Jawziya F. Zaman

Editing Services

I specialize in developmental and line editing for a wide range of documents including scholarly manuscripts, personal statements and essays, research reports, and online content. All services are billed at an hourly rate. 

Manuscript Assessment

I provide a developmental edit memorandum that assesses structure, tone, argumentation, reasoning, and engagement with your sources. The memo provides suggestions on how to revise the content so it’s sufficiently supported, well-organized, and tailored to your audience.

Line Editing

My line editing services assess your manuscript on the level of the paragraph and sentence. The focus is on clarity, tone, language, style, pace, and consistency. This also includes language editing for clients who require help with their English.

Interactive Developmental Editing

I provide suggestions on broad-scale organization and structure directly in the manuscript, which I will return to you with all changes tracked.

Testimonials

Jawziya is an excellent editor. She provided incredibly helpful developmental and line editing that strengthened and cohered a collaborative writing project that I was working on. She pointed out concepts in the manuscript that needed clarification, reorganized and revised text to create a better flow, and posed questions and comments that pushed my thinking and writing in a better direction. It is a pleasure to work with Jawziya and I highly recommend her!

Rhoda Gutierrez

Visiting Research Associate,
Social Justice Initiative,
University of Illinois at Chicago .

I worked with Jawziya on a developmental and then a line edit this year. I’ve worked with a wide range of editors in my career and Jawziya’s work was among the very best. She read my work more carefully than anyone, and offered structural advice that helped me to burrow deeper into my arguments and align the organization of the piece to let it flow. With her line edits, she cut redundancies, clarified confusion, and pushed me to get as clear as possible. I literally cannot wait to work with Jawziya again, she makes my thinking better and my writing brighter.

Amna A. Akbar

Sullivan & Cromwell Visiting Professor of Law, Harvard University.

I have had the pleasure of engaging Jawziya for a number of structural and copy edits for research papers on internationally funded projects. The outcome of working with Jawziya has been a joy and relief. She is thorough, well-read and manages to find the words that naturally reflect the situation at hand yet maintains an authenticity which makes the work stand out in the development sector industry. I would recommend her to those who are looking for integrity, honesty, professionalism and a flair for standing out.

Haya E. Zahid

Barrister and CEO, Legal Aid Society, Sindh

I’m so glad that I’ve had the opportunity to work with Jawziya and hope to continue working with her on future projects. She is not only well-prepared, incredibly thorough and knowledgeable, but also transparent and easy to talk with. Her developmental edits truly elevated my thinking around my own project and made me excited to continue working on it. I highly recommend working with her!

S. Lisa Washington

Assistant Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin Law School.

Jawziya works magic with editing. I have benefitted from her help with my writing on multiple occassions— with longer institutional research publications and with shorter essays—and each time, she has been a godsend! She walked me through my goals and target readership, helped clarify my thoughts, and offered alternatives to restructure the writing accordingly. Most importantly, Jawziya helped me whilst being extremely encouraging. She gently guides you to think through your thoughts and ideas. Every time she has offered me constructive feedback, she has never once let me feel less confident about my work—in fact, she absolutely disallows it!

Palvasha Shahab

Advocate, Sindh High Court

I sought Jawziya’s help when I realized the content on my website wasn’t a good reflection of my brand. She is highly skilled and took the time to understand the story I wanted to tell and to analyze the needs of my business. She asked all the right questions and was able to get to the nuances I wanted to express. Jawziya is a great listener and researcher who comes up with different and interesting ideas, and delivers high quality writing in a timely manner. I look forward to collaborating on future projects, and recommend her without reservation to any brand/business that needs help with its content..

Sema Aydi

Founder, janjan

Jawziya wields that elusive ability to take your rawest drafts and spin them into silver. I’ve had the benefit of her keen eye for many of my writing endeavors, including academic personal statements, research proposals and newspaper articles. Each time, Jawziya has provided crucial constructive feedback, and managed to discern and articulate even my unpenned thoughts while staying faithful to my voice. If you’re looking for stellar and decisive editing skills, I cannot recommend her highly enough.

Amber Lakhani

PhD Candidate, SOAS, University of London