If you would like to engage my services please download and read my information sheet.
I'd love to hear from you.
I work with writers of dissertations, master's theses, and journal articles in the social sciences and humanities. I especially enjoy working with English language learners.
I edit for conceptual coherence and cohesive argument, as well as the mechanics of writing. When I edit your manuscript there will be no errors of spelling, punctuation, grammar, or syntax. I have particular expertise in (and enjoy) editing citations and reference lists.
I am thoroughly versed in the Chicago Manual of Style Author-Date system, though I also use the Chicago Notes and Bibliography system, APA, and MLA. I'm prepared to learn whatever citation system you use.
I am an ethnomusicologist with an M.A. in Ethnomusicology and a dissertation in progress. I bring to the table three years as the Assistant Editor of Ethnomusicology, the Journal of the Society for Ethnomusicology, two years editing the Discography of American Historical Recordings, my own academic writing practice, and a lifelong love of accurate, correct, and expressive language.
Beyond these markers of academic achievement and work experience, I am simply a very talented and eagle-eyed editor who is thoroughly versed in the theoretical concerns and language current in academia.
If you're writing and would like me in your corner, let's talk. You can also read more more about my services and approach by downloading my 
sheet.
Are you a business or IT professional who needs to communicate your ideas and knowledge in writing? Could you use some help writing specs or effectively structuring a proposal? Would like to share your tech expertise in blog posts, how-to guides, or even a book? Do you need support and feedback to craft an effective resume and cover letter? Do the mechanics of writing—spelling, grammar, syntax—just get the better of you sometimes?
As a native English speaker and writer, I especially enjoy working with English language learners. As a creative coder/website designer with 20+ years in civil engineering design and coding customizations for CADD, I enjoy the challenge of written (and visual) technical communication.
If you're writing and would like me in your corner, let's talk. You can also read more more about my services and approach by downloading my sheet.
While I enjoy editing, I prefer the role of Writing Coach. As an editor I fix your writing. As a Writing Coach I teach you to fix your own writing. I work with you to develop and hone your writing skills, and support you in organizing and structuring documents long and short. I help you to identify, frame, and support the essential components of your argument or narrative. Together we can craft prose that is focused, compelling, and effective—with correct grammar and syntax.
If you're writing and would like me in your corner, let's talk. You can also read more more about my services and approach by downloading my sheet.
As a teacher committed to the practice of antiracist feminist pedagogy, I believe the classroom is a site of potentially transformative social engagement through intellectual exploration. As an ethnomusicologist I believe the study of expressive culture offers the pedagogical opportunity to apprehend the complexities of cultural negotiations of social value and power. Students come to the university classroom from diverse social locations, each with a mix of experiences, received ideologies, fears, hopes, and personal interpretations. It is my objective as a teacher to engage my students’ curiosity and desire to learn by creating an atmosphere of questioning and collaboration; I seek to uncover and foster the excitement that attends learning, as well as the sense of ownership that students develop as they grapple with new ideas and new worlds of information. Though course content is important, what students will carry into their lives over the next decades, is the ability to learn, and the sense of how to approach intellectual problems. Thus my goal as a teacher is to cultivate a challenging but supportive environment in which my students learn how to learn. I believe that race, ethnicity, gender, and class are always in the classroom and thus some key principles of antiracist feminist pedagogy—mutual respect, a commitment to social justice, the understanding that knowledges produced by the experience of subaltern social locations are essential components of any inquiry, and intellectual rigor—are always useful and germane.
I am available for workshops and individual tutoring. You can also read more more about my services and approach by downloading my sheet.
I bring many years of visual and written communication to website design and front-end development. I offer hand-coded sites and customized CMS solutions to realize your vision and hone your distinctive Web presence. Let's build a site with your unique palette of colors and images, elegant typography, and user-friendly site architecture that will visually and conceptually present your creative work, company, and/or product. Please see my portfolio.
As civil engineering CADD designer and consultant I craft word and image to effectively communicate the design vision and create precise, accurate construction documents.
I entered the field of civil engineering and land surveying just before the advent of computer-aided drafting and design. In the 1980s I began working for civil engineering and land surveying firms as a manual drafter. I learned the basic concepts and practices of the field as I developed both a close eye for detail and an enduring curiosity about the design and construction of infrastructure. I enjoyed every aspect of the work, from researching deeds to entering field notes to calculating subdivision layouts to interpolating contours to inking the final mylars.
When the first computer-aided drafting programs began to appear I took classes and sought out a job in which I could learn to use CADD professionally. I spent the next four years seeking out jobs in which I facilitated the transition from manual design and drafting to CADD.
In the early 1990s I left my last job to go into business for myself as a consultant, trainer, and CADD project manager. I called my business Learning Curve Solutions and I operated it successfully until I decided to go back to school and finish the bachelor's degree I had started in my early 20s. One thing led to another and I became fascinated with ethnomusicology (the anthropology of music). I graduated with a B.A. in Music in Spring 2005 and started graduate school at the University of California Santa Barbara that fall. I completed my Master's degree in 2009 and advanced to Ph.D. candidacy in 2010.
