Copywriting, editing and proofing
Some people excel at running or building houses or looking after children. My thing is writing, and making sure that other people's writing is accurate and readable. Good copy, well presented, can be vital to helping enterprises and organisations to communicate their goals, attract customers and inform debate.
I've commissioned, researched, written and edited text for magazines, briefing reports, websites, leaflets, adverts, press releases and funding bids. See the links below for some examples.
Because I want any community group, campaign organisation or social enterprise that might find these services useful to be able to access them, I operate a sliding scale of charges. Please contact me for more information.
Network for Social Change
Editing the Network for Social Change's updated website in May 2007 simply involved spotting spelling and punctuation errors and checking for minor factual mistakes or inconsistencies. thenetworkforsocialchange.org.uk
Pursuits of Youth: a briefing paper for Renew North-West
This briefing paper on the subject of best practice in youth consultation during regeneration projects, focused on the experiences of young people and their support agencies in Carlisle. Writing it involved interviewing teenagers in Cumbria, as well as council staff and youth workers. download pdf
Enterprising
The networks behind Enterprising, the quarterly magazine for Manchester's social enterprise sector, wanted to hand over the task of centrally editing and producing the magazine. I worked with Manchester Social Enterprise Forum to find regionally relevant and interesting topics for the new issue, identify and commission authors, source suitable images and sub-edit the magazine - all at the lowest possible cost! togetherworks.org.uk
ESF E-library
The European Social Forum E-Library brings together academic and activist articles on the ESFs which have taken place in several European cities in recent years, and social and environmental movements. The basic website text was written by several people for whom English was a second language, so my task was to proof it to improve the standard of English and make it more readable and comprehensible. I also helped to edit some of the site's articles. euromovements.info
Olive Co-operative
I've written website copy, leaflet text and press releases regularly for this Manchester-based social enterprise, publicising its educational tours to Palestine and Israel and fairly traded Palestinian products. olivecoop.com
Red Pepper and Peace News
As the editor of the Review section of Red Pepper magazine from March 2006 to August 2007, my tasks included selecting and researching interesting left-wing and environmental arts and books for coverage, commissioning arts features and reviews of books and art events, and editing received copy for style and content. I also edited the book reviews section at Peace News between 2004 and 2007. redpepper.org.uk and peacenews.info
Boycott Bush
In 2007 I was commissioned to edit and update the text for this campaign website and to research the companies named on the site, ensuring that the choices for a boycott of major US Republican Party donors over the refusal of the USA to act on climate change were still accurate. boycottbush.net