About Jon

Jon Peirce, Ph.D. (English literature),
M.I.R. (Industrial Relations)

I’ve been writing for practically my whole life. In high school, I launched and for four years singlehandedly produced a weekly debate society review. In college, I was a reporter and assistant editor for the school paper. My first job after graduation was as a reporter for the Springfield (MA) Union. Later, I would serve as editor of the Amherst (NS) Daily News. Later still, when I started working for the government, writing was a key part of my job as a researcher for the Economic Council and as research director for the Fryer Commission.

I’ve also had a long career as a free-lance writer, starting in 1981 with the Kingston Whig-Standard and continuing for more than 30 years, with over 200 articles appearing in such publications as The Globe & Mail, Ottawa Citizen, Toronto Star, Books in Canada, Canadian Forum, Christian Science Monitor, Winnipeg Free Press, and Halifax Chronicle-Herald, as well as in three Chicken Soup anthologies. More recently I have turned to book writing. My industrial relations textbook, Canadian Industrial Relations, ran to three editions with Pearson Education Canada. I’m also the author of an essay collection, Social Studies, published by Friesen Press in 2014, and a novella, Love and Love, published on Amazon in 2018.

My experience as a writing teacher and mentor is almost equally extensive. I taught my first writing course at Laurentian University even before I’d finished my Ph.D. in English for Dalhousie. Later, I would go on to teach writing and literature at Susquehanna University and Central College in the U.S., and then at Queen’s University. Later still, I would teach a wide variety of writing and editing courses for Ottawa Independent Writers and, most recently, the Nova Scotia Seniors’ College. Some of my personal favourites include “Getting Started with Writing,” “The Writer’s Toolkit,” “Writing about Work,” and “Editing Made (Almost) Painless.”

In 1990, I launched my consulting company, Jon Peirce Editorial Services, through which I’ve continued to offer mentoring and guidance to writers in all genres and at many different levels to this day.

I’ve been a member of Ottawa Independent Writers (click to visit OIW) since 1997, serving for nearly a decade on the board and for two years (2000-2) as president. I have also been a Writers’ Council (professional) member of the Writers Federation of Nova Scotia (click to visit WFNS) since 2011.

There aren’t many writing situations I haven’t faced, after more than five decades as a practicing writer and three decades as a mentor and consultant. Whether you’re just starting out as a writer or are working on your fourth or fifth novel or non-fiction book, I’d be happy to share my experience and insights with you.

In my consulting practice, my primary aim is to teach writers how to organize, structure, and edit their own work rather than have me do the job for them. To this end, I urge you to pay particularly close attention to the pages on Initial Project Evaluation and Big Picture Manuscript Evaluation. Using these services early on in your project could wind up saving you a lot of time, money, and energy down the road. And if you’re not sure what your writing voice sounds like, you might like to consider my new service, Edit By Phone. Drawing on my experience as an actor, as well as a writer and editor, this new service will help you train your ear and, in time, can help show you what your writing voice sounds like.

Please contact me for more information about the services I offer, or to discuss rates. Meanwhile, best of luck to you with your writing, whatever you may happen to be working on at the moment.