Vanessa Plaister (she/her) | edi-tor.com | inclusive language editing and consultancy
Advanced Professional Member| Location | Remote (based in Canada and UK) |
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| Website | edi-tor.com |
| Vanessa Plaister |
Why edi-tor.com?
You’re hearing a lot about inclusive language, and you need someone to show you what it is, why it matters and how to navigate it—safely and sensitively.
I’m a non-fiction editor and an equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) professional.
Inclusive language is what happens when these two skill sets meet and merge.
When you’re worried about the weight of your words, I can help you steer through discomfort—boldly and bravely.
- Editing means I’ll get some of the work done for you.
- Auditing means I’ll show you what work lies ahead.
- Consultancy means we’ll get the work done together.
Asking a specialist for help where words can do EDI work is how you show you mean what you say and make sure you say what you mean.
I work with:
- authors and publishers
- editors and educators
- EDI/DEI professionals and HR partners
- small business owners and sole traders
- non-profits and niche agencies.
Visit https://edi-tor.com to explore my services, including editing, sensitivity reviews, style guides, inclusion audits and more, or email me at [email protected] and let's start a conversation...
'As we bear witness to … and begin to heal habits of harm, we will initially be more sensitive and less confident. We are learning how to be present and more honest with ourselves, learning how to talk to others without turning away. We will feel appropriately unskilled, as though we are learning a new language. …’
— Ruth King, Mindful of Race: Transforming Racism from the Inside Out (Sounds True, 2018), emphasis added
Themes
ableism | accessibility | accessible | ADHD | age | authenticity | autism | autistic | belonging | bi erasure | bisexual | body type | broad audiences | bullying | civil rights | class | classism | conscious language | DEI | dignity | disability | disabled | discrimination | discriminatory | diversity | EDI | equality | equal opportunities | equity | ethnicity | exclusion | fat | fatphobia | feminism | feminist | free speech | gender | gender identity | gender-neutral | harassment | hate speech | homophobia | human rights | human-centred | identities | identity | identity-first | inclusion | inclusive language | inclusivity | intercultural competency | intersectional | intersectionality | learning mindset | LGBTQ+ | marginalised | mental health | minorities | minority | neurodivergence | neurodiversity | person-first | privilege | pronouns | protected characteristics | protected classes | queer | race | racism | readability | reader experience | religion and belief | representation | reputational risk | respect | sensitivity | sexuality | sexual orientation | snowflake | social construct | social model | style guides | transphobia | trauma-informed | victimisation | voice | woke
Select portfolio
Professional memberships
Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP)
Professional Member of the Society for Diversity
Member of ACES [formerly the American Copy Editors Society]
Member of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB)
Professional experience
Editing | auditing | consultancy, edi-tor.com, 2023—
Editor | proofreader | project manager, artisan|editor, 2006–22 [Repositioned and rebranded as edi-tor.com]
Plus:
- Vice-chair, Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) [formerly SfEP], 2021–23
- Special projects director, CIEP, 2021–22
- Community director, CIEP, 2018–21
- Local group coordinator (Mid-Somerset), Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP), 2014–19
- Production editor (magazines), Institute of Financial Services (ifs) [now London Institute of Banking & Finance], 2005–06
- Production editor (learning materials), ifs, 2003–05
- HR officer (recruitment), Canterbury College, 2001–03
- Recruitment consultant, Hays HR, 2000–02
Professional development
Editorial competencies
Advanced Professional Member (APM) of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) 2011—
Professional Member (PM) of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP) [now CIEP] 2006–11
Plus:
- Accessible publishing concepts (WIPO Accessible Books Consortium) 2024
- An editor’s guide to assessing and addressing problematic content (ACES: the society for editing) 2023
