Write It Well

Writing and Editing Services

Click here to view this overview of Write It Well Services as an interactive PDF.

Click here to read a case study on a Write It Well editing and layout project for UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

On this page, you’ll learn about five related Write It Well services:

• Editing documents you’ve already written so your readers will find them clear, concise, and engaging
• Writing documents that effectively deliver your message
• Compiling style guides to help everyone at your organization write consistently professional documents
• Creating exemplary documents that members of your organization can use as templates
• Laying out your documents in Adobe InDesign as print- or Web-ready PDFs

Editing Services

When you have a message but aren’t sure how you’d like to phrase it, Write It Well can help. Or if you’ve already written a document but don’t have the time to polish it, just send it to us.

When you send a document to Write It Well for editing, we put ourselves in the shoes of both you and your readers. We’ll make sure your prose represents you well before you print it, send it, or post it to the Web.

We ensure that meanings are clear and that the language is concise – saving time for your busy readers. We also work to ensure that sentences and paragraphs flow smoothly so that readers will find your document easy to follow – whether it’s a three-paragraph blog post or 300-page book.

Here’s a sample of a typical paragraph before and after Write It Well’s editing suggestions:

Before:

A level of reliability and robustness has been demonstrated by these open-source programs under fast changing conditions (including a huge and rapid increase in the Internet’s size) that, considered against the performance record of even the best closed commercial software, is nothing short of astonishing.

After:

These open-source programs have demonstrated that they are reliable and robust under fast-changing conditions — including a huge and rapid expansion of the Internet. Considered against the performance record of even the best closed-source commercial software, this fact is nothing short of astonishing.

(Both these sentences are adapted from the Open Source Initiative’s Creative Commons–licensed article “Open Source Case for Business: Advocacy.”)

Writing Services

Write It Well works with clients at all stages of a document’s evolution. We help you expand an evolving idea into a solidly planned document that delivers a message effectively. We also edit documents you’ve already written.

We’re equally at home with technical writing and marketing copy. We’ll listen as you explain the messages you need to communicate in anything from a short blog post to a 500-page report. We’ll identify core themes, plan the document’s structure, and draft language that’s true to your voice.

Exemplary Documents

Write It Well partners closely with managers and stakeholders to create exemplary documents – model examples of a type of document that many people need to write. Employees then have a template for their own writing.

Exemplary documents can save an organization a great deal of writing time. These Write It Well deliverables help you decide what kinds of writing represent your organization best, and they offer ways for all the organization’s writers to stay on the same page.

Style Guides

Style guides are collections of guidelines that all the members of an organization follow. The guidelines help a small or large group of people present a coherent image through all outgoing documents.

Style guides can include visual guidelines (e.g., for using a company’s logo) and editorial guidelines (e.g., for basic punctuation rules). A style guide can help everyone meet minimum standards for correct writing. Style guides can also establish standardized language to refer to products, processes, or services – facilitating consistent communication. These benefits apply across divisions, offices, and regions.

Let Write It Well help your organization develop a style guide so that all your employees grasp fundamental writing principles and represent you well through all the writing they do for work.

PDF Layout

Write It Well uses Adobe InDesign CS5 to lay out print- and Web-ready PDFs. Just send us your preferred colors and Mac-compatible fonts, and tell us what kind of document you need. We’ll prepare your newsletter, brochure, posters, report, technical manual, or crisply designed book. We’ll make sure the document’s design represents your organization as well as its language does.

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TESTIMONIALS

Here’s what our clients say about our editing and writing services:

“… I was extremely pleased with the editing services provided by the Write It Well team and found their comments valuable.  In particular, I was impressed by their ability to quickly understand our business such that suggested edits were made in the context of our industry terminology and intended message to clients.”

— Gabe Levitt, Equity Risk Partners

“I was impressed by Write It Well’s ability to get up to speed quickly and immediately grasp the purpose and interrelationship of a broad array documents we were working on.  Natasha and her team streamlined and added polish to our writing while respecting each author’s voice and talents.”

— Chris Veber, Equity Risk Partners

“I contracted with Write It Well to review my entire website, and liked what they did for me. Now I ask them to review all my blogs and articles.”

— John Mathis, Keyline Company

“Thank you for the very nice work. It looks great!”

— Michel Sagredo, Director of Safety, Plant Construction.

Interested in our services? Please complete the form below and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.  We’d love to hear about your project!

Here are just some of the types of documents we’ve worked on recently: