Mary Rykov, PhD

My editing lends precision and clarity to your words without masking your unique voice. Your meaning and purpose will shine. I can help you free your voice, find your words, polish your message, and sing your song.

I am a published poet and writer with a PhD in Adult Education and considerable expertise in music therapy who offers writing mentorship in addition to editing. My current memberships include The Writers’ Union of Canada, League of Canadian Poets, PEN Canada,  Indigenous Editors Association (Associate) and the Music Therapy Association of British Columbia (Honorary Lifetime).

I provide substantive, developmental, stylistic, and copy editing, specializing in scholarly, academic, professional, corporate and plain language editing. I outsource transcription of research interviews for scholarship and journalism. Because I review for publications, I am uniquely positioned to mentor new writers through the submission and re-writing process.  

I invite writers of book-length academic dissertations or theses, as well as concise business letters and reports. My preferred subjects include health, medicine, humanities, education, safety, musicology and all literary genres. I welcome edit projects by self-published authors.

As a volunteer, I contributed best practice instructional guidelines for the Toronto Branch Seminars Committee. In 2017-2018, I served as National Executive Council task force lead to update the Guidelines for Ethical Editing of Theses/Dissertations (2005), which resulted in the January 2019 release of Ethical Guidelines for Editing Student Texts. I serve as volunteer editor and grant mentor for refugee writers through PEN Canada.

FOR STUDENTS:  Hiring a professional editor without faculty permission is defined by some postsecondary institutions as plagiarism, which is a serious violation of academic integrity. If you are a student — undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral candidate — who wants to hire me (or any professional editor), please ensure that your professor or supervisor permits professional editing of your writing. The Permission form is available to facilitate this conversation. Co-signing this form with the editor and faculty member responsible for your academic work communicates the level of editing intervention I may perform for you. The guidelines and permission form can be downloaded here: https://www.editors.ca/hire/guidelines-ethical-editing-student-texts. The Agreement Template for Editorial Services that will be personalized for you is based on these permissions granted. 

A great editor is part therapist, part technician and part confessor. Michael Redhill, The Toronto Star, 2017.