“Honest and forthright”
Lenore helped me craft a scholarly monograph. She did much more than a standard copyeditor, giving me ideas about the general structure of the book, ensuring my writing is engaging enough, and always helping me find the right word or phrase for what I want to say. Most importantly, and the reason why I have recommended her to several colleagues, is that she is honest and forthright when things do not work. In other word, she calls people on their pretentiousness and an unnecessary lack of clarity when needed. As a result of working with Lenore, my book has garnered a lot of praise for its language. Out of seven reviewers (the book was very popular), two or three commended it for its captivating style and it entered the Oxford Bibliography of literature on Russia and the Soviet Union as a book “written in novelistic style.” I cannot be happier and cannot wait to work with Lenore again.
–Tijana Vujosevic, Assistant Professor, University of British Columbia, Modernism and the Making of the Soviet New Man (Manchester University Press)
“A passion for improving clarity“
Lenore is an excellent copy editor with a passion for improving clarity. When writing research papers within information technology, I usually create first drafts that contain long, difficult-to-read technical sentences. Having low tolerance for unnecessary complexity, Lenore is good at suggesting alternative ways to express the same idea.
–Gunnar R. Bergersen
Chief Product Officer, GrepS; associate professor of software engineering, University of Oslo
“Striving for excellence“
I am both the author and publisher of The Embodied Violinist: Teaching Violin with Passion and Practicality. When Lenore agreed to take on the challenge of editing my manuscript, it was a loosely laid out piece that included line art, drawings, and musical notations to be presented with specific exercises. The manuscript was a broad collection of 50 plus years of my experiences as a violin performer and teacher. From the very beginning, Lenore guided this project with a careful, patient yet firm hand. As her many ideas of how to organize the book took shape, I realized this was exactly what I needed to give clarity of purpose to the contents. Lenore began by suggesting that each chapter could be introduced with a story and/or a quote that would give the reader direction. She helpfully suggested breaking up long chapters that covered a lot of information into smaller, more coherent ones. There were hours of discussions and emails. She continued to offer her expertise, guiding me towards a more personal presentation of the material. She solved many problems apparent in the initial manuscript by suggesting the use of ‘Legacy Moments’, ‘Info Tidbits’, and ‘Sound Advice’. She also introduced me to the use of an Exercise Template (‘Guide the Student to…’) and the use of headings, sub-headings, font change, etc. She worked in tandem with the music librarian at U of T who sourced and got permission to use vital material. Later, she convinced the interior book designer to alter some elements. I found that as we worked on details such as coming up with the right phrase, the right organization, the right plan, her understanding and accurate interpretation of what she heard was spot on. I have developed a high standard of work ethics over my 50 years of teaching and performing. This same standard is what I see in Lenore’s work: a striving for excellence while always acknowledging the humanity of the people working towards that goal. Lenore’s keen eyes and ears, her sense of style combined with her enthusiastic encouragement and devotion to this project have resulted in the final product: a book/manual that is unique in its format, a legacy to the next generation of teachers. I don’t know other editors, but the positive feedback I continue to receive about this book leads me to be certain that Lenore is one of the best.
–Gwen Thompson-Robinow, The Embodied Violinist: Teaching Violin with Passion and Practicality (self-published)
“Takes care of your text as if it were hers”
Lenore is a conscientious, thoughtful and kind person, who takes care of your text as if it were hers. She edited the text of my manuscript (The War in the Corner); she also suggested adjustments in the structure of the book, which turned out to be real improvements; she made a compact and easy to read layout; and after that she managed my agenda for a successful book promo tour through Ontario.
–Jan Braakman, The War in the Corner (Diamond River Books, September 2012; ebook 2012)
“Grasp[s] the complexity of the material while pinpointing areas that are unclear“
Lenore has edited a paper for me on software development research (“Teamwork Quality and Project Success in Agile Software Development,” 2015), and also edits papers for a colleague who writes about measuring software development skill. This material can be difficult to explain well, and many editors seem to be unable to grasp the complexity of the material while pinpointing areas that are unclear. Lenore edits for clarity, and identifies weak areas of writing and suggests ways to improve them. I plan to hire her to edit my future papers and the papers written by my PhD students.
—Dag Sjoberg, professor of software engineering, University of Oslo