Todd Larson

Todd Larson – Editor

I have 28 years of experience editing diverse documents — dissertations, essays, letters, memoirs, novels, etc. — and edit all equally well.

Overview

I have 28 years of editing diverse documents: dissertations, essays, letters, memoirs, novels, etc. On these and more, I can help you with: Avoidance of Clichés, Grammar, Paragraph Construction and Transition, Punctuation, Spelling, Syntax, Word Choice, Wordiness, etc., with full respect for your style and argument. In this way I make sure your printed copy, web content, speech text or PowerPoint presentation is presented with power to clearly convey your content to your target audience.

Editorial formats and guidelines I follow include: AP, APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian.

Here are the teachers to whom I am indebted for showing me how:

"Cut, cut, cut. Cut words, cut phrases, cut letters."
— Victor L. Cahn, Professor of English, Skidmore College

"A clear, short argument is always best. Your argument would have been stronger in two pages, because you would have cut some irrelevancies."
— Barbara J. Kaster, Harrison King McCann Professor of Communication, Bowdoin College

"This sentence needs to be broken down, simplified, and clarified."
— William D. Geoghegan, Professor of Religion, Bowdoin College

"This clause says nothing extra, and can therefore be omitted."
— Denis J. Corish, Professor of Philosophy, Bowdoin College

"Not clear; confused or impossible to follow."
— Edward Pols, William R. Kenan Professor of the Humanities, Bowdoin College

"Be sure your papers are short, precise, and to the point."
— Willard F. Enteman, President Emeritus, Bowdoin College

"Try to improve your style of writing and to be more critical in your choice of words."
— Vlada Petric, Founding Curator, Harvard Film Archive, Harvard University

"Get to the point more quickly... Don't cheapen with quotation marks... Your transitions seemed abrupt... If you committed any sin, it was overwriting."
— Abigail Erdmann, Brookline High School

"Watch consistency... Be terse and precise about what exactly your examples are proving... You have some inaccuracies and imprecise diction [word choice] that obscure your points."
— Beth Thompson, Brookline High School

"Try to be simple and straightforward... Try to vary the lengths of your sentences more... Don't use so many semicolons. Use periods."
— Ellen Goff, The Park School

"Pull your short, fragmented paragraphs together into more unified ones."
— John Spicer, The Park School

"There are simpler, more elegant ways to do this."
— William Satterthwaite, The Park School

"Try during your revision to keep as many of the author's own words and sentences as possible."
— Jonathan Shaw, The Park School

"Somebody said that words are like inflated money. The more you use, the less each one is worth. Go through your entire letter as many times as it takes. Annihilate all unnecessary words, sentences and even paragraphs."
— Malcolm Forbes, "How to Write a Business Letter or Make a Speech"

"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter; it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning."
— Mark Twain, Letter to George Bainton

"I'm sorry I wrote you such a long letter. I didn't have time to write a short one."
— Blaise Pascal

"Simplify, simplify."
— Henry David Thoreau, "Walden"

"Brevity is the soul of wit."
— William Shakespeare, "Hamlet"
Services
Fiction
African American Fiction Christian Fiction Classics Fantasy Historical Fiction Horror Middle Grade Mystery & Crime Poetry Romance Science Fiction Short Story Thriller & Suspense
Non-Fiction
Photography
Languages
English (US)

Work experience

Self-employed

May, 2013 — Present

Edit and format articles, business plans, fiction, guidebooks, historical novels, letters, manuals, nonfic-tion, short stories, poetry collections, proposals, travel guides, websites and whitepapers, and of a wide variety of genres and subjects for grammatical accuracy, correct spelling and punctuation, crisper sentence structure, continuity, and better stylistic flow and rhythm. Perform thorough quality checks of all edited materials. Some edited books received five-star ratings on Amazon.

Portfolio

Dreams for My Country

Gbee, Francis L.

Mae's Vacuum

Leah, Libbe

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