Introductions matter. When it comes to gentle editing, a favorite approach of mine is to maintain the tone and integrity of the original writing, but to frame it with a compelling introduction that will draw readers in. 

For the blog below, written by a staff scientist, I wanted the main article to keep its scientific tone—it was written, after all, by a scientist—but I re-wrote the introduction so that readers could relate better to the person telling the story. Notice how both the new title and opening (right) draw the viewer in compared to the original draft (left)?

As a child, did you curl up by the fire and say "Grandpa, tell me a fact?" The truth is, we are built to respond to stories, and science contains all the right seeds for rich storytelling. My job is to root through the information for surprises and connections that will help people fall in love with a process, a person, a project, or an idea. 

For this spotlight on a marine reserve for a website, I used a 97-page technical dossier as my reference material to write several short paragraphs that illuminated what made the marine reserve special, from ecological and cultural standpoints. I supplemented my research by pulling up photographs and videos of the species mentioned in the dossier, so that I could highlight individual species accurately and vividly.

I take complex topics and dense material and trim them into a few short breaths of information.  

To write the scripts for the above videos, I pulled information from the organization’s web pages and deep backlog of blogs in order to understand the gist of their major programs (the Marine Protection Atlas and Blue Parks). External research helped me better understand how these programs mesh with larger issues (Blue Carbon, inconsistencies in MPA reporting, etc.). 

In the special report below, I distilled each research-heavy "Hot Spot" chapter into an italicized introductory paragraph that succinctly summarized the most compelling elements of each section.

I edit existing press releases and I write my own, in addition to pitching and writing Op-Eds about topics of special relevance to an organization or company. 

Many edits simply call for grammatical consistency or compressing long sentences or weighty paragraphs, but for clients who are open to heavier overhauls, I’m skilled at saving the “skeleton” of a piece—the major points, the science involved, the heart of an argument—but reworking it at linguistic and structural levels to convey those points more viscerally.

In the above example, I took a heavy editing hand—I condensed sentences so that the language that remained felt more powerful; I slashed jargon; and I looked for places to bring sensory details into the topic at hand. 

I take longer articles and tricky scientific ideas and condense them into 2-3 sentences blurbs that capture what’s compelling about the topic.

Whether writing for press or for internal use, I find imaginative angles for connecting the core mission of a company or organization to a wider audience than they might ordinarily reach.

In the above examples, both blogs here were written for a marine conservation organization, but I chose angles that would draws clicks from readers outside of their usual audience, aiming to attract birders, surfers, and readers interested in California wildfire news.

I write advocacy campaigns and edit petitions.

I am available for audio work, from voiceover to narrating podcasts.

From linking big-picture ideas to unifying tone across multiple authors, I can stitch together large reports that reveal progress and inspire buy-in.

For the above annual report, I honed the President’s introductory letter to be concise, personable, and urgent. I began by collecting bullet points from the organization’s different programs, and I expanded on them to tell the story of each program through a different lens (i.e. choosing “connectivity” as a theme to tie together the accomplishments of Marine Protection Atlas program, or “new protections” as an umbrella for describing strides across diverse arenas, from Blue Parks to High Seas advocacy--see below).

I design fundraising strategies and craft the language for donor email campaigns, from highlighting wildlife and personal interest stories to spotlighting accomplishments that an organization has achieved.