Author
Literary Scholar, Lecturer, public reader;
Teacher, educational consultant, word crafter.

                            ...Celebrating the written word

Workplace Literacy

Is writing a problem at your workplace, recognized or not? Do you have employees or co-workers who falter when facing the task of preparing a report, composing a memo, producing copy to promote a product or a service, or simply writing an email message? Worse still, does your business or agency experience the embarrassment of posting a document containing mistakes or lacking directness? If so, I can help.

I will show you and your associates how to approach writing as more than a mechanical process demanding only correctness. Instead, treat it as the beginning of an actual dialogue where the a real voice approaches a reader like conversation. I can also demonstrate how good writing and clear thinking are linked with careful reading, so that your target audience feels thoughtfully engaged when you reach out in print.

The service I offer will begin with an assessment of your writing needs and an examination of the writing your agency has produced. From there I will prepare to meet with your associates for group sessions and/or work one on one with individuals in person or online. If you like, I can edit items or hold meetings to explain the editing process to members of your staff. I will not bring a ready made procedure to your office; instead I will tailor what I say and do to your particular situation—all with the idea that writing is not a task to face or a chore to be overcome, but the act of speaking out in print so that those who read what you put on paper or a screen will not only hear but listen.

I bring over forty years of experience as a well-published writer, as an English professor, as an enthusiastic teacher of remedial and developmental reading and
writing, and as an advocate of literary awareness. Although I know it requires hard work, I take pleasure in choosing words, building sentences and assembling written statements that tap a reader on the shoulder to get attention. Others should, too, and I can show them how.

SAMPLE TOPICS

Getting the most out of a dictionary

The basic sentence

Building paragraphs and longer units

Brainstorming for ideas alone or with others

Establishing unity and applying logic

Developing a point

Persuading with specifics

Using figures of speech

Correctness as something to apply rather than a list of rules

What writers should read and why

Email etiquette

Applying principles of poetry to effective writing (don’t cringe!)