 Some years ago I decided to leave academia and together with my family I bought a small sailing yacht and we set sail eventually ending up here in Ordered to fun that lifestyle and to support my family I needed to find work that was flexible that I could do on the move and at my own pace academic editing seemed like the ideal choice because I could do all of those things and it also allowed me to put my skills as a social scientist to use It used to be a great career option for me because I can work at my own pace and as my children get older I can adapt my working hours to suit their needs and my needs as long as I Meet my deadlines for a now go and for my other editing clients and so long as that my work is consistently good I can work as and when I choose I Work for a number of editing companies and they all offer me that same great flexibility But what's different about enago is the sheer quantity of assignments. I'm offered each week So if it doesn't suit me to take on a particular assignment today I know that I will get another equally good assignment later today or tomorrow and so I don't lose out on work opportunities Working with enago has expanded my editing range greatly I work with clients from all across the globe and from disciplines that range across the entire spectrum of Anthropology, sociology, geography, history, literature, law, education Every article and every manuscript I receive is Interesting and I find myself Editing work that is that I wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to Engage with or that I wouldn't think about engaging with I'm particularly pleased that enago gives me great opportunities to work with Japanese clients I lived in Japan for a number of years and I'm still really interested in Japanese culture and history and It's wonderful to have chances Every week to read great Japanese scholarship and to learn about continue to learn about Japanese culture and history Well at the same time Supporting Japanese scholars as they put their work out into the world I'm constantly striving to improve my skills as an editor and being a better editor also makes me a better writer That's why I particularly like enago's feedback system, which is timely and informative and it's a real Two-way interactive process and through that process I've learned a lot about my own good and my not-so-good practices and I have Incorporated what I've learned into my editing for enago and into my editing for other clients Through those improvements. I've made over the past few years working for enago I believe I've I've been offered more top quality assignments from my other clients as well More than correcting errors and producing technically perfect English It's about having an eye and an ear for the rhythms and the cadence of language and even in the sometimes restrictive world of academic journal conventions our writing can and should be elegant and Immersive and that's why I believe that being a good editor Should means you should also be a good reader. We should read widely and read well We should read good well-written scholarship within our own disciplines and beyond We should read novels and essays and all genres of writing and we should bring that experience of reading into our editing because Manuscripts that are well written stand a much better chance of being published than those that aren't I Also believe that being an academic editor is about helping our client to improve their own scholarship Encouraging them to be more reflective and critical and analytical of their own work And as an editor that means asking questions asking probing questions that help them to develop and those questions should be asked in ways that are positive non-critical and non-judgmental helping our clients to understand the conventions and the rigor of English language scholarship Working as a freelance editor for Enago gives me the opportunity to live away from the rat race to work with the flexibility and at a pace that suits me while continuing to contribute to academic scholarship in some small way using my Experience and my knowledge and my skills to help others And I hope to continue to work as a freelance editor and to work for Enago for many years to come