Testimonials

• • • “In my career as a celebrity haircolorist, I have worked with many editors and copywriters – Erin Dougherty is by far the best I have worked with. Besides getting the work done on time, she is organized, kind in spirit and knows how to navigate under pressure and meet a deadline. I thank god that I’ve found her to help me in  all my projects.”–Brad Johns
    • “Eleni is an excellent editor, going way beyond just text edits and supplying programmatic insights on how best to lay out the story, offering complementary readings and information that helped convey what I wanted to say.  She helped organize a manuscript that contained narrative,  poems and philosophy.  I had compiled the materials over a long period, and Eleni helped structure the writing into a coherent whole. While concentrating on the lines in front of her, Eleni never lost sight of the overall message of the book and showed a keen sense for eliminating repetitive material that was being used to reinforce points that did not need reinforcement. She was the persistent, objective style and content editor that we all need to say things in our best voice.” – Lowell C. Williams, novelist
    • “Eleni is a delight to work with. She has proven herself time and time again to be exceptionally resourceful. Her talent for writing inspires us all to find our creative side and to write with aspiration. Having worked alongside Eleni on projects for our company, I have found her to be an excellent communicator, dedicated to her work and intelligent. She has excellent skills that make her not only an asset to our team here at FE Samuels, North America, but to every branch within our company including our U.K. office and beyond. Aside from her talent in journalism and writing, Eleni has also been keen on assisting any of our clients at any time should a need or inquiry arise. Eleni excelled in developing and preparing our monthly newsletters. She would ask for a paragraph of what our particular branch was doing at the moment; she would then take those simple words I gave her and transform them into spectacular verbiage. Her talent for communication and writing cannot be overlooked. It has been a wonderful experience to work alongside Eleni and I hope to have a long and successful partnership with her and her future endeavors. I highly recommend Eleni for any professional or personal venture she pursues presently or in the future” — Laura Dahlin, FE Samuels North America.
    • “As associate editor of Launchpad, a trade magazine for hair and beauty professionals, Erin Dougherty brought a lot to the table. She’s bright, articulate and an extremely talented writer. She was responsible for the first round of edits, and since we had such a small staff she became the de facto managing editor. She also wrote a number of features and columns for the magazine, organized photo shoots and proof-read everything with a keen eye for detail”–Editor-in-chief, Launchpad Magazine
    • “Eleni was the first of a few editors to work on my book FROM VEILS TO THONGS An Arab Chick’s Survival Guide to Balancing One’s Ethnic Identity in America. I am a writer who writes from the heart, and as a result, my mind races with thousands of ideas that are sporadic, redundant and all over the place. When I presented my manuscript, she took out her big red pen marked things everywhere. At first I was frightened – and mad! How could she take away my words – those are my thoughts and I spent a lot of time thinking them! How dare she! But after a while, as I saw her work, I began to trust her instinct to edit down a lot of what I was saying. Sometimes she took concepts that I had written in 3 long winded paragraphs and brought them down to one. But the end result was that it was said much more precisely and focused than they way I had originally written it. And much more to the point of what I really wanted to say. As time passed, I began to see how she was just taking my ideas and presenting them in a clear focus so that the reader can remain engaged and follow my thought process. In one particular chapter, (Um Kathoum) I was literally so all over the place that I was making my own head spin, but Eleni naturally and calmly put the concepts in the proper order, eliminated a lot of unnecessary words and helped make them flow much better. She has a good eye for reconstructing while keeping the ideas intact. And the best part is that she kept my coveted title a secret until the very end!” — Dalel Khalil, writer.
    • “Erin has been an instructor at Chatham University in the English Language Program since January of 2010.  She is a very dynamic teacher and always comes up with interesting and fun ways to present new information to her students.  She has a wealth of experience to draw on and is able to help students to realize their own errors.  She’s definitely someone you would want to help with any kind of writing assignment – from a business letter to a dissertation, Erin is the person to go to for writing help.” — Heather McnNaught, Director of ELP, Chatham University
    • “I am a non-native speaker and some time ago I had to write some very important formal letters and documents with scientific contents. Since it can be very difficult to write documents in a foreign language I needed the help of someone who is firm in his/her native tongue regarding grammar and syntax. A very good friend of mine brought me in contact with Ms. Eleni Anastasiou. She proof read and corrected my writings and the results were always of a very high quality. The corrections were accurate and reliable, the comments clear and understandable. The editing took place in the time estimate she provided beforehand.Since this time I repeatedly used the help of Ms. Anastasiou and I was always pleased with the results. Without hesitation I can recommend her service” – Thomas Schaaf, CMU.
    • “While applying for residency, I quickly became overwhelmed by the prospect of writing a one page personal statement about why I became a doctor and why they should choose me. When trying to weave in the experiences that got me to where I am, I tend to be unnecessarily detailed. Meanwhile when using a more theoretical approach, I become unnecessarily vague. This is where Erin comes in. Erin was able to edit my essay, while maintaining my voice. She did a great job of keeping things concise and taking out the fluff. She also helped me with punctuation and grammar. Ultimately with Erin’s help I was able to acquire a position at Hopkins, so needless so say she is the person to go to for your editing needs!”–Vicki Kalira, medical resident at Johns Hopkins University
    • “I sought the input of Eleni Anastasiou on a number of personal writing projects in 2005 and was thrilled with the quality and depth of the work she performed. I was immediately impressed with her multi-level approach to editing—an approach that addressed everything from the concrete pillars of technical writing (e.g., maximizing punctuation marks, building sentences by way of potent verbs) to the amorphous elements of advanced communication (e.g., dramatic story-telling tactics, logical argument-building strategies). Indeed, within a matter of moments, we could shift from verbally diagramming a sentence for structural flaws to debating the relevance of a particular paragraph in relation to its audience. As a result, I never felt as though I sacrificed the macro for micro or vice versa; thanks to Eleni, I was able to see the forest, the trees, and everything else that lay in between. To simply extol Eleni’s proofreading tools, however, is to overlook her most commendable attribute as an editor. In plain terms, she invests herself immensely in the work she assumes. I will never forget the amount of comments she left on the first piece I submitted—I was convinced she had read the work more times than I had! The comments were provocative, too, with attention to detail, acknowledgments of my vision, and, to my delight, comprehensive emotional valence (i.e., compliments designed to, pardon the pun, complement the criticisms). Therefore, while Eleni poured over my work with an inspiring amount of bulldogged tenacity, she did so in the fairest of ways (i.e., without acting as though everything needed improved—unless, of course, it did!). In fact, by drawing equal attention to my weaknesses and strengths (as opposed to focusing primarily on the former, as others have lamentably done), Eleni gave me an elaborate template with which to grow as a writer. I shudder to think about where I would be, both personally and professionally, without such a “multi-chromatic” gift! In closing, I cannot think of another person I would entrust with editing my work more than Eleni. Her skill set is vast and clear—qualities magnified immeasurably by her inspiring desire to better her clients. There is a reason why I reference her by name in my “designed for graduate school” non-fiction writing sample (i.e., the 50+-page piece submitted alongside the formal application) and, should you seek her out for input on your work, that reason will show itself in no time” — John Dimoff, former student.