Writing

What I offer

  • Product that is clearly and concisely written and logically organized
  • The ability to write in a variety of styles about almost any subject
  • Specialties include persuasion pieces, analyses, reports, articles and handbooks
  • Existing in-depth knowledge on various areas including sustainability, climate change, history, psychology, planning, policy, local government, public affairs, teaching and travel
  • Wide breadth of knowledge through my voracious reading and research

 

Education

Writing has always come naturally to me but I have worked on honing this talent throughout my education by:

  • Taking specialized writing courses at Yale, including the legendary Daily Themes class in addition to writing in social science and humanities courses
  • Completing Basic Editing and Technical Writing at Simon Fraser University’s Continuing Education program
  • During my Masters degree in community and regional planning, writing short and long analyses, policy analysis, handbooks, reports and my thesis
  • Winning a prize for the best student paper at the conference from the Association of Canadian University Planning Programs for a paper on my thesis research

 

Experience

Both my personal and professional life have also involved a lot of writing, such as:

  • Writing a tutorial for printed circuit board design software while working for a software company
  • Writing rugby game reports for the Simon Fraser University university paper
  • While teaching English in South Korea, writing and editing promotional material for the university and editing my colleagues’ papers
  • Teaching ESL writing classes in Korea, in Vancouver and at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam
  • At the Union of British Columbia Municipalities:
    • co-authoring a 272-page book on the history of the organization
    • Writing analyses, reports, fact sheets, brochures, newsletter articles and much more (including a report that was complimented by the then Premier of the Province)
  • Throughout my moves and travels, writing about my experiences for my friends and family – now on my travel blog
  • Writing a blog at my other business, The Sustainability Shift

 

Some Highlights:

Much of what I’ve written belongs to the organizations for which I was working at the time, but here are some samples of different styles and subjects:

UBCM: The First Century. A 272-page book about the history of the Union of British Columbia Municipalities.

Human Behaviour and Planning. (pdf) Short summary of my thesis research, published in Planning West, September 2005.

Changing Behaviour and Changing the World. (pdf) The 2003 Association of Canadian University Planning Programs  prize winning paper.

Marie. (pdf) My favourite Daily Theme.

The Myrdals. (pdf) A biography of Gunnar and Alva Myrdal written for my Community Development course at SCARP.