Subject: Experienced Web Copywriter |
From: "Barrett Brown" <barriticus@gmail.com> |
Date: 10/29/08, 10:43 |
To: wssm_manager@hotmail.com |
Sirs-
I understand that you're looking for someone to write layman-friendly article summaries for your dental practice, and I'd like to be considered. I've served as a freelance copywriter for several marketing and ad agencies as well as for my own clients, and my other work has appeared in dozens of publications covering a wide range of topics. I'm also the author of a very well-received book dealing with the philosophy of science; it was released last year.
Along with my resume, I've provided a couple of samples; the second is probably most relevant to this job insomuch as that it involves a plain-language restatement of fairly new scientific applications. Please take a look and let me know if you'd like to discuss this further.
Thanks,
Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302
BarrettBrown________________barriticus@gmail.com
Copywriter/ Feature Columnist/ Contributing Editor/ Book Author
With focus on political satire, policy analysis and contemporary humor.
Published Work/ Freelance Media Experience:
Enlighten the Vote Currently serve as director of communications for New Jersey-based political action committee founded in 2005 and concerned with advocacy of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. 2008 present
S.K. Oil and Gas Currently serve as copywriter for Dallas-based energy finance firm. 2008 present.
Texodus Media Currently serve as copywriter and marketing consultant for Brooklyn-based production firm specializing in marketing and game development. 2008 present.
Studio 2a Currently serve as marketing consultant for Chicago-based architectural rendering firm, handling all sales letters, marketing copy, and long-term branding strategies. 2007 present.
PoliticalBase.com Created content and served as paid blogger for online political news start-up founded by CNET. 2007-2008.
Fox Business Channel, Yahoo, Minyanville.com Writer on freelance creative team for animated humor series Minyanville, which aired on Fox Business Channel's Happy Hour program as well as on Yahoo Finance. 2007
The Onion A/V Club - Freelance copywriting for The Onion's features department. 2006-2008.
Sterling and Ross Publishers Authored nonfiction book of political humor, Flock of Dodos: Behind Modern Creationism, Intelligent Design, and the Easter Bunny, released in March 2007. Book received praise from Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, Rolling Stone, Skeptic, Air America Radio, Huffington Post, others.
Anglesey Interactive, Inc. Produced online marketing collateral (web text, press releases, blogging, etc.) in support of firm's "" integrated search engine from June 2007 to March 2008 Riight.com
Dining Out - Feature writing for national restaurant publication. 2006-2008
National Lampoon - Occasional contributor; past features included "Pick-Up Lines That Don't Seem to Work," "Craig's Conspiracy Corner," "A Guide to Dealing with Housecats," more. 2003 2006
Sullivan Perkins Served as junior copywriter at Dallas-based advertising firm. 2003.
Evote.com - Weekly columnist and feature writer for political analysis site from October 2004 to November 2005.
AOL CityGuide - Web content writer from 2000 to 2004 Researched/ created coverage of event and entertainment venues. Served as regional correspondent for Dallas, Austin, New Orleans, Houston and Little Rock markets.
Additional magazine work - Ongoing, have contributed feature articles from serious political commentary to humor pieces to fine dining overviews for outlets including business-to-business publications Pizza Today, 360, Club Systems International, Destination Dallas, D.C.-based public policy journal Toward Freedom, London-based public policy journal Free Life, humor magazine Jest, regional publications The Met, Austin Monthly, Dallas Child, Oui, literary journal Swans, dozens more.
Additional writing projects - Created both print and online marketing collateral for New York tech start-up Organic Motion, Inc. Created online marketing collateral for New York corporate training firm Illuminata Global. Researched and wrote entertainment/dining/venue content for Dallas ad agency Avacata and clients' marketing collateral, including that of luxury resort real estate firm. Have produced website copy for design firm NPCreate.com, provided public relations pieces for Texas energy company EBS and Dallas real estate firm Dunhill Partners.