- Annual conference (CIEP) 2023
- Sharing your editing knowledge: how to teach and train students and clients (Editors Canada) 2023
- Language matters: rethinking how we talk about people and problems (Crisis and Trauma Resource Institute | CTRI) 2023
- Annual conference (CIEP) 2022
- Institutionalized anti-Black linguistic discrimination (University of Victoria) 2022
- Language prejudice and the documentation of minoritized varieties of English (Oxford English Dictionaries) 2022
- Gender-inclusive editing (Editors Toronto) 2022
- Trauma-informed editing (Festival of Literary Diversity Academy) 2021
- Annual conference (CIEP) 2021
- Microaggressions in editing: understanding bias and undoing harm (ACES) 2021
- Keep it simple: the science behind plain language, and why you should use it (ACES) 2021
- Perspectives: people of color in the editing community (ACES) 2020
- Annual conference (CIEP) 2020
- Sensitivity reading and beyond: empowering editors to talk about conscious language and representation (ACES) 2020
- Don't eat your words: how we talk about food and bodies, and why it matters (ACES) 2020
- Enforcing house styles: customizing PerfectIt for advanced users (ACES) 2020
- Checking consistency: how to use PerfectIt for faster and better results (ACES) 2020
- Annual conference (SfEP) 2019
- South-west regional conference (SfEP) 2018
- Getting work with non-publishers (SfEP) 2017
- Annual conference (SfEP) 2017
- Legal publishing (SfEP) 2012
- Efficient copyediting (SfEP) 2010
- On-screen editing 2 (SfEP) 2010
- On-screen editing 1 (SfEP) 2010
- Basic editing (Publishing Training Centre | PTC) 2006
- Writing for the Web (PMA Media Training | PMA) 2005
- News writing (PMA) 2005
- Indexing for editors (PTC) 2004
- Management of production (PTC) 2004
- Managing editorial freelances (PTC) 2004
- Scheduling and production control (PTC) 2004
- Proofreading for editors (PTC) 2004
EDI competencies
Certified Diversity Professional (CDP)™ (Institute for Diversity Certification®) 2024 (Course of study in progress)
Level 5 Award in Managing equality, diversity and inclusion (Chartered Management Institute) 2021
Plus:
- Unlocking potential: interculturalism in coaching and leadership (The Society for Diversity) 2024
- Motivational interviewing: strategies for supporting change (Crisis and Trauma Resource Institute) 2023
- Why the questions we ask matter (Crisis and Trauma Resource Institute) 2023
- The power of inclusive storytelling (The Society for Diversity) 2023
- Cultivate courage: how courageous conversations build cultures people celebrate, not tolerate (The Society for Diversity) 2023
- Mental health: building awareness and belonging in the workplace (The Society for Diversity) 2023
- Mitigating the impact of microaggressions in the workplace (The Society for Diversity) 2023
- Tame your tongue and transform your organization (The Society for Diversity) 2023
- Trauma-informed workplaces (ACHIEVE Centre for Leadership) 2023
- Difficult conversations: strategies for challenging discussions (ACHIEVE Centre for Leadership) 2023
- Trauma-informed leadership (ACHIEVE Centre for Leadership) 2022
- Coaching skills for effective chairing (Association of Chairs) 2022
- Introduction to intercultural competency; Advancing your intercultural competency (Algonquin College) 2022
- Working effectively with Indigenous peoples® (Indigenous Relations Academy) 2020
- Creating an inclusive culture (Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers) 2019
Testimonials
‘I’m struggling to find words to capture how incredible Vanessa’s editing skills are. I learned so much from her. Her edits not only improved my writing, but also expanded my thinking and awareness.
‘I particularly appreciated how her commentary and explanation for her edits provided the insights my autistic brain needs.
‘It was a joy to work with Vanessa and I’ll be recommending her to all of my neurodivergent writer friends… Hell, I wish neurotypical writers would work with her, too! What a beautiful reading world that would be!‘
Jackie Schuld, registered expressive art therapist and author, Life as a Late-Identified Autistic (self-published, 2024)
‘Vanessa was asked … to provide a sensitivity review… of my forthcoming book. Given the subject matter (spoken language, identity and prejudice), it was especially important that the language used in the book itself was as inclusive and accurate as possible, and Vanessa was the ideal person to check that this was the case.
