Carpenter Document Consulting

Though the bulk of our freelance workload comes from clients needing an editor, Carpenter Document Consulting offers freelance writing services as well. My academic background is in writing, with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a graduate certificate in professional writing. In recent years, I have started working with a number of online clients to produce web-specific content. My work can be found on eHow, LIVESTRONG, The Houston Chronicle, AOL/The Huffington Post/MapQuest, and Hidden Valley. I continue to pursue freelance writing work and can develop a variety of content for private clients, including the following:

• Informational articles. Want to add some interesting content to your website? Let me write it for you. I can research the topic and produce a high-quality article for your site.
• Website text. Not sure how to handle that “About” page on your website? Send me your credentials, and I will write your website text. Your website is the first impression that potential clients and customers have of your business, so it is important that your text is professional, well-written, and easy to comprehend.
• Blog posts. Do you have a blog for your business? I can create posts for your blog that will increase traffic and expand your reach on the web.
• Marketing collateral. Are you creating a brochure, for example, for your business? Let me write the text for you!
• Job search documents. Have a resume that needs updating or a cover letter that needs to fit a specific job? I can help.
• Social media content. Do you have a Facebook page or Twitter feed for your business but you aren’t sure how to use it? I can manage the site to maximize its effectiveness.

Note that we do not write academic papers. Most of our editing work comes from students, but I do not write papers for them. I enjoy editing academic papers for grammar, spelling, punctuation, flow, consistency, cohesion, and style, but I do not rewrite content. I will make suggestions if a sentence is structured awkwardly or is difficult to follow, but I leave the content to the expert: the student.

Stay tuned for some writing samples in an upcoming blog post!

As is often the case with a new year, I have been reflecting on the past, including Carpenter Doc’s successful 2011, slightly in awe of how far we’ve come in just three years since we launched the website. Carpenter Doc started as a part-time gig as I worked full time as a technical writer/editor and studied professional writing at UCF. I was doing freelance editing for a few clients that I met at UCF and thought that a space on the web would make me more accessible for those clients — and hopefully others.

When life sent us to Lexington, Kentucky in 2009, I decided to give full-time freelance editing a try. Thanks to a few partnerships with colleges and a committed and reliable client base that continues to refer us to colleagues and friends, Carpenter Doc has blossomed. Every year, we have broadened our services and our reach, and we aim to expand even further in the coming year. The need for an editor extends beyond the traditional book or journal article. Students, web designers, and business professionals creating a presentation or marketing brochure can improve their work with an editor’s help. It is our goal at Carpenter Doc to show our potential clients that benefit and encourage them to work with us. A diverse project base established by clients from different academic and professional backgrounds results in rewarding and satisfying work.

Although editing is our focus, I’ve found a niche in freelance web writing as well. I produce articles for a number of websites, including AOL and The Huffington Post family of websites. I look forward to exploring these opportunities further in the new year and continuing to add high-quality content to the web. Finally, I plan to dedicate more time to this blog; I have a list of topics that come to mind as I write and edit, and I look forward to sharing more writing and editing tips with you this year.

Welcome to 2012!

Looking for something to do to ring in 2012? Check out NewYearsQuest, a special MapQuest assignment that I have been working on. These city and state guides give a glimpse into New Year’s Eve happenings across the country.

Here are my guides:

• Tennessee
• North Carolina
• Arizona

However you celebrate the new year, be safe, and enjoy!

I’m excited to share some of my freelance writing and editing work today to get you in the Halloween spirit! I worked on a series of Halloween articles for a special MapQuest series called FrightQuest. These interactive articles identify three Halloween events or attractions in a state or large metro area, linking to their location on a map so that you can see how close you are to a spook-filled time.

Visit the FrightQuest homepage so that you can plan out your Halloween weekend.

Happy Halloween!

In February, we shared some business websites don’ts with you. Well, I keep coming across business websites in desperate need of an editor, so I thought I’d discuss this topic again. If you follow us on Facebook (and if you don’t, please start!), you know that we often share some of the typo-ridden, offensively phrased items we find on the web. My current favorite is actually a local editing service, just like Carpenter Doc, except its website features some serious issues:

This website is a perfect example of why businesses should use an editor for their website text. Now, in this case, the blatant typos, misspellings, and grammatical errors are particularly disturbing since this company is touting itself as a professional editing service. Ha! But, looking beyond that, a typo-ridden website is simply sloppy. If you don’t take the time to present yourself professionally on your website, why would I want to do business with you?

Web editing is something that I really enjoy, and it’s typically a fast and easy editing job, meaning it is budget friendly! If your site is already published, just send me the link, and I’ll go through the site page by page. I’ll send you detailed suggestions for text revisions, and I can also address the site’s functionality and readability as well. Contact me today!

I have been auditing travel articles for a client, making sure the content is current and up to the client’s standards. As I audited 400 articles in January alone, I have had to navigate through thousands of business websites, some of which are downright bad. In fact, a couple were so bad that I had to capture the errors.

First, I came across a website for an RV park that inexplicably uses a mascot named “Boo Boo Kitty” to walk the readers through the website text. The website did make me laugh out loud, but it’s hardly professional.

Next, I noticed a typo-ridden pet policy on a national hotel chain’s website. Text this sloppy is simply lazy and unprofessional.

So, what’s the lesson here? Value your business’ website text. Focus on crisp, engaging, and professional language that readers can easily understand. Avoid gimmicks like Boo Boo Kitty, and proofread. Or, have us do it for you!

For better or worse, the Internet has made everyone a writer. People communicate on social networking sites, try to be clever in 140 words or fewer, and blog. We’ve talked about writing for the web before, so today, we’re going to focus on formatting your blog.

Many formatting decisions depend on your blog’s theme. A business-related blog often looks much like the company’s website, like ours. A personal blog gives you more freedom to be creative, but it’s still important to apply consistent formatting to help your readers navigate through your posts.

Here are a few formatting tips for blogs:

Include a succinct title for each post

Just like a headline in a newspaper, the post title should draw your reader in and give them a sense of what your post is about.

Choose one emphasis style

If you want to emphasize a word or phrase, use italics, bold it, underline it or highlight it—your choice. But, don’t bold an important phrase in the first paragraph and italicize for emphasis in the second. And, certainly don’t bold, italicize, and underline one word. That’s a bit of emphasis overload.

Don’t overformat

Blogging platforms give you access to a variety of formatting tools—you can add color, pictures, fonts, and more. Stick to a few reliable formatting styles, and use them consistently. Too many colors, pictures and fonts will simply confuse your readers and ultimately detract from your content.