Margaret Aherne

Margaret Aherne has worked since 1986 as a proofreader, copy-editor, project manager and tutor/mentor, for clients including Blackwell Publishers, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Arnold, Routledge/Taylor & Francis and Robinson Publishing, covering both academic (arts, humanities and social sciences) and more popular subjects, as well as for bodies such as the Audit Commission. She has also worked directly with authors on developing their work, notably on the subject of wildlife. She was commissioned by Blackwell Publishers to create and set copy-editing and project management tests, to mark them and give feedback to the applicants; she then mentored successful project management applicants through their first jobs.

In 2005 Margaret became a tutor on the Publishing Training Centre's distance learning course Basic Proofreading, and is the junior co-author with Gillian Clarke of the latest edition of the course. She was also commissioned to create and deliver the PTC's Advanced Copy-Editing one-day course and in 2011 became the tutor for the PTC's online Grammar at Work module. Her other teaching commitments cover both regular, scheduled courses as well as in-house courses arranged on demand (for such clients as Cambridge University Press and Pearson Education).

Margaret is proud to be a founder member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders, for whom she organises training courses in the Bristol area; she is also a mentor in proofreading and copy-editing on the SfEP's mentoring scheme.

Margaret will shortly publish a book of proofreading exercises.