Ambrose Li, word tinkerer, graphic designer, maker

Services

Are you looking for someone to check your grammar or spelling, but afraid of being told to turn your LaTeX paper into a Word file?
Do you need to translate some Chinese text into English?
Do you have English text that has been translated from Chinese and want it checked?
Do you have some Chinese layout that has been translated from English and want it double-checked for formatting no-no’s?
Do you need layout done?

If you want help in any of these areas, let’s get in touch!

My professional affiliations:

Portfolio

[copy editing] Studio (Craft Ontario) 15, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2020–2021)

[copy editing] Studio (Craft Ontario) 14, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2019–2020)

[copy editing] Studio (Craft Ontario) 13, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2018–19)

[proofreading] Active Voice / Voix active (Editors Canada) 37 (Sept. 2017)

[proofreading] Craft Ontario 2018 Stewardship Report, annual report

[publication design] BoldFace, 2015 Print edition

[publication design] Cadmium January 2014

Studio (Craft Ontario) 15, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2020–2021)

Work done: Copy editing
Year: 2020
Medium: Trade magazine
Publisher: Craft Ontario
Scope: All articles except the two poems
Style: Modified CP (Canadian Press)
Credits: On masthead (page 4)
To read it: You can buy this issue from the publisher or check if your library has a copy

I copy edited the Fall/Winter 2020–2021 issue of Studio magazine except the two poems. This is the first time I edited in CP style.

Studio (Craft Ontario) 14, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2019–2020)

Work done: Copy editing
Year: 2019
Medium: Trade magazine
Publisher: Craft Ontario
Scope: 3 articles (out of 14)
Style: Modified Chicago
Credits: On masthead (page 10)
To read it: You can buy this issue from the publisher or check if your library has a copy

I copy edited about a fifth of the articles in the Fall/Winter 2019–2020 issue of Studio magazine. The material required a relatively heavier edit and some terminology research.

These were the articles I edited:

“For the Love of Colour” by Leah Gravells (pages 43–45)
“Under the Radar: Megan Samms” by Lera Kotsyuba (page 52)
“Colour and Context” by Jennifer Poulin (pages 18–22)

Studio (Craft Ontario) 13, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2018–19)

Work done: Copy editing
Year: 2018
Medium: Trade magazine
Publisher: Craft Ontario
Scope: 9 articles (out of 19)
Style: Modified Chicago
Credits: On masthead (page 8)
To read it: You can buy this issue from the publisher or check if your library has a copy

I copy edited about half of the articles in the Fall/Winter 2018–19 issue of Studio magazine. The edit involved Chicago-style citations, a reference style that I was not familiar with.

These were the articles I edited:

“Fait main / Hand Made” by Bruno Andrus (pages 72–74)
“I’m DONE Defining Craft” by Mary Callahan Baumstark (pages 50–53)
“Under the Radar: Jake Whillans” by the editors of Studio (pages 70–71)
“1968” by Paul Epp (page 11)
“Charged Agency: Craft and the Souvenirs of War” by Julia Krueger and Heather Smith (pages 46–49)
“Mentor and Metalsmith: The Silver Art of Arthur Brecken and Wesley Harris — Review” by Bettina Matzkuhn (pages 77–78)
“Heinemann’s Clay Continuum” by Heidi McKenzie (pages 18–23)
“Craft + Technology in the work of Iris van Herpen and Philip Beesley” by Marie O’Mahony (pages 34–39)
“Arts of Seeing” by Michael Prokopow (pages 62–65)

Active Voice / Voix active (Editors Canada) 37 (Sept. 2017)

Work done: Proofreading
Medium: Trade magazine
Year: 2017
Publisher: Editors Canada
Pages: 16
Scope: Everything in English
Style: Modified Chicago
Credits: On masthead (page 2)
To read it: You can download this issue from the publisher

I proofread the English portion of the September 2017 issue of Active Voice (about half of the content). This was the last print issue published by Editors Canada before the publication went online-only.

Craft Ontario 2018 Stewardship Report

Work done: Proofreading
Genre: Annual report
Year: 2019
Publisher: Craft Ontario
Scope: All 24 typeset pages
Style: No style requirements
To read it: You can read the report online

This was the editorial portion of an annual report.

