Isis Sadek, phd

In my work, I am driven by a passion for enhancing clear communication across languages (French, English, Spanish, and Portuguese), cultures and disciplines/fields of inquiry. My skills, dedication, and unique approach make me an exceptional editor and interlocutor, prepared to work with scholars and writers working at all stages of manuscript development. My experience in academia, both as a PhD student and as a faculty member, has acquainted me intimately with the process of preparing publishable scholarship, and shapes my approach in seeing clients’ projects through to completion. In working with a broad clientele, I have collaborated with scholars, journals, and publishers, and have gained a sophisticated understanding of the steps involved in the preparation and evaluation of manuscripts for a variety of venues. 

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In addition to my expertise in Latin American cultural studies, I have welcomed opportunities to edit and collaborate on a broad array of specialized academic texts from a variety of fields including philosophy and ethics, film and cultural studies, and history of ideas. My intellectual curiosity, interdisciplinary training, and my ability to think conceptually serve me well in editing innovative and rigorous texts that develop sophisticated ideas for a broad academic readership. I have worked as a copyeditor and writing coach on a variety of projects in English and Spanish, including article or book-chapter length manuscripts, edited collections, and single-authored book manuscripts.

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Copyeditor

 

I am particularly motivated when working with scholars who are writing in their second language or who write in multiple languages. My knowledge and appreciation of the expressive potential of the languages in which I work allow me to approach manuscripts in a unique way, to improve the strength, tone, and consistency of writing, so as to convey ideas most effectively without flattening the writer’s voice or style. There, I listen carefully to the text, understanding and identifying the writer’s arguments and ideas, ensuring that they are duly highlighted, and collaborating with them to reach the optimal articulation of conceptual thought and analysis. While I take on most of the basic work pertaining to grammar, spelling, and syntax, I often discuss more complex issues with the writer, and am open to exploring various options and to thinking creatively in preparing the final product.

 

My method respects the writers’ commitment to their ideas and scholarship while ensuring that they develop their own voice, and take the reader into consideration. I provide clear, constructive, and considerate feedback which guides the writer to improve:

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• organization of ideas,

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• consistency of voice and style,

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• clarity and pacing.

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Writing coach

 

My work as a writing coach benefits writers and researchers at all stages of their academic careers. My collaborations are especially fruitful when working with writers whose research weaves together various disciplinary approaches (for example, cultural analysis and gender studies, cultural anthropology and human geography, business history). Clients who have worked under my guidance have described me humorously as a “midwife of ideas,” alluding to the dialogue through which I provide clear, constructive, and firm feedback in every step of the process of bringing their ideas to light. I have collaborated on projects of varying length and spans, including grant proposals, book proposals, and series of journal articles.

Writers typically seek me out to:

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• Broadly define a research agenda, set specific goals, and identify desired results;

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• Understand the writer’s goals for a specific piece of writing or project, identify any challenges the writer may be facing in the process, and collaborate to find effective means of achieving these goals;

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• Help them enhance their writerly voice and style, so that they are both more cohesive and more oriented towards readers.  

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Translations

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In translating the scholarly texts of writers in Latin American studies, I work on various levels to ensure:

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• precise word choices in the target language that convey the meaning of a word or an expression as they are used in the original context;

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• the accuracy of field-specific and conceptual vocabulary in the target language;

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• that all the necessary cultural information is included so that the richness of the text is fully accessible to those reading it in the target language.

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I translate texts in the fields of Latin American Cultural studies, typically working between Spanish and English. I can also work from or to French. I have translated from Spanish to English the award-winning book-length manuscript Narratives of Vulnerability in Mexico's War on Drugs by Raúl Diego Rivera Hernández about forms of activism among victims of the Drug War in Mexico.