Meet CopyProof's owner/operator, Dan Shenk
I have more than 40 years of writing/editing experience. In 1969 I did sports reporting for an Indiana newspaper. From 1971 to 1978 I was a communication specialist for three churchwide agencies in Indiana. From 1984 to 1999 I worked for two newspapers—in Iowa and Indiana, respectively—as a copy editor, proofreader and reporter. And since 1990, when I established CopyProof, I have been a self-employed copy editor and chess instructor.
I have a B.A. in Communication, 1975, from Goshen (Ind.) College and a Certificate in Theology, 1981, from Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Ind.
Editing projects since 1990 have included about 75 books and workbooks, a church hymnal (for three denominations), a pastors’ manual, a school board’s policy manual, signage for a city bicycle/pedestrian trail, a city newsletter, dozens of brochures, hundreds of school newsletters, websites, political ads and letters, annual reports, résumés, speeches, term papers for college and seminary, catalogs and a master’s thesis in fiction. I am currently writing a book on sports and spirituality.
I work locally and at a distance, doing most of my editing in Microsoft Word, MS Publisher, MS PowerPoint and Adobe Acrobat PDFs (portable document files). Whereas in the early 1990s almost all of my editing/proofing work was hard-copy markups via pen and pencil, now virtually all my work is on the computer screen, utilizing MS Word “tracked changes” and PDF markups. Regarding the latter, CopyProof stays with the client all the way through the design phase to publication.
How CopyProof is worth its salt: A tale of two Dans
