Editing

"It's written, but it just doesn't work."

Business Messaging
Businesses sometimes provide their readers too much information and expect them to sort it out for themselves. Readers hate that—they have enough to pay attention to. So when you have a point to make, I can help you be precise.

BEFORE
Since its incorporation in 1990, the City
of SeaTac has struggled in the regional business and development community to distinguish itself outside of the identity of the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
At different times, the City has used the tagline "The Hospitality City" and attempted to brand itself "SeaTac City." Due to the current favorable real estate market conditions and arrival of Sound Transit's "Link" light rail in 2009, the City has seen increased interest from the business and development community.

In order to take advantage of some of
these future opportunities, the SeaTac
City Council appropriated $18.3 million in development incentives to catalyze mixed-use development on International Boulevard (Hwy-99) within the City. SeaTac also initiated an extensive Station Area Planning effort to take advantage of future light rail stations on International Boulevard at 154th Street and 176th Street through transit oriented development opportunities and significant investments in infrastructure to encourage redevelopment. Studies we also initiated to explore the viability and the techniques used to create a vibrant, visitor friendly entertainment district in the 176th Street station area. City leaders believed that the timing was appropriate to take advantage of this positive momentum in creating an enhanced identity for the City of SeaTac.

AFTER
Incorporated in 1990, the City of SeaTac has struggled to distinguish itself from simply being home to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. In 2007, favorable real estate market conditions and the pending arrival of Sound Transit's "Link" light rail in 2009 increased interest in the area by the business and development community.

The SeaTac City Council responded by appropriating $18.3 million in incentives to catalyze mixed-use development on International Boulevard (Hwy 99), a major route through the city. Further efforts sought to take advantage of future light rail stations through transit-oriented development opportunities and significant investments in infrastructure, and to explore the viability of a vibrant, visitor-friendly entertainment district.



Multi-person Projects
After completing a huge redesign and rebrand of interiors and signage for Office Depot, the hired agency compiled a handbook of brand guidelines and engineering specs that exceeded 70 pages. Written by many industry professionals—none of them writers—the handbook needed to be completely revised to achieve clarity and consistency: naming, phrasing, vocabulary, type styles, font colors, capitalization, the shape and size of indicational arrows, and even whether to use a capital X, lowercase x, or multiplication sign (×) in measurements.



Business Proposals
You want to look your best when courting a prospective client. But, too often, project proposals are an amalgam of past proposals to different companies, industry details that have been cut-and-pasted from other sources, and company info—corporate history, bios, case studies—that no one's bothered to read for months or even years. Unchecked, what was supposed to be a targeted, effective presentation ends up looking like Frankenstein's monster.



Essays, Articles, White Papers, Presentations
Business professionals are asked to submit articles, essays, and papers, and to give public presentations, because they are experts in their field, not because they're writers. While you would know best what to say,
I can help you say it clearly and effectively—particularly for general audiences. I've edited papers and presentations on dozens of topics,
from corporate branding, physics, economics, and school administration
to ATM technology, violas, the socio-economic history of Native Americans—even editing.