Hi, I'm Alison!
I grew up in a family of avid readers, and our dinner conversations often centered around the finer points of grammar and usage (I'm not making this up and honestly didn't realize at the time that it was super weird). Around 8th grade, I was dubbed the Grammar Queen (and if you remember AIM, it was actually my first screen name).
In college, I found out that my penchant for writing and editing could help others. I landed a job at The College of New Jersey's Tutoring & Writing Center and spent 3 years helping undergraduate and graduate students with all sorts of writing assignments. Over the years, I completed hundreds of writing conferences with individual students, coordinated small group writing sessions for introductory writing courses, and even earned the rank of Master Tutor. After graduating with a degree in English/Secondary Education, I missed being able to help people feel confident about their writing skills. In 2018, I realized that I can still help people with their writing; thus, Copyedit Queen was born! I love helping academics get their journal article or dissertation ready for submission.
In early 2021, a friend asked me to edit her resume. What might have been a quick task turned into me obsessively researching (that's kind of my thing) professional resume writing and modern job search best practices so that I could make sure I was not accidentally doing her a disservice. I joined two reputable resume writing organizations, took an intensive 8-week resume writing course, read 6 books about modern resumes/cover letters, and watched over 30 NRWA webinars to get myself up to speed. And with that, Royal Resumes by the Copyedit Queen was created!
Some fun facts:
-
I've been a dancer all my life and still take classes (so if you're writing something dance/performance-related, we definitely need to talk).
-
I've had a pen pal for over 20 years, and we still write (paper) letters to each other.
-
I'm a huge podcast fan and even review pods as a passion project--check me out at @thepodcastlibrarian on Instagram.
-
I have a handsome orange tabby named Horatio (named after an old and somewhat-obscure picture book series by Eleanor Clymer).
-
I've been to Ireland 9 times! Ask me for tips if you're planning a trip to the Emerald Isle!
-
My favorite punctuation mark is the semicolon; truly, it brings me great joy.
I'd love to help you with your project! Let's get it off your to-do list!