Edwin Zehner is a Southeast Asia specialist possessing a Ph.D. in anthropology from Cornell University. For several years he headed the Southeast Asia publishing program at Northern Illinois University, in which capacity he also edited The Journal of Burma Studies and Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. In addition, he is an active scholar who has published on religion in Thailand (both on Christians and Buddhists). For more on his background and qualifications, click here.

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The Editing and Consulting Service

The editing and consulting service is designed for final preparation of books and articles for submission to publishers, or for post-acceptance preparation prior to the publisher’s final editing. This service is ideal for authors who desire greater attention to detail and presentation than the publishers themselves would normally provide. In addition, the consulting service can help authors of any level of experience think through books, theses, and articles more generally, and can also be of assistance to authors (especially less experienced ones) who feel a need for an additional person to help them talk through the writing process.

As an editor, Dr. Zehner's strengths are in content and presentation. He helps authors express their points more effectively, while also helping them overcome inconsistencies, organizational infelicities, and potential errors of fact. He suggests practical solutions to problems, while keeping the author’s vision at the fore. In discussing projects, he focuses on helping writers articulate their own visions while also helping them gain confidence in their skills and the courage to continue writing.

As a former recipient of his consulting services put it, Zehner's comments are "very helpful, especially in terms of organizing arguments and maintaining their consistency. He also picks up on nitty-gritty details that help give a work a more professional tone." Click here to read more endorsements.

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Sample Projects

 

Every editing and consulting project is unique. However, the following recent projects give an idea of the range of services available (all projects were focused on Southeast Asia or Melanesia). In these projects, Dr. Zehner:

 

· edited an article being prepared for resubmission to a major anthropological journal. In this case, the author provided both the original and revised drafts, along with information on the readers' comments. Zehner provided pencil edits, which he mailed to the author. He also commented on how well the readers' comments had been addressed, and provided suggestions for doing so more effectively.  The author then integrated the suggested changes in her own way, and submitted directly to the journal, which accepted the piece shortly thereafter.

The reader's comments on the edited version said, in part, "This version of the article is much improved; it is editorially tighter, with a clearly focused and well-constructed argument. The author makes a compelling case. . . . The article is superbly written. . . ."

· edited a book on the recent political history of several Asian countries. Zehner provided pencil edits on a copy of the manuscript, paying particular attention to phrasing, organization, consistency, and (where reference sources were available) accuracy.

 

 

· edited a book on the history and sociopolitical context of an early twentieth century political movement (editing is still in progress). As this author was a nonnative speaker of English, Zehner entered his changes, comments, and questions directly into a copy of the digital file, which he e-mailed back to the author, who may then make additional changes before submitting to the publisher. In addition to matters of usage and style, the editing paid attention to matters of organization, placement of footnotes, and clarification of theses and arguments, all as a means of shaping the presentation to the expectations of American readers.

 

· edited several chapters for a forthcoming book based on a grant-funded study of Community Based Natural Resources Management in a Southeast Asian country. The remaining chapters will be edited soon. The book will be submitted to a Southeast Asian publisher whose books are often distributed or co-published in North America, and most authors were nonnative (or at least non-American) speakers of English. Zehner entered changes and questions directly into copies of the manuscripts, and then worked with the authors (via e-mail) to resolve remaining issues, providing the volume editor copies of all correspondence. Funding for the editing is coming directly from the grant -- a tip to keep in mind when planning your own grant writing.

 

· at the recommendation of the student's thesis committee chair, consulted on a Ph.D. thesis in political science (dealing comparatively with aspects of human rights policies). As the student is a nonnative speaker of English, Zehner may also be editing the thesis prior to the defense. [The latter service would probably be restricted to nonnative speaker. If the graduate student is a native speaker of English, input would probably be limited to editorial consulting, unless editing services had been explicitly cleared with the advisor.]

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Sample Edits

Sample edited pages (before and after) may be available upon request. Contact Edwin Zehner at zehner1234@aol.com.

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Contact

Contact us at zehner1234@aol.com