BoldFace (blog)

Work done: Copy editing
Medium: Blog
Year: 2016–present
Publisher: Editors Toronto
Scope: 14 articles as of March 2020
Style: Modified Chicago
To read it: You can read the articles I copy edited online

BoldFace the official blog of Editors Toronto (the Toronto chapter of Editors Canada). A team consisting of the chapter’s members takes care of the copy editing, and as of March 2020 I have copy edited 14 articles.

BoldFace, 2015 Print edition

Work done: Publication design
Medium: Zine
Year: 2015
Publisher: Editors Toronto
Pages: 8
Scope: Design, layout and final PDF
Style: Modified Chicago

Editors Toronto (the Toronto chapter of Editors Canada) produced BoldFace: The official blog of Editors Toronto, 2015 Print Edition for the Word on the Street Toronto Festival in the fall of 2015. It featured selected blog posts in a zine-like format so that people who wouldn’t normally read the blog could have a chance to get a taste of it.

The design had to follow Editors Canada’s then-new branding guidelines and Editors Toronto’s style sheet, and I had to keep it at eight pages; but other than these two requirements I was free to design it any way I wanted.

Cadmium January 2014

Work done: Publication design
Medium: Zine
Year: 2014
Publisher: OCAD Student Union
Pages: 16
Scope: Editorial management, copywriting (fiction and nonfiction), interviewing, design, layout, collation and binding
Style: No style requirements

Cadmium was the official zine published by the OCAD Student Union (the student union of OCAD University in Toronto, Canada). The student union would select a different editor to produce each issue.

One of the challenges I faced was that previous episodes of the “continuing story” feature did not present a consistent universe, so I had to analyze all the previous episodes I could find. Once I figured out what characters were in the story and what geography could make sense I was able to write a new episode of the story.

Hi!

My name is Ambrose and I’m a copy editor, graphic designer and visual artist based in Toronto, Canada. As a 1.5-generation Hong Kong Canadian, I read and write Hong Kong Chinese and also speak Cantonese natively.

I’m not afraid of LaTeX (or APA citations)!

I studied computer science in my undergrad and so I know how TeX works and how converting LaTeX to Word and back can be fraught with problems. If your paper is written in LaTeX I won’t ask you to give me a Word file because I won’t do that to my own files.

I have copy edited academic papers and other materials, including LaTeX papers shared on Overleaf, mostly with either APA or IEEE style citations. I have also edited magazine articles in Chicago and Canadian Press (CP) styles.

Specialties

I have translated Christian content from Chinese to English and vice versa, and know the differences between Catholic and Protestant terminologies (which are almost completely different in Chinese).

I also have experience in graphic design, a few craft-based art practices (mainly studio ceramics, plus some knowledge in printmaking and bookbinding), and IT (programming and system administration).

Resumé

You can check out my editing resumé here.

How to reach me

Email:: ambrose.li@editors.ca
Instagram:: @ambrose.li

Toronto is in Canada’s “Eastern” time zone, which is currently 4 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT−4).

Designed and coded by Ambrose Li.

First published March 7, 2020.

Cover art for the following is used with permission:

Studio (Craft Ontario) 15, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2020–2021)
Studio (Craft Ontario) 14, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2019–2020)
Studio (Craft Ontario) 13, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2018–19)
Active Voice / Voix active (Editors Canada) 37 (Sept. 2017)
Craft Ontario 2018 Stewardship Report

Colophon

Typeset in Lato, a typeface designed by Łukasz Dziedzic of tyPoland, Poland. Some icons typeset in Open Iconic, an icon set designed by P.J. Onori, Dave Johnson and Ryan Teuscher of Waybury, United States.

Webfonts delivered with Brick, an open-source webfont service designed by Alfred Xing, Canada.

Accessibility statement

This site has been tested for keyboard navigation and with the TalkBack screen reader on Android, although this site is not currently required to comply with WCAG AA in Ontario.

Colour contrast on this site is currently not compliant with WCAG Level AA; this will eventually be mitigated but please read my thoughts on problems with the colour contrast rules.