MARY
BOURKE
PROFESSIONAL EDITOR
ABOUT MARY
Mary graduated from UC Berkeley with a BS in English and Spanish. She taught high school English for many years early in her career. After completing a master's degree in international management, she returned to academia at Princeton University where she wrote and edited a variety of materials on many different media platforms. Her career continued with writing and editing in her roles as communications and development directors at several Bay Area (CA) and Park City (UT) non-profits. Mary’s passion is understanding the power of the written word; and her objective is to help clients express themselves effectively to accomplish their goals.
Writing and editing are skills Mary has developed for over 40 years. In addition to her undergraduate and master’s degrees, Mary honed her craft by earning a certificate as a Professional Editor through UC Berkeley.
NEED HELP?
SERVICES
PHILOSOPHY
NEXT STEPS
Do you have an idea for a book but haven’t started yet?
Do you need help organizing your ideas to start writing?
Do you have the beginning or even a first draft of a book and want help moving forward with the project?
Do you need direction bringing a story to life?
Do you have what you consider an almost-finished product but need another set of eyes to make suggestions on improved storyline, plot and pacing, character development, scene-setting, grammatical issues, and more?
I can provide clients with sample edits of their work before either of us commits to the other.
I am available for any or all of the editing levels listed below. Pricing is available after initial consultation on the degree of involvement desired.
Developmental editors (also called “substantive,” “structural,” or “content” editors) deal with content, organization, and genre considerations. After reviewing a manuscript, they may provide an overall assessment of the content in a manuscript evaluation, or they may provide the author with a revision letter that outlines the big-picture issues and offers suggestions for how to address them.
Line editors work at the sentence or paragraph level of a manuscript. Like copyeditors, they correct errors, but their main focus is on improving the language, clarity, and style of the text. Line editing may be performed as a separate service in conjunction with developmental editing after big-picture issues have been addressed, or in conjunction with copyediting.
Copyeditors correct spelling, grammar, usage, and punctuation, check cross-references, and prepare the style sheets that guide consistency and accuracy across the manuscript.