Laura Edlund

Profile

I am a self-employed editor and writer specializing in plain language, stories, and education. I work for various clients—governments, non-governmental organizations, lawyers and other professionals, public inquiries, publishers, other businesses, and individuals—and provide plain language edits, writing, structural and stylistic edits, copy edits, proofreading, ghostwriting, manuscript evaluations, and other services to meet client needs. I am available for one-to-one consulations.

I love good stories and making complex subjects understandable and engaging for the intended readers. I respect writers and subject matter experts, have decades of experience in education (online and print, continued learning, Kindergarten to Grade 12, preschool, and post-secondary), and have a special interest in Indigenous Peoples, social justice, climate change, history, and global geography. I am a settler Canadian and work with clients around the world. 

To each project, I bring the experience of working on staff, freelance, and in business. And I take ongoing professional development seriously—for example, with work on the federal Accessibility Standards Canada (ASC) Technical Committee for Plain Language and by taking courses.  

Clients (present and past) and employers (past) include the Ottawa Light Rail Transit Commission, various provincial offices and agencies, Kativik Ilisarniliriniq (the school board of Nunavik, Inuit territory in northern Quebec), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), The Image Centre/Toronto Metropolitan University/MIT Press, the Art Canada Institute, Pearson Canada, the Insurance Institute of Canada, Inhabit Education, Scholastic Canada, GoodMinds, Page Two Strategies, JUMP Math, Oxford University Press, Nelson, government departments, non-profits, corporations, and individual authors.  My specialties include:

- helping subject experts present their knowledge with clarity and focus for their intended audiences and to meet their objectives

- editing text to make it understandable and useful for intended audiences

- editing standards, and writing and editing to meet standards

- editing multiple-author manuscripts to develop a well-structured, unified, consistent publication

- writing, structural editing, and stylistic editing for plain language, accessibility, and sensitivity

- writing, editing, and planning for publications in multiple languages

- working with large teams and multiple reviews for complex publications (e.g., legal and technical subjects)

- evaluating manuscripts (fiction and nonfiction, for adults and for kids) in development for their authors and for publishers

- research, writing, and editing for memoirs, biography, and other nonfiction

- research, writing, and editing for niche subjects, readers, and publications including online courses

- working with text and visuals to improve reader and user experiences

- consulting about best practices and efficient ways to meet client goals

Education, continued professional development, and memberships include:

- member of the Accessibility Standards Canada (ASC) Technical Committee for Plain Language, a federal committee focused on accessibility and plain language and to establish federal plain language standards for all federal government departments and agencies, and for federally regulated industries; lead for the Guiding Principles Task Group

- Editors Canada certificate for excellence in Structural and Stylistic Editing

- Editors Canada membership

- Plain Language International Association (PLAIN) membership

- ongoing professional development through presenting at and attending conferences, seminars, and workshops in plain language, trauma-informed editing, plain language standards and ISO, trauma-informed editing, and PerfectIt and other AI/editing tools

- speaking at Editors Canada national conferences (2022, 2017, and on), speaking at Toronto Metropolitan (then Ryerson) University about editing and professional standards, speaking on the Editors Canada Toronto branch panel, serving on the editorial board for the Editors Canada publication Edit Like a Pro (volumes 1-4), and creating and presenting an Editors Canada webinar

- BA in English Literature (University of Toronto) 

- Book Editing and Design/ Book and Magazine Publishing program studies (Centennial College, Toronto)

- Writing for Multimedia (Centennial College, Toronto)

- Diploma in Web Content (contented.com, New Zealand)