I love words. Words are wrappers of meaning, and when craftily brought alongside other words, they can inspire profound thought and feeling. And when these collections of words are conveyed through an engaging medium — whether that’s a well-enunciated speech or a cleverly designed website — these wrappers of meaning can become invigorating.
That’s what I’m about: Carefully bringing words together and presenting them in an engaging and easily digestible way, a way that serves the needs of the client and meets the needs of their audience.
From 2005 through 2010, as editor of Focus on the Family’s online magazine for young adults, I had been involved in a whole range of wordsmithing. I collaborated with dozens of authors to develop their themes and to refine their drafts. Over the past few years, I was responsible for editing and publishing over 1,000 articles (a new one every weekday), along with creating the artwork accompanying each piece. (I’ve included samples of article artwork here.) I’ve also written hundreds of enewsletter editorials and over 800 blog posts.
The kind words of my readers, authors and peers tell me that the efforts have been fruitful.
I’ve been intentional in developing my editorial skills. During my undergraduate studies, I enjoyed classes in literature (Shakespeare, American lit, Golden Age Spanish lit, British lit), journalism, textual analysis and criticism, philosophy, and the history of the English language. For several years, I served as a journalist, columnist and news editor for the campus newspaper; I also served as a correspondent with the city newspaper, breaking a story that made national news.
During my days in grad school, I enjoyed courses in communication (cross-cultural/intercultural, linguistics, communication theory and ethics, conflict resolution, journalism, magazine editing), research (audience analysis, research design), and education (philosophy of education, developmental psychology, curriculum design and testing, TESOL, teaching character development, second language acquisition). For several years, I served as editor and alumnus adviser of the student newspaper. I also interned for a couple of months in Colombia, helping a Bogotá-based non-profit organization further develop its widely distributed publication, Desafío.
I continue to enjoy pondering the craft of good writing, whether it’s found in the words of my authors or in the Word of God. It’s my intention that the words that pass through my fingers become words of life to my readers.