Hi, I’m Matthew!
A developmental editor and book indexer working on thoughtful texts in the scholarly humanities.
Subject specialities include art/video studies, music, philosophy, queer theory, and theology.
A Careful Reading
I read your text closely with the eye of a graduate-level reader.
In my developmental editing work, I come to your work with an empathetic ear for both you and your future readers. You’ve worked hard on your research, I can help you make your argument and research more accessible and clear.
Through my indexing, I bring a curious and analytic eye to re-construct the content of your book in a way that will help reader’s find what they’re searching for. In an elegant index, the threads of your research are woven to present the major contributions of your argument and related topics in a new, but familiar way.
Is there something that feels not right about a piece you’re working on? Through manuscript assessments and in-text comments I’ll help sharpen the focus of your writing by identifying areas where your argument could be strengthened, where there seems to be a gap in narrative flow, ways the structure of a piece might be working against your goals, and on matters of style and voice.
You’ve worked so hard throughout the writing process. Do you want to make sure your readers can find all the strands of your argument and research? A professionally written index can help your scholarly contribution stand out, presenting the contents of your book in a way that makes it accessible for the reader.
I also write indexes for cookery and food studies books.
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“Matthew was easy to work with, responsive to my emails, and to my ideas and wishes. I would definitely be interested in working with him again on a future project.”
Adele Reinhartz, Professor at the University of Ottawa and author of Bible and Cinema: An Introduction (Routledge, 2022).
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“I highly recommend Matthew MacLellan’s indexing services. He was in touch with me exactly the right amount to make sure we were on the same page throughout the process. In the end, it was amazing to see my book mapped out in the index that he produced, because it reflected back to me, from a reader’s point of view, a picture of what I intended to be there. Matthew takes great care to reproduce the unique arguments of the book and is tremendously sensitive to the nuance of disciplinary terms of art. Without a doubt, I felt the full discussion of the topics had been captured in the index, and it was wonderful to feel totally confident with my manuscript in his hands.”
— Sharday Mosurinjohn, Assistant Professor at Queen's University and author of The Spiritual Significance of Overload Boredom (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2022).
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“Matthew did a superlative job with my index. His thoroughness and attention to detail made me look at my book in a new light. He was a joy to work with.”New List Item
— Samuel Clowes Huneke, Assistant Professor at George Mason University and author of States of Liberation: Gay Men between Dictatorship and Democracy in Cold War Germany (University of Toronto Press, 2022).
Contact Me
You can also write me directly at matthew[at]matthewmaclellan.com