‘She provided a detailed review, highlighting all the instances where particular words or particular phrasing could be adjusted so as to be more sensitive, appropriate and inclusive.
‘She didn’t criticise; she simply pointed out instances where she felt something could be worded differently, and provided well-informed and constructive suggestions as to how I could make those changes if I agreed that they were necessary.
‘The whole process was insightful, supportive and valuable, and I would have no hesitation in recommending Vanessa for her expertise in this area.‘
Rob Drummond, sociolinguist and author, You’re All Talk: why we are what we speak (Scribe, 2024)
'We asked Vanessa to edit and format some 80+ procedural documents to resolve issues of consistency and quality that had developed over time. Communication and momentum was excellent throughout the project, with Vanessa letting us know well in advance of anything that may become an issue. One thing that really stood out is her attention to detail in ensuring that all quoted matter and references were spot on and up to date, and I really could see the value of the service provided.
'We had no idea how much the documents could be improved when we started the project and we’ve been really pleased with the outcome. We can safely say that we now have a complete set of high-quality procedures and recent audits have praised the standard of the work that has been carried out. I would definitely use Vanessa again for document editing and control.'
Daren Crosbee, plant manager, UniTech Services Group Ltd (2019)
'Vanessa was efficient, effective and a very clear communicator while she worked on my manuscript. She set expectations, which she ultimately exceeded. I will certainly seek to capitalise on Vanessa's expertise once again!'
Bob McGannon, leadership coach and author, Intelligent Disobedience: the difference between good and great leaders (Routledge, 2018)
'I have worked with Vanessa on two book projects, and in both cases she has been extremely thorough, prompt and flexible, and adept at handling challenging circumstances. I have relied on her specialist knowledge and professional advice on several occasions when I had questions that went beyond the copy-edit itself. She is pragmatic, good-humoured and a pleasure to deal with, and I recommend her unreservedly as an expert and highly skilled copy-editor.'
Anke Ueberberg, publisher, Rethink Press and Gosbrook Professional Publishing (2018)
'Given the fact that my education in English advanced no further than O level, Vanessa faced an uninviting task in copy-editing Friston on Costs. It was twice as long as War and Peace, Vanessa had a deadline to work to that was a twentieth of the time I took to write it, and she had to bring it up to a standard acceptable to major university publisher whilst at the same time preserving the highly technical meaning of the original text. Oh, and she had to make about 75,000 edits to make it gender neutral — and check at least 20,000 footnotes. And all this with an author who repeatedly changed the text.
'Given the above, it is little short of astonishing that she noticed references to obscure delegated legislation being out of date, incorrect or incomplete references to 16th and 17th century authorities, and internal inconsistencies that were separated by hundreds of thousands of words.
'In short, her work was not just excellent, but exceptional. She was Professor Henry Higgins to my Eliza Doolittle.'
Mark Friston, barrister and author, Friston on Costs (3rd edn, OUP, 2018)
'In 2013, when I wrote the first edition of my book Professional Conduct Casebook, I was fortunate indeed to be introduced to Vanessa by my publisher Oxford University Press (OUP). Vanessa proved a wonderful copy-editor, and I owe her a huge debt of gratitude for her helpful, courteous and supportive advice on my typescript. I am quite sure that the book would not have come to fruition without her careful eye to detail.
'We worked so well together that, in 2015, I specifically asked OUP to secure Vanessa’s professional help with the second edition. Once again, her support was invaluable and, as I prepare to write a third edition for publication in 2018, there is no doubt that I shall be asking to work with Vanessa again.'
Kenneth Hamer, barrister and author, Professional Conduct Casebook (OUP, 2013; 2nd edn, 2015; 3rd edn, 2019)