Education:
1999 - 2003 University of Texas at Austin, College of Communications
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Investment
Strategy
S.K.
Oil and Gas is in the business of capitalizing on the current
global
energy situation while also avoiding many of the sort of risks
that
were once universal within the energy financing industry, and
which
still plague many other firms even in the midst of unprecedented
oil
prices. By structuring developmental drilling programs which
are
themselves based around high-risk exploratory efforts that
have
already been undertaken by third parties, we are thus capable
of
operating with little or no real risk to our own investors, who
are
not asked to invest in anything unproven but are rather called
upon to
finance the drilling of wells in areas that have already
been shown to
be profitable. Coupled with recent advances in
drilling technology,
our particularly deliberate approach to
energy financial services
tends to result in absolute success with
few surprises.
Source
of Prospects
Effective
deal flow within the industry at large is necessarily
dependent on
the establishment of a working relationship between
geologists,
engineers, and operators. Like all firms of the sort, S.K.
Oil and
Gas is dependent upon this dynamic for our ongoing projects;
but
unlike many other firms, most of our prospects derive from
operators
who have already proven the viability of the sites at their
disposal
and who wish to put the development of such sites under
our
management and financial structuring. Generally, these
operators tend
to stay on with the project as coordinators so that
they might
continue to benefit from risks taken previously.
We
also routinely take on prospects from those lending
institutions
which are understandably anxious to shift their
capital into oil and
gas in light of the ongoing crisis in other
sectors but which would
prefer to provide loans for projects only
on the condition that
additional equity can be provided, a
condition that we are able to
meet by way of our strong working
relationship with investors who are
similarly interested in
shifting their capital into energy. Such a
form of Mezzazine
Financing allows us to establish favorable equity
positions while
also benefiting from the availability of lender
recourse.
Selecting
Projects
Before
taking on a given project, S.K. Oil and Gas engages in a
multi-level
investigation of its relative merits in the context of
other
potential projects. This inquiry begins with a review of both
known
facts and probable outcomes on the part of our geologists, all
of
whom have a strong familiarity with the regions in which we
operate.
If the project in question receives a green light from
our
geologists, we proceed to weigh its potential value relative
to the
entirety of the Texas oil and gas industry, taking into
account every
operation ongoing in the state at any given time.
Such a seemingly
complex undertaking is made easier by way of the
state's policy of
monitoring any and oil production that falls
under its purview, making
public the records of such production,
and applying taxes accordingly.
By utilizing this information, we
are in a better position to
determine whether or not a particular
field has the high level of
potential that we seek from each of
the projects we undertake.
After having made the determination
that a given project meets our
criteria, we next follow through
with the perfecting of lease
interests, title reviews, pipeline
and crude sales contracts, and
engineering and drilling
arrangements. Funds are released as necessary
against invoices in
support of an audit trail.
Sources
and Minimization of Risk
Though
our deliberative approach to the structuring of oil and gas
projects
goes a long way towards minimizing risk and maximizing
return,
even such a uniquely cautious operation as ours faces some
degree
of risk based on the decisions made by our management team.
Because
even a largely surefire project can come up short if not
properly
executed, we have assembled what we believe to be among the
most
talented and tested assembly of oil production and
financing
professionals in the region. Between our patience in the
pursuit of
new projects and the capabilities of those who manage
them, we have
established an enterprise in which unavoidable risks
are unlikely to
result in outright failure, but simply higher
costs and thus lower
returns. It should be remembered, though,
that we are not in the
business of exploration, the stage in which
most risks manifest
themselves; rather, our emphasis is on
developmental drilling, a
sector in which 100 percent success is
no longer uncommon.
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Waste Not, Whatnot
by Barrett Brown
The Environmental Protection Agency has deemed the event and trade show industry to be the second largest producer of solid waste in the United States, second only to demolition and construction in this dubious honor. Don't apologize to your kids just yet; solid waste, while none too pretty, is only a small stroke of the brush in the greater ecological picture, with experts having developed new and better criteria as of late to determine who's been mucking up the planet and how much mucking up they've been doing. Besides, your kids may very well have their own apologizing to do. When was the last time you checked the locks on the liquor cabinet?
