What follows is a small selection from hundreds of pieces I‘ve written during more than 20 years in business communications. I have included case summaries to give you an idea of the context surrounding each project.

I have a traditional portfolio that I can present and am happy to send clips from other projects.

My Approach

While I specialize in writing for large corporations, the number of industries and subjects I have covered is broad. Give this profession enough of your years, and you develop an instinct for what each project requires. I have developed a set of principles and techniques that allow me to write in a wide variety of formats, learn complex subject matter quickly and transform information to suit each audience.

Feature articles may stretch to several thousand words, but they must be focused and well organized. Newsletter stories should support company initiatives while respecting readers‘ limited time. Marketing pieces are usually team projects that combine strategy, graphic design and an understanding of what the client company and customer are all about. Web site copy should be chunked for skimmers, hit on salient points and dive more deeply for researchers looking for details. Other forms, such as fact sheets and direct mail, often encapsulate what the client has established elsewhere while using choice words to grab readers‘ attention.

Feature articles

Are You More Capable than your Competitors are Ruthless?

Client: A.T. Kearney (an international consulting firm)

Audience: C-level executives of U.S. and multinational companies

Purpose: Published in the firm‘s magazine, Executive Agenda, and on their Web site, the article showcases the firm‘s knowledge of corporate competitiveness and presents an approach for outwitting current and potential competitors. I was the ghostwriter on this piece, which is a sales tool that consultants can use to help win new business. I have produced a number of articles and white papers for this firm on subjects including IT governance, big-box retail in developing countries, green IT and the oil industry.

Newsletters

Illuminations, Spring 2007

Client: CB Richard Ellis and the property they manage, 311 South Wacker Drive, Chicago

Audience: Building tenants, their guests and families, and potential tenants

Purpose: I have written all of the copy for this biannual newsletter since it was founded. Using a style and tone that is energetic but professional, the stories announce new amenities, building-wide projects and events, and thank the tenants of this landmark Class A office high-rise for continuing to reside in the building.

Marketing brochures

Corporate brochure

Client: FTI Consulting and LEC Ltd. (a Chicago-based marketing firm)

Audience: CEOs, boards of directors, corporate counsel, law firms, government agencies

Purpose: I have been the lead writer on a team that is developing a series of marketing pieces for FTI, an international consulting firm. The project entails understanding forensic and litigation consulting, FTI‘s technology and their specialized services. I developed copy suitable to the project‘s graphic design and adapted the firm‘s message points for each piece, including this corporate brochure, which provides an overarching description of the firm and its services. The project has entailed working with a marketing firm and their client and has involved strict deadlines and numerous drafts that had to incorporate input from many sources.

Services brochure

Client: FTI Consulting and LEC Ltd.

Audience: CEOs, boards of directors, corporate counsel and law firms

Purpose: This piece describes the services of FTI‘s forensic and litigation consulting practice. One of the project‘s most challenging aspects was explaining very complex business issues and services in language that is as focused and compelling as possible.

Web-site content

Client: LessonLab/Pearson Education

Audience: Primary and secondary teachers and administrators

Purpose: I wrote the copy for nearly every page of this Web site, converting flatter descriptive language to more persuasive sales-oriented copy. Messages had to be spare and organized hierarchically. The tone had to appeal to busy teachers who need graduate education to move forward in their careers, as well as school-district officials who want to provide cost-effective and timely courses that help their educators address the latest teaching demands. As with most of the Internet and intranet writing I have done, there were lots of “moving parts” and deadlines to manage with this project.

USG Corporation

EIFS product home page/e-newsletter

Tim Carter Q&A

Client: USG Corporation

Audience: Contractors, architects, building owners, media

Purpose: To promote the company‘s exterior insulation and finishing systems (EIFS), also known as synthetic stucco, along with various issues related to this type of sheathing that were foremost in the minds of builders at the time. I worked for many years as part of the USG product-marketing team and was an expert on many of their product lines. As a freelancer, I often traveled for this client to building sites and meetings across the country. For this Web site, I adapted trade articles, study results, Q&As, press releases and fact sheets that I had previously written for USG.

Special publications

Money Matters

Client: Classic Residence by Hyatt

Audience: Prospective residents and their families

Purpose: To educate consumers on retirement-living options and the associated costs and to promote the advantages of living at a Classic Residence by Hyatt community. I researched, developed and wrote nearly all the copy for this piece, which Hyatt features on their Web site and mails to prospects nationwide. I also have written many newsletters, direct mail and ads for this company.

White papers

Offshoring for Long-Term Advantage

Client: A.T. Kearney

Audience: C-level executives and managers of international operations

Purpose: This white paper announces the results of an annual survey from A.T. Kearney about relocating corporate services around the world, especially in developing countries. The challenge was to give the results a timely angle to emphasize the annual survey‘s continued importance and the firm‘s offshoring expertise.

Fact sheets

FTI fact sheet

Client: FTI Consulting and LEC Ltd.

Audience: CEOs, boards of directors, corporate counsel, law firms

Purpose: I helped develop this piece as part of a series of marketing pieces for FTI. The client developed the “atom” concept, and I wrote copy to reflect this approach to describing the firm‘s interrelated practices. I also have written fact sheets for other clients to summarize products, services and industry issues.