My main background actually has little to do with proofreading and editing – I trained as a physiotherapist, and for the last 25 years, on and off, I have worked in many different areas of the profession. More recently, my work has involved teaching pregnancy and postnatal education and exercise classes; I have also worked in a gym for pregnant and new mothers, and I even delivered newspapers for a while!

While my work with Proofed is my first bit of proofreading and editing experience, some elements of my previous career will definitely assist me in this new one. Most of my work was in large teaching hospitals, which involved following a lot of policies, procedures, and programs. These regularly needed changing or updating and, in some of my various roles, I was often involved in helping to rewrite or edit them. Another important requirement was ongoing professional development. As part of this, I have had considerable experience with reading and understanding research papers in the health and medical fields. Having completed a thesis myself as well, I am therefore quite familiar with how such papers are written and referenced, which should also help me with proofreading going forward.