Technical Writing Samples

Until Heather makes it to the best-seller’s list with her mystery novels, she makes her living as a technical writer, editor, and project manager.

Here are some writing samples that show the depth and breadth of her experience.

Writing Sampler

Newsletter Copy

Wellness

The Fast Track to Fitness

The fast track to fitness begins when your workout reminds you more of the deliberate tortoise than the excitable hare. According to the National Institute for Fitness and Sport, “you can never begin too low in the exercise charts, and the progressive steps you take can never be too small. Injuries and discouragement result when you try to make up in a few weeks what you lost over years of sedentary living.” Roughly translated: slow and steady wins the race.

Asbestos and Radon and Lead, oh my!

You hear their names mentioned on a regular basis in the news. There are even tests for them that you can buy at your local hardware store. But if you own a house—or are going to buy one—what do you need to know about the deadly three: asbestos and radon and lead?

Brochure Copy

Tech

It’s a digital world out there.

Training for the technological revolution puts you face-to-face with many choices. XYZ College offers beginner to advanced state-of-the-market programs taught by our highly-qualified faculty through innovative partnerships with institutions such as the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana’s affiliation with National Technical University and 3Com Corporation, a global leader in telecommunications technology.

Our experienced teachers and alliances with industry pioneers will provