editorial services

Passionate wordsmith

Excellent writing is best a spin-off. As a communications expert, I am primarily a business communication-performance coach, typically for accomplished or aspiring business leaders and thinkers. I also have a substantial background and interest in higher education. Peripheral but closely linked to this, I am a passionate wordsmith. And love it.

Corporate support: understanding client needs

This has provided consistent pleasure for over two decades in supporting wide-ranging clients and fulfilling their needs for self-promotion or written output. I have provided writing and editorial services for professionals and executives in the City of London and other central business districts for decades.

After a brief grad moment in investment banking at entry level, I became an English teacher in the mid-1990s before then managing a large educational department spanning medical, business, vocational and academic English. I had the perfect opportunity for leverage. With a commerce degree and the earlier experience in the City, plus a master’s degree focusing on public and organisational communication, and a part-time role supporting Finance, Economics, International Business and Management courses in a University of London (Russell Group) university, and 12 years recently coaching professionals and senior executives chiefly in finance, banking, consulting and IT, in career transition, I am equipped to engage with heavyweight City of London corporate life.

So I quickly developed a thriving external business in providing language and editorial support to corporate executives, which morphed into a successful coaching and training business in all aspects of communication performance for high-calibre executives and people with aspirations. A component of this was supplementary services in writing, editing, copy editing, ghost-writing and proofing.

Transition and recruitment: director and c-suite perspectives

A 12-year collaboration with now the UK’s leading career consultancy and outplacement firm City CV Ltd. had me designing and authoring a range of training and coaching programmes and webinars for them. I have regularly supported managers, directors, NED and c-suite individuals, largely in finance and investment banking, consultancy, insurance, IT, energy and infrastructure, but also in law, senior public sector, ex-military, operations, medicine, marketing and media, and other areas. My links with industry are extensive and deep.

Track record in corporate writing

• editing corporate reports and other executive output; 
• copy writing for websites, across all sectors;
• writing and editing press releases;
• writing self-promotional documentation for promotions, applications and recruitment (and CVs);
• and delivering tailored and sustained training programmes, such as in writing for financial analysis, at Arax Properties Ltd. and for investigative writing for Nardello Ltd. and Risk Advisory Ltd.

Trusted scholarly foundations

With associations in the literary centre-of-the-universe, London’s Bloomsbury, and a base next to the University of London’s iconic Senate House, I have thrived in the higher education community and provided services to the sector for over two decades.  Linked to my tertiary-level pedagogical work in developing academic literacy and supporting postgraduate and doctoral candidates to write well, I have been commissioned for extensive writing and editorial output, such as:

1. Copy editing and deep proofreading of scholarly research articles for authors from Middlesex University, Southampton University, SOAS University of London, University of Birmingham, Beijing Normal University and Universitat Jaume I de Castelló and others, on linguistics, finance, accounting, human resource management, business strategy and management, for publication in various academic journals.

2. Authoring and co-authoring three text-books, including award-winning English for Management Studies, published by Garnet Education for worldwide distribution, winning of the 2009 ESU Duke of Edinburgh English Language Book Award.

3. Co-authoring, co-editing and implementing extensive commercial e-learning content for ACL Pty Ltd. bought to market in Australia, China, Thailand and Vietnam universities and other educational institutes.

4. Authoring many taught courses on writing and communication and on English for Economics, Finance, Management, International Business, at University of London SOAS, and English for Computer Science, Engineering, Business, Management and more vocational areas at Middlesex University.

5. Supporting countless high-calibre postgraduate, doctoral and post-doctoral candidates in their research and writing, at University of London SOAS,  Kings College London, University of the Arts London, London Metropolitan University, University of Technology Sydney, and the Aga Khan Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations.

6. Designing and writing materials for an MA module in Interpreting, including authoring complex assessment descriptors, subsequently delivered for many years at Middlesex University.

7. Undertaking and authoring a review for an educational department restructure at Middlesex University, and project managing an annual university-wide browser-based skills and literacy diagnostic for 7000 learners, at Middlesex University.

Media, creative and marketing support

Ultimately, I have written for more creative sectors as well. Over three decades ago, I was an avid writer of fiction as a backpacker roaming the Global South, inspired by anthropology and philosophy electives in my otherwise business degree. My other more creative writing pursuits since have included:

• copywriting for online and media, including impactful rhetoric for NGO web content, newsletters and reports, such as dedicated in-house work for PBI International
• ghost-writing for luxury brand PR and for contributors to glossy magazines, including Marie-Claire, Hong Kong Tatler and Hello! among many others
• proofing for book authors, including works of fiction and an autobiography

Tony Corballis