About Us
The Company
Write It Well (formerly Advanced Communication Designs, Inc.) was founded in 1980 to help people in the workplace communicate clearly and work together effectively. We provide relevant information, useful techniques, and practical strategies that people can use immediately to improve their business communication skills.
We teach step-by-step writing techniques in our on-site workshops. We develop our business writing books, facilitator kits, and computer-based training programs to make these techniques available to a geographically dispersed audience.
Our blended learning solutions incorporate the best aspects of instructor-led training with the convenience and cost-effectiveness of computer-based learning.
Contact Information
Write It Well, a global communications company, has offices in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Singapore. We’d love to hear from you. To e-mail us, please use this easy online form or call us at (510) 868-3322 or 65 9648 7727.
Our Clients
Our San Francisco Bay Area office services clients in San Francisco, the East Bay, and Silicon Valley as well as clients in other parts of the United States (New York, Philadelphia).
Our Singapore office services clients in Singapore, India, Thailand, Indonesia, the Middle East, and Europe.
Our clients and customers include IKEA, Hewlett-Packard, the City of Palo Alto, Chevron Corporation, Hitachi Data Systems, Granite Construction, National Semiconductor, East Bay Municipal Utility District, Bank of the West, Lumetra Healthcare Consulting, FedEx Corporation, CheckPoint, Equity Risk Partners, Huron Consulting Group, Farm Bureau Financial Services, the Port of Oakland, the University of California, and many other corporations, small businesses, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and educational institutions.
Read case studies about the blended learning programs that Write It Well has recently developed for Berkeley-based Satellite Housing and a Fortune 15 computer manufacturer and distributor.
The People
Natasha Terk, President
Author of Professional Writing Skills: A Write It Well Guide, Writing Performance Reviews: A Write It Well Guide, co-author of The Due Diligence Tool, and contributing editor of E-Mail: A Write It Well Guide, Natasha Terk, president of Write It Well, leads the firm’s business operations and strategy.
A recognized expert on business communication in the workplace, Natasha leads workshops, webinars, and consulting engagements for clients including IKEA, Hitachi Data Systems, Hewlett Packard, Granite Construction, Check Point Software Technologies, and the Port of Oakland. Her focus is on developing job-relevant, engaging training solutions that help people work more effectively and efficiently.
Natasha served as program officer at the Packard Foundation, as a management consultant with La Piana Consulting, and taught Business Writing at the University of California at Berkeley. Natasha holds masters degrees from the University of San Francisco and the University of Manchester, UK.
Program Development and Delivery
Melanie Wise, Trainer, Instructional Designer, Writer, and Editor
Melanie has worked for over a decade as a business writing coach, workshop leader, copywriter, and editor for corporations, nonprofits, and educational institutions.
Melanie draws on years of classroom experience when she designs learning programs and leads training sessions. She holds an MA in English with a Certificate for Teaching Composition from San Francisco State University. In addition to her consulting work, Melanie has been a senior lecturer and master teacher in the Department of English and College of Business at San Francisco State University since 1994.
Hope Timberlake, Trainer
Hope has more than five years’ experience as an executive-level coach for communication skills. In her workshops, she helps busy professionals write and present clearly, concisely, and persuasively.
Hope has facilitated sessions in a variety of industries, including advertising, banking, financial services, technology, and consumer packaged goods. Her clients include Microsoft, Bank of America, Schwab, Clorox, Organic Inc., Brocade Software, and VMware.
Before working as a communication-skills trainer, Hope was a program director at UCSF. At the university, she was responsible for program operations, staffing, fundraising, media outreach, and community collaborations. Hope earned an MA from UC Berkeley in 1999 and earned her BA from Duke in 1994.
When her children were younger, Hope owned and managed Baby Boot Camp franchises in San Francisco and Marin County. She still makes fitness a priority by participating in triathlons, occasionally with her nine-year-old daughter and six-year-old son.
Maura Fogarty, Trainer
Maura is based in Singapore and has 16 years of work experience in Asia, the United States, and the Middle East. She is an experienced reporter, facilitator, and media trainer, and she delivers fast-moving, engaging writing-skills workshops for Write It Well.
Maura worked as an anchor at CNBC before moving to Singapore, where she was a pioneering anchor of Capital Connection, which served as a financial bridge between Europe and Asia. She also anchored the news programs Cash Flow and Asia Market Week. In 2009, she was a finalist in the Best News Anchor category at the Asian Television Awards.
Maura has delivered many media trainings and has interviewed many regional and global political and business leaders, including Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong; U.S. Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice; Thai Prime Ministers Abhisit Vejjajiva and Surayud Chulanont; and business and economic leaders including Larry Summers, George Soros, Michael Eisner, and Steve Forbes.
Maura is fluent in Vietnamese and has an undergraduate degree from Willamette University and a master’s degree from Columbia University.
Roshini Ganesan, Trainer
Roshini is based in Singapore and has facilitated lively, exciting, effective workshops for hundreds of bankers, engineers, and professionals; these workshop participants have represented all levels of the information technology, oil and gas, manufacturing, and engineering fields. During her past decade as a corporate trainer, Roshini has worked in ten countries, including the United States, Singapore, Japan, Australia, India, and Hong Kong. She delivers trainings on business writing for Write It Well audiences.
A lifelong learner, Roshini is a certified facilitator of Michael Losier’s law of attraction (LOA), a master practitioner in neurolinguistic programming (Australasian Institute of NLP), a certified trainer in emotional intelligence (Six Seconds), and an accredited trainer with Think On Your Feet® (Ken Everett International). She has also been instructed in the group-facilitation process of Open Space Technology.
Roshini completed an undergraduate degree in the United Kingdom and an MBA in the United States.
Marya Danihel, Online and On-Site Trainer
Marya has been a creative, clear communicator in business and the arts for more than 20 years. She joined Write It Well in 2011, bringing extensive experience in both on-site and online course design and delivery, as well as a background in journalism and radio and television broadcasting. Her industry experience is unusually broad, encompassing law, finance, government, biotechnology, engineering, and transportation.
Marya is a specialist in strategic business communication. She has helped thousands of people at Fortune 500 companies and major nonprofit institutions craft compelling presentations, proposals, and other crucial business documents. She also has written or edited many articles, scripts, nonfiction books, and newsletters.
A resident of New Hampshire, Marya pursues music and gardening in her spare time. She is the artistic director of Vintage Voices, a vocal trio that performs Victorian popular music. Her weekly radio show, The Gentle Gardener, airs on a local FM station.
Josephine Bellaccomo, Trainer
Author, communications coach, and consultant Josephine Bellaccomo has 16 years’ corporate training and coaching experience. It centers on business writing for impact, pitch consulting and presentation skills, and leadership and management.
Jo’s book Move the Message brings together her passion for social responsibility and her talent as an executive coach. The book focuses on strategic communication skills for nonprofits and individuals creating global or local change. Move the Message was used in the Human Rights Advocacy course at Columbia University’s Graduate School of International and Public Affairs.
In communications consulting, Jo focuses on financial and professional services, technology, advertising, and nonprofit clients. Her clients have included Microsoft, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, KPMG, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, and Ernst & Young.
Jo led professional development and technical training at Microsoft Advertising, directed an extensive training project at NYC’s Human Resources Administration, coached clients at several communication consultancies, and taught writing and literature at Long Island University and other colleges. She earned her BA from the University of San Francisco and her MA from New York University.
Janis Fisher Chan, Instructional Designer, Trainer, and Author
Janis has been developing training programs, writing training materials, and conducting classroom training in business writing and other subjects for more than 25 years. She wrote many of the books in the Write It Well series.
She is also the author of several books and self-study guides on business writing, technical writing, meeting planning, supervising and planning, interpersonal communication, and other topics.
Her American Management Association’s Self-Study Division titles include Managing Your Priorities, Making Successful Presentations, Communication Skills for Managers, 5th ed., and Successful Delegating for Managers. For Jossey Bass-Pfeiffer, she wrote An Academic Manager’s Guide to Meetings, served as developmental editor for The Global Executive Leadership Inventory, and is currently a developmental editor for the highly acclaimed Leadership Challenge series and other publications.
Editing Services
Christopher Disman, Managing Editor
Christopher holds a master’s degree in history and is a published researcher and writer. He is the membership coordinator of the Bay Area Editors’ Forum, and he holds a certificate from UC Berkeley’s Professional Sequence in Editing program. He brings a fresh eye to every text he reviews. He respects a writer’s voice, puts himself in the shoes of the intended audience, and delivers a final document that communicates its message clearly and effectively. He helps organizations and individuals feel proud of the writing they send out.
Christopher has been a developmental editor or copyeditor for books, technical manuals, grant proposals, blog posts, video scripts, newsletters, websites, magazine articles, scholarly articles, biographical essays, travel guides, marketing copy, resumes, organizational correspondence, and a very broad array of business documents. He uses Adobe Captivate to create Write It Well e-learning modules and uses Adobe InDesign CS5.5 to design print- and Web-ready PDFs for our clients.
Business and Operations Management
Kirsten Hosemann, Business and Operations Manager
Kirsten helps the Write It Well team meet the varied needs of our corporate, nonprofit, and government clients around the world. Her extensive experience in customer service and project management comes from more than eight years of dedicated service to the Oakland Unified School District as a parent, PTA Board Member, event organizer, and classroom volunteer. She has two years’ experience as a Human Resources Manager for an Internet company and three years’ experience as a flight attendant and supervisor for United Airlines.
Kirsten holds a BA in American Studies from Yale University. She lives in Oakland, CA, with her husband and two boys. She spends most of her time at soccer games, quilting, or reading.