The implementation of eco-friendly operating procedures is surprisingly easy, increasingly marketable, and almost universally profitable. This, at least, was the central message of last month's
Green Event Summit in San Fransisco, where hundreds of event professionals met to showcase new, greener business practices of potential interest dealer owners, project managers, and the like.
Now, skepticism in the face of increasingly ubiquitous buzzwords like "eco-friendly" is understandable, particularly in the absence of any clear definitions. But the environmental movement has come a long way since the first Earth Day, having since branched out from a propensity for vagueness and granola into something that one can actually take to the bank without getting laughed at by the teller.
It's easy to forget that you can't spell "economic" without "eco" unless you're cheating on a crossword puzzle; those who have pursued greener practices for any particular reason almost always find that they've also managed to save money in the process. And the more mundane the changes, the more surprising the savings often turn out to be. The U.S. Army, for instance, recently audited its paint purchases and discovered that the eco-friendly sorts ended up costing them an average of $1.76 less per can than did the regular types even when both kinds came from the same supplier.
The trick, though, is to go about these things the right way. The Army saved itself a bundle by consulting with Green Seal (greenseal.org), one of several independent certification groups that reckon degrees of ecological efficiency by reference to "Life Cycle Assessment." As Green Seal environmental scientist Nana Wilberforce explains, an LCA measures the environmental impact of a given product or service by tracing its eco-footprint from cradle to grave, covering everything from the early extraction of raw materials to the later disposal of dangerous materials. "In all," says Wilberforce, "the concept of sustainability must be taken into consideration."
Since most firms don't have an environmental scientist on staff, such a nuanced consideration as that may seem somewhat daunting. Luckily, Green Seal offers a free online database of products and services that have met strict LCA standards. Another non-profit, the Greenguard Environmental Institute (greenguard.org), hosts a similar database with an emphasis on emissions and indoor air quality. Between these two websites alone, one can quickly locate green-certified suppliers of surfacing materials, furnitures paint, textiles, adhesives, fleet vehicle maintenance, cleaning services, print materials, and other items of relevance to the trade show world.
But saving money while going green can be even easier than simply changing suppliers, and the event industry is in a particularly advantageous position to do so. "Saving money on eliminating bottled water is the easiest, low-hanging fruit," says Amy Spatrisano, one of the Green Event Summit's keynote speakers and a principal of Meeting Strategies Worldwide. "We've had clients save $25,000 to $50,000 by not serving bottled water and providing large drinking water containers instead. Caterers can also save 15 to 50 percent on serving items in bulk versus individual packets." At the same time, it's easy to get sloppy in the process. "In their enthusiasm to adopt something green, [companies] don't always think it through," Spatrisano notes. "If you're going to eliminate bottled water and provide a refillable container, make sure the container is made environmentally responsibility." LCA standards to the rescue!
Several of the methods by which display dealers in particular stand to save both money and planets are slightly more complicated, though still well within the realm of the doable. Josh Rose, who serves as the Event Designers and Producers Association's vice president of connectivity and also sits on its board of directors and runs his own consultancy firm to boot, points out that the industry practice of pricing shipments by weight provides an opportunity to kill two birds with one etcetera. "Greener products are being designed into exhibits to reduce weight and add flexibility for future adaptation: more aluminum instead of wood and steel, more fabric instead of wood and laminated or plastic finishes. This reduction in weight has lower material handling costs and fuel costs." Then, there's the recycling route. "The red carpet at Fox events in Hollywood for the last year or two has been standardized, cleaned, and reused instead of going to the landfill," Rose points out. "When you are talking about thousands of square feet, that translates to real dollars. Also, builders are creatively restocking used exhibit components and then 'reskinning' them for the next client or show. Instead of pitching old graphics after a specific event, the graphic has become more generic and reused for multiple events with a changeable tag line. One of our clients has saved over $20,000 a year by using this process on an eight-show circuit."
Once you've gotten on the waste wagon, there still exists the matter of communicating your new-found social responsibility to customers. In a market that's becoming increasingly glutted with such terminology, simply describing your firm as "environmentally-friendly" is akin to offering cheap candy in Candy Land. "Greenwashing is becoming a much bigger issue," says Spatrisano, using a term that denotes the making of misleading claims regarding a firm's ecological commitment. Environmental watchdogs have always been on the lookout for fraud in this regard; now, customers are increasingly savvy to such things as well, so it's important to be specific about your greenery. Point out that you're doing business with "LCA-certified suppliers of green products and services," for instance, and you'll get increased business with those who know their stuff, as well as those who are easily impressed by mysterious acronyms.
Also, don't forget to render your TLK's with an upper-trending FRW before the next FOM.
Just kidding. But seriously, though, LCA is a real thing, and you should get on it ASAP.
It's Not Easy Being Green... Or Is It?
Paul Firth, vice president of technology for the environmental watchdog group Green Standard, has some ideas on how to get the ball rolling:
Your firm should pursue "waste management and recycling that addresses office and production wastes." An inexpensive session with an environmental consultant will help.
Before moving on to the more advanced stuff, seek to reduce energy use "through reductions or efficiency gains." Some firms are rolling out corporate buses; others make do with energy-efficient light bulbs and computer monitors, while still others just turn the damned things off at the end of the day. Also, cell phone chargers and the like should be pulled from the socket when not in use; they still run when there's nothing hooked up to them, people.
Compose "a plan to move towards more renewable or alternative energy sources." Again, a consultant will come in handy.
Lock your principals in a room together until they settle on a "purchasing policy to address purchasing habits and criteria to aid in using more sustainable materials." Switching to products and services with favorable LCAs is surefire.
If You Cheat on Mother Earth, She'll Leave Threatening Messages on Your Voice Mail
We won't judge you for cutting environmental corners, but your customers might; making dubious claims of greenness can have nasty repercussions. Toyota suffered some PR fallout when the firm was reprimanded by the Advertising Standards Association for far-out claims it had been making last year regarding the allegedly low environmental impact of its vehicles. Around the same time, the ASA publicly scolded a Scottish energy company for claiming that they'd plant enough trees to offset the carbon dioxide produced by their customers; it turned out that, while the company did indeed arrange for trees to be planted, the program managers had no idea how much CO2 a tree could actually absorb. Oops.
Waste Not: What, Not?
In the rush to green one's scene, avoid being taken in by bad ideas, some of which actually damage the environment, as well as your reputation among the environmentally adept.
Don't recycle company computers or other electronics; the process remains dirty and expensive. Selling them used will drum up cash and encourage others to avoid making unnecessary purchases of new goods.
Having a little tag line on your e-mails encouraging people not to print them out unless necessary is increasingly common. It's also irritating and probably ineffective.
The green movement, like all movements, runs the risk of being bound up with aesthetics at the expense of common sense. Ordering a $7,000 coffee table made with Southeast Asian hardwoods from a boutique with a cutesy name may help to tie your building's lobby together, but it also entails a massive carbon footprint when one takes shipping into account. If you don't need to order something from the other side of the planet, don't.
If you're thinking about greening up your coffee service (hey, why not?), don't swap your regular milk for the "organic" sort in hopes of reducing environmental impact it'll actually have the opposite effect for reasons too wonky to discuss here. Go for soy milk, which is not only more environmentally sound but also better for you and, frankly, tastier.
Biofuels were once hailed as a major solution, but are now roundly rejected for their massive pollution. Rhyming is fine, though.
There was recently a study going around to the effect that regular light bulbs are actually better for the planet than the more efficient sorts, but the study in question failed to take into account several of the sorts of things that studies are generally supposed to take into account. Stick with the new, more efficient bulbs.