As a professional copy editor, Max considers himself a modern-day scholar working for the international community on a near-limitless range of subjects.
Having edited hundreds—even thousands—of dissertations, theses, books, and publications, he considers himself to have a wealth of experience in an array of subjects. Furthermore, he is well-versed in academic English in terms of writing, voice, style, and tone, and has a solid grasp of style guides such as APA, MLA, Chicago, and the Harvard referencing style. Whether preparing a text for submission to a scientific journal, a university, or a publishing house, his proficiency as a copy editor instills confidence and trust in all of his clients.
So, what does it take to be a professional editor at the top of their game? First and foremost, mastering the art of language editing requires great precision and patience. Second, hawk-eye accuracy is a much-lauded quality, and being able to turn the perfect phrase and having a comprehensive knowledge of English grammar only adds to the strings of the professional copy editor’s bow.
Max became an editor after spending five years teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in the UK, where he was born, and in Portugal, where he currently lives and works. Teaching EFL at all levels—from Elementary to Proficiency—led Max to master the finer aspects of the English language. Following this, upon graduation with a first-class degree in Fine Arts from Kingston University London, he gained additional writing experience through achieving a professional qualification in art writing with Sotheby’s. From this point on, he began writing reviews for art exhibitions and edited his first published book—Aesthetics of Repair in Contemporary Georgia by Francisco Martinez, a Spanish anthropologist and expert on post-Soviet Russia.
With First Editing, he has worked with a long list of esteemed clients from a host of institutions, universities, and organizations based around the world. These include the University of Sydney in Australia, Duke University in the United States, Salzburg University of Applied Sciences in Austria, Jazan University in Saudi Arabia, and the University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong, to name but a few. To quote a selection of specific authors from the past year, he have worked on Hilja Aunela’s Master’s thesis entitled “Mindful Responses to Neoliberalism: Learning to Meditate in Portugal”, Abdurahman Abdullahi’s research on the “History of the Somalian Peninsula”, and an autobiography written by Michel Caza, a world-famous art screenprinter.
Aside from his professional career, Max is a composer of improvised electronic music and helps to run a non-profit cultural association in the heart of Lisbon, Portugal.