I have been noodling out tunes since my Grandpa gave me a large Hohner mouth harp and a soprano recorder when I was in junior high school. I spent many lazy summer afternoons lounging on the deck picking out tunes I had in my head, such as "Silent Night" and "The Streets of Laredo." In high school I took up the guitar and taught myself to type (on a portable manual, which was great for building finger strength) in order to type up song lyrics.
In college I was curious enough about music to take a couple of semesters of music theory, which I loved. I also attempted piano, but lacking childhood lessons and a burning desire to actually play the piano, I sucked at it and got discouraged. What with one thing and another, I got bored with my binder of folk songs and I decided I had no real talent for music anyway. So I let life take me in different directions.
I continued to play my guitar now and then, but didn't get back to actively pursuing musicmaking until the late 1990s, when I picked up the mandolin and started learning to play traditional tunes (mostly from the Bluegrass and Irish repertoires). Eventually, I became obsessed with old-time bowing rhythms and took up the fiddle, even though I was convinced I didn't have a good enough ear to play a fretless instrument. And, as they say, the rest is history. It turns out that a good ear is developed through use. I currently play old-time music (meaning social and dance music from the mountain South) on fiddle, banjo, mandolin, and guitar. I have recently started attending a weekly Cajun jam, which is a lot of fun and may result in my eventually becoming a competent Cajun fiddler, too.
To hear some of the source recordings I have learned my repertoire from go to my 
page.
I’m a player of fiddle and banjo, smith of words and tunes, designer of webpages and sewer lines (and houses and documents and graphics and...), DIY carpenter and fiddle tinkerer, builder of houses and (reluctant) auto mechanic, proponent of visual literacy and elegant language, advocate for peace and racial justice, episodic didact and darn good listener, gentler of wild horses and lover of comics.
I’ve never met a stringed instrument I didn’t like, a well-turned phrase that didn’t give me pleasure, or a recipe that couldn’t benefit from more garlic (well, not cupcakes… usually). I’m prone to peculiar enthusiasms (e.g., bow re-hairing) and I’ve been known to buy something I didn’t need simply because it was exquisitely well-designed. My definition of a good book is one I’m not rewriting in my head as I read (which means the author is challenging me to expand my vision of the world). As a recent escapee from academia—where I got the chops (and the nerve) to call myself a student of people making music—I’ve been editing academic articles, dissertations, fundraising brochures, and even a novel or three, while learning to code.
For a more linear presentation of me and my diverse background click on the icons below:
Barbara is an excellent English editor. Her objective is to accurately transform my ideas into correct and fluid English. I am always very satisfied with the final result. She brings dedication, meticulousness, knowledge, sensitivity, and a sense of responsibility to her work. Moreover, she is very well organized and her sense of humor makes the whole job more enjoyable!
Arielle Beyaert, Ph.D.
Profesora de Econometría
Facultad de Economía y Empresa
Universidad de Murcia
Barbara not only weeds out typos and grammatical errors but also suggests many valuable and creative ideas that make my writing more robust and readable to my target readers.
Woong Jo Chang, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Arts and Cultural Management
Hongik University
I have had the pleasure of engaging with Barbara over several projects now. Her editing skills are superb. In addition to improving structure, spelling, and grammar, she really dives into the content, placing herself in the position of the reader. She makes great suggestions and asks the tough questions, enabling the author to improve the story line. She meets deadlines well and her pricing is fair. I highly recommend her.
Mark Len Mayfield
Novelist
Barbara has been an incredible partner to me as I go through my doctoral program. From editing specifically for Turabian 8th edition, to providing insights into construction and content, Barbara is professional, timely, and easy to work with. She also has a great sense of humor. I highly recommend her as an editor.
Katheryn Saunders
Area Director, West Region
Barbara helped me edit my doctoral dissertation. She helped to make the last stages of this important project manageable and pleasant, despite the pressure of an imminent deadline. Her human warmth and her patient, committed help made all the difference; she made the last climb feel less steep.
Sofía García-Beyaert, Ph.D.
Interpreter, interpreter trainer and researcher
Barbara has helped me increase my confidence in my English writing skills by giving me tips on language nuances and helping me write in a more professional way. I feel my effectiveness as a Software Engineer has improved through working with Barbara.
Gilberto Stankiewicz
Software Engineer II
Unless otherwise noted, all content on this site was created by Barbara L. Taylor, © fidLnFree.com 2016, all rights reserved. This includes the text, photographs, and site design.
This site is built on an extensive customization of the Start Bootstrap theme, Agency, which is based on Golden, a free PSD website template built by Mathavan Jaya.
The headings font is Josefin Sans from Google Fonts and the body font is Muli from Edge Fonts.
The icons were all drawn in Inkscape by myself, Barbara L. Taylor, or adapted from icons found on flaticon, the noun project, and Wikimedia Commons. I gratefully acknowledge the creativity and generosity of the designers who share their work on these sites.
