Old Town Editing is located on the Central Coast of California in Monterey’s historic district. Check out our services here.

Jean Vengua:

With a PhD in English (UC Berkeley, 2010), published essays, and over a decade of teaching writing and composition classes (UCB, UCSC, CSUMB, Gavilan College), Jean Vengua knows academic writing inside and out. Add to that many years of professional editing in curriculum development (McGraw-Hill, Defense Language Institute); marine science (Seafood Watch, Tenji); academic journals such as Contexts (American Sociology Association) and ALON (Filipinx American and Diasporic Studies); arts and culture (Smithsonian Press, Tracing Patterns Foundation) as well as experience in publishing and editing AAPI and ethnic literature and nonfiction. As past co-chair and now staff content/grant writer for ACE, a nonprofit with a mission to preserve the history and culture of Salinas Chinatown, she has written and edited successful grant proposals, reports, promotional content, and narrative for community and cultural exhibits.

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Michael Fink:

Mr. Fink was the copy editor for the Point Lobos Magazine and submissions editor for Local Nomad: an Online Journal of Writing and Art. He has also been a hand scoring supervisor, transcription proofreader, and copy editor for several educational publishers. Recently he has been assistant editor for Our Salinas Chinatown (collected essays, May 2023), copy edited Borneo Ikat Weaving (forthcoming, Tracing Patterns Foundation), has been a judge for the NYC Midnight short story competition in a variety of genres, and writes for Human Resources Research (HumRRO).

We offer the following services:

Proofreading (Jean Vengua, Michael Fink)

Check spelling, punctuation, cross-references, sequence (e.g. alphabetical or numerical order), grammar, and usage.

Basic Copyediting (Jean, Michael)

Same as proofreading, but in basic copyediting we also check for consistency of style and sentence flow. May include minor sentence rewrites (changing a word or phrase) and brief comments/suggestions.

Medium to Heavy Copyediting (Jean, Michael)

Same as basic copyediting, but this category includes correction of wordiness, inaccuracies and ambiguity, and checks logical flow and consistency of style. May include sentence restructuring, rewriting, and citation checking. In-depth comments accompany the edits, and may also include suggestions tailored for ESL writers.

Website Copyediting (Jean)

Based on levels of editing need (see above).

Developmental Editing (Jean, Michael)

Similar to heavy copyediting, but in this case the focus is on manuscript development. The editor works closely with the writer on overall organization, structure, and flow. Includes “reader feedback” on clarity of ideas, argument, conclusion, plot, character development, and other aspects of writing.

Educational Writing (Jean, Michael)

Test passages for educational testing, primary to upper high school levels.

Academic Writing Coach (Jean)

Evaluate academic papers in person, or online using Track Changes to comment on the writer’s issues, with suggestions for improvement. Brainstorm assignments and ideas for writing; interpret instructor’s assignments. Help with outlining; organization of essay structure; logical flow and argument; paragraph and sentence structure; ESL issues and English usage; grammar, punctuation, and citation style (APA, Chicago Style, MLA, and IEEE). I have taught writing courses and coached students (including military graduates) in many disciplines in universities and community colleges, and currently coach graduate and undergraduate law and business students in writing. Experienced in coaching international students with English as a second or third language.

Non-fiction Writing: Articles, Reports, Grants, Reviews (Jean)       

My areas of personal interest in writing include: visual arts, literature, ethnic culture and media, grant writing, history, women, aging, disability issues, social issues, community development, and nonprofits. You can view the abstract of one of my clients’ published articles, which I edited, at Francis & Taylor online.

For fee rates and more information, go to the Contact page on this website, fill in the brief form, and we will respond quickly. It’s helpful if you give a brief summary of your project and (if your writing is more or less complete) the word count of your manuscript.