NOTE: If you’re evaluating me for an editor position, you’ll find some samples may not adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style, due to client house style differences (and personally, I prefer to use CMOS for everything except numbers).

NOTE 2: I’m rebuilding my site after a hack so if keep that in mind if you peruse the rest of the site.

Content Strategy: Style Guides

Editorial Style Guide

Friendly Writing Guidelines

After working with a team to audit and condense an 1800-page legacy website for a utility company (hadn’t been updated since the late 90s), I authored a “friendly writing” guide to teach the company’s writers to update the site content to be friendlier (both to readers and to SEO).

Content Strategy: Process Improvements

Documentation Content Review Process Improvement

In many companies I come into, there is a content review process that isn’t well defined. Having standards spelled out gets everyone on the same page, and make onboarding new employees easier. Here’s a presentation I wrote to address such a situation, and suggest improvements.

Documentation Content Review Process Improvement (Presentation)

Content Strategy: Audit Findings

Content Audit Findings (Sapient)

My team and I did a content audit of an 1800-page utility company site that hadn’t been updated since the 1990s. This is a sample from the presentation I wrote that summarized the findings.

UX & Social Media Audit Findings (TEN7)

Sample of a UX audit of a wedding website.

Writing: Policies | Onboarding | Operations | Process

Copy Editor Onboarding

I worked at a startup publisher that hadn’t set proper expectations for their new copy editors. I asked a LOT of questions, and then wrote up this onboarding document to explain the expectations to new copy editors (so THEY didn’t have to ask a lot of questions).

Contractor Onboarding Redo

When you’re a contractor, the most important things you want to know are How do I submit my time and How do I get paid. I edited and rewrote a client’s onboarding manual to make sure this information was front and center. This is a before and after document.

E-commerce Policies

These are documents I authored for a pool table company. I wish their site design had more gravitas, as this is good content!

Contract Example

This is a very thorough contract I authored for my ghostwriting services. I added information to cover every situation I’d previously dealt with.

Writing: Technical Writing

Data Sheets | Sales Sheets

Data sheets written to support a company selling digital billboards in NYC. (Note: I was working without a graphic designer, and DAMMIT JIM, I’M A WRITER, NOT A GRAPHIC DESIGNER so the design could be better.)

Software User Guides

These are guides that support software for digital billboards.

Writing: Content Writing

Web Content

Some blog posts and case studies written for various clients (most ghostwritten for CEOs).

Product Copy & Informational Content

I was hired to do some light product copy updates for a billiards company. I standardized the product descriptions for their pool tables and furniture, then moved on to improve their supplemental content (how to buy a table, warranty information, pool table installation, etc.)

Travel Writing

From a series of travel tips for the now defunct parkrideflyusa.com blog.

Editing: Nonfiction Books

I offer editorial services for nonfiction books including developmental, line, and copy editing. I edited nonfiction books for Chronicle Books, Scribe Media, and private authors (some shown below).

Manuscript Editing Examples

NOTE: These samples are in Microsoft Word to preserve comments

Writing: Personal Writing

Sleep Apnea Content

I was recently diagnosed with severe sleep apnea and I experienced poor communication about the process of CPAP treatment. So I’m writing up everything I wish I’d been told.

Reviews & Social Media

NOTE: There might be some swears

The Most Complete Apartment Ad Ever

I find most apartment rental ads woefully inadequate. So when I was trying to find a subletter for one of my apartments, I decided to write the best apartment ad in the history of apartment ads.

World’s Most Complete Apartment Ad