Debra Hamilton Proofreading CELTA and English Language Services

Academic and general proofreader, ESL tutor, specialist IELTS tutor

I am a self-employed proofreader and tutor, working mainly with clients whose first language is not English.

Most proofreading work comes from the academic field (PhD theses and journal papers), but I also work on job applications, CVs, and other documents as requested.

I offer English-language tutoring to both private and corporate clients, in both one-on-one and group settings. I specialise in IELTS preparation (both Academic and General IELTS), but I also have extensive experience in general English tutoring.

Background

My experience as a proofreader/copy-editor goes back more than twenty years, when I was employed on contract for the Queensland Government (Fraser Island Inquiry, Dept of Education). I began work as an academic proofreader more than ten years ago, after I was approached for help by some of my UQ students and their spouses.

I worked as a volunteer ESL tutor at the UQ English Conversation Group for 13 years, and began tutoring professionally about 8 years ago. I have a TESOL qualification (Cambridge CELTA).

My clients have come from many different cultural and language backgrounds – people from Iran, China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Brazil, Chile, the Philippines, Mexico, Colombia, France, Belgium, Norway, Tunisia, and many other countries. I am familiar with many of the particular English language issues that arise from these different L1 backgrounds.

Availability

My current home base is Brisbane, so I am available for tutoring only in that area. Since proofreading work is received and returned online, it is accepted from clients worldwide.

I am available for work during core office hours (9am-5pm), Monday to Friday (Brisbane is GMT+10).

As a self-employed sole trader, I can be available for only one client at any one time. Once my time is booked, I am unable to accommodate other requests for that time.

“I want to say thank you for your selfless help and encouragement, I will keep all of these in my heart forever.”
(Visiting scholar from China)

“It has been a real pleasure to work with you. At some stages of this final part of my PhD, you were the only person I was interacting with regarding to my thesis, and that helped me to keep pushing and keep writing. As you would notice, some days I could not write well, neither develop good ideas as I was really tired and exhausted. You don't know how the explanation in the comments of your proof reading and the words of encouragement in your emails helped me to keep motivated.”
(Engineer from Chile)

“Please also make sure that it is my always pleasure to send you my future papers. Recently, I have written a number of papers again :) so I will send them to you before submission. I have already given your contact details to my friends and have introduced you as not only a specialist editor but also as a moral person.”
(Engineer from Iran)