Writing, language and publication support for academics
Welcome to my Linguaverse! I'm Wendy, an independent language professional who provides writing, language and publication support to academics from my home base in Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain.
Having spent more than 25 years working in linguistics, language and academic writing within and adjacent to institutions of higher education, I am keenly aware that academia has become more demanding and precarious and that scholars face greater challenges in getting their writing finished and published in English, particularly scholars located outside the Anglophone core.
How I support academics
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As an authors' editor, I meet academic writers after they've revised their draft but are not ready to (re)submit. Together, we work to hit the communicative sweet spot: clearly articulating the author's ideas, stance and purpose in a way that engages target readers and is also mindful of the norms associated with discipline, venue of publication and text type. Authors come away knowing they're submitting a stronger, more effective version of their text.
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As a writing facilitator, I meet academic writers when they're actively drafting or revising a text. I use a social process approach to structured writing to provide small groups of academic and academy-adjacent writers with the time, space, motivation and permission to put their writing needs first for limited, highly focused periods of time. Academics who work in this environment not only make measurable progress on their writing projects, they also gain insight into what makes them tick as writers.
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As an academic writing trainer, I meet academics outside of their writing projects and focus on the processes, principles and strategies involved in academic text production and publication in English-medium contexts. Since group training is often not specific to any one discipline, I also provide tips and strategies to help participants apply the training content to their particular contexts.
My tenets
Regardless of the type of support I provide, I base my approach on two fundamental tenets.
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I always work from a view of baseline + opportunities for gain/empowerment rather than how to ‘fix’ ‘deficits’. One of my primary missions is to help writers and language learners cultivate a mindset that sees writing and language learning as natural processes that involve building in incremental improvements over time rather than something they're "not good at". It's also important for writers and language users to think about what constitutes a necessary and sufficient target for them.
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Writers who make low-stress, high-reward contact with their writing project as often as possible are likely to develop effective writing practices and feel more confident about their written output. The reality is that research writing is a complex cognitive and often high-stakes process that is hard for everyone, so creating spaces and moments where writers can have positive experience with writing helps them a) better weather the times when they feel anxious or pressured and b) minimize engagement in writing-avoidant behavior.
To read about my academic and professional background, visit my profiles on LinkedIn and in the Mediterranean Editors & Translators directory.
Linguist.
Authors' editor.
Writing facilitator.
Writing trainer.
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