Have you ever obtained an advanced degree?

Specifically, a PhD or an MA/MS (although I know there are other kinds of advanced degrees)?

If you are a freelance editor trying to get more work, you have a possible avenue in your graduate school alma mater.

And if you wrote a thesis or dissertation, you are obviously an expert in your field.

Therefore, as long as you are an impeccable editor, you are qualified to edit research manuscripts (prior to publication) in the field that you studied.

It took me two years after hanging out my shingle as a freelance editor to realize this. At that time, the idea came to me that I was able to edit research papers in biochemistry, since I have an MS in that subject. So where was the most logical place to turn? My graduate school alma mater.

I began by contacting a number of professors I knew from my department, whom I knew would remember me. One of them responded and put me in touch with a faculty member who was in charge of an editor pool that the university was assembling. The faculty member interviewed me via Zoom, and an editing relationship was born.

To date, I have edited research manuscripts for faculty from the university on topics from biochemistry to medicine to neurobiology. I have been honored and privileged to work on these papers and to get to know different authors in the school. I have been given several accolades from them and from the faculty liaisons (there are now two) who decided to take me on as a freelancer.

Prior to my contacting my alma mater, I was randomly contacting biochemistry departments at different universities and selling myself as a thesis/dissertation editor. I did get to edit one very interesting biochemistry master’s thesis as a result, but that is the only success story for this endeavor. Most of my efforts were met with silence, and silence is the new “no.”

It feels good to hear “yes,” doesn’t it?

If you are an editor with an advanced degree, in what subject is your degree?