IPEd member Lee Lockyer shares her editing story, including how she discovered a passion for editing academic texts.
I consider myself to have had a very fortunate life thus far. I have lived in many different places, had lots of different kinds of adventures and have gathered a diverse range of skills – hog-tying a calf, smoking whole hams, driving HR (heavy rigid) trucks, to name a few. My dad was in the British Army and my siblings and I were all born in Germany. A Pom by birth but I only lived in England for five years, and even then in three different counties. My childhood was mostly spent in Germany, Cyprus and Ireland. I worked in France for a couple of seasons, then travelled to parts of Europe and America before finally arriving in Australia in 1984 on a year’s working holiday. I always enjoyed the way travelling exposed me to different ways of living, cultures and languages.
My intrepid ways were curtailed by falling head over heels in love with a modern-day cowboy in outback South Australia. Apart from building a family of five children, Tim and I built up several businesses, beginning with expanding the cattle station he owned; running tours and accommodation for tourists; and twice a week, delivering the mail for Australia Post to three of our neighbours on a 226 km round trip. Our business ventures finished up with a feedlot and a butcher shop in Crystal Brook. We were the cornerstone of the community, and when we finally shut the doors I found myself adrift, looking for something else to turn my mind to. This time coincided with my daughter completing her PhD in Applied Linguistics. She was incredibly stressed with the idea that her thesis was full of errors – which she could no longer spot. I volunteered to be a reader and, despite being annoyed by the flow of the text being interrupted by names in brackets, I ended up finding my passion for editing academic works.
With my daughter’s encouragement, I decided to take on a Bachelor in Digital and Social Media and Professional Writing and Editing through Curtin University. I enjoyed the challenge of the program and was rewarded with Vice Chancellor awards for my grades. I discovered the world of editing was multilayered and complex, requiring a keen eye to meticulously process all of the rules that govern the art of writing – particularly the formatting of those “annoying names in brackets” and end-of-text references. I seem to be quite good at it, and last year I started a business (yes, another one!) editing academic texts. I feel I grow with each piece I edit, and that my IPEd Associate membership will complement my journey into editing.