Jo-Ann Langseth
170 Budlong Farm Rd.
Warwick, RI 02886-8362
(401) 738-4347
(401) 742-7245 Cell
jo-ann@langseth.com
Work Experience
1999
-- Present – Freelance WEB Editing
In
recent years I have been engaged as a WEB editor for a variety of business and
personal sites. Throughout 2000 – 2001,
I edited all copy for Los Angeles-based NaturalhealthLink.com. My Web site, www.copyedit.org,
attracted this client, along with several others who were seeking, in
particular, a strong writer/editor who also specializes in health, self-help,
and metaphysical topics. Recent
projects have included the online rewriting of Kingdom of Light: Change Your
Aura, Change Your Life by Barbara Y. Martin of the Center for Metaphysical
Studies in Sunland, California, and the editing of a major portion of Your
Birthday Sign Through Time, to be released by Simon & Schuster in
December 2002. During my fifteen years
of work for Merlyn’s Pen: The
National Magazine of Student Writing, I frequently wrote and edited its Web
pages. I also provided online editing for MicroStrategy’s Strategy.com. I’m accustomed to, and invigorated by, the
quick back-and-forth of online work.
1987 -- 2002 - Senior Editor, Merlyn's Pen: The National Magazine of
Student Writing
All editing and restructuring of stories and poems for publication in this
teen-written magazine was performed by me. I also assisted in the selection
process, making final decisions with the publisher and writing encouraging
critiques on many of the 15,000 annual manuscripts. Accompanying the magazine
and its spin-off anthologies were teaching guides and promotional direct-mail
pieces, authored by me. For the past several years I have also served as
director of the Merlyn's Pen Mentors in Writing Program, a semester-long
writing tutorial for students in grades 6 - 12, conducted via mail and e-mail.
1987 -- '98 - Associate Editor, Body, Mind & Spirit
magazine
This freelance, mainly home-office position involved editing and proofing all
copy, suggesting and writing celebrity interviews (Thomas Moore, Caroline Myss,
Ali MacGraw, Fritjof Capra, Deepak Chopra) and alternative-health articles for
a national New Age magazine. Best received were my articles about the
psycho-spiritual dynamics of homeopathy (an original theory) and my wildly
popular "bowel series" (“The Shocking Truth About Your Colon and What
You Can Do About It”), which sparked close to 300 responses.
Previous Experience -- News Editor, Aetna Life & Casualty, Hartford, CT
As editor of Life NEWS, I had sole responsibility for finding, generating, and
writing all stories for the Life Department's monthly eight-page newspaper.
Editing, proofing, directing photographers, and laying-out (manually) were
other exclusive duties: the publication was "my baby" entirely.
Topics included new products, sales campaigns, accolades and seminars, company
acquisitions and policies, and agent interviews. What had previously been a
nuts 'n' bolts "house organ" became, under my leadership, an eagerly
anticipated read - crisp, compelling, and sprinkled with subtle witticisms.
Proofreader, R. R. Bowker Publishing Co., New York City
I proofread Books in Print and occasional news releases.
Teacher,
P.S. 123, New York City
An exhilarating year of teaching second-graders in Harlem.
Along the way, I have also written features for newspapers (The Hartford Courant,
Insurance Times, and AAA publications); edited and assembled
student-fiction anthologies for Merlyn's Pen; copyedited Astro Digest,
a national astrology magazine; put together and edited a series of
"Supermarket Nutrition" books for New York-based CCN Publishing;
edited American Silversmith magazine and newsletter; edited Web content
for NaturalhealthLink.com and Strategy.com, proofread for What is
Enlightenment? magazine; and line-edited three books for Roaring Lion Press
(Iowa) about Peter of Mystic Mountain, a present-day sage and holy man.
Education
College of Mount Saint Vincent, B.A., English/Psychology
See my copyediting Web site: http://www.copyedit.org/
8-16-2002