing Services

Dec, 2010 — Present

Edit and proof materials for educational strategy and digital-age learning.

Portfolio

Campaigns on the Cutting Edge

Semiatin, Richard J.

Law and Society

Lippman, Matthew

Melinda has 5 reviews

Professionalism

Quality

Value

Responsiveness

Antonio R.

Antonio R.

Jul, 2023

Working with Melinda has been a blessing in disguise; I began to work with Melinda a few years back and never looked back, I kept using her services, and she has consistently demonstrated professionalism, quality of work, and excellent work ethic. I can't wait to see what our future projects will entail; thanks again, Melinda!
gabriel A.

gabriel A.

Mar, 2022

Melinda performed well above my expectations and I am very pleased with the quality of her work. She has collaborated well, delivered on time and within budget and gave helpful suggestions with structuring my work. Thanks.
Roseni K.

Roseni K.

May, 2021

Melinda did an excellent literary job in correcting my book about the street dog. Not only with her writing techniques and sensivity but also with a lot of patience this book deserves. Thank you very much Melinda.
J B.

J B.

Apr, 2021

I am impressed with her work. I find her edits to be insightful and helpful. She is also very attentive in responding to my queries. Overall, I have had a good experience with Melinda so far.
Antonio R.

Antonio R.

Mar, 2021

Melinda is the most amazing and professional individual I have work with thus far; I like to thank Reedsy for bringing such great professionals that make our lives easier, better, and improved. Thank you, Melinda, for all that you have done for me, and I look forward to keeping working with you in the future. Thanks again, Melinda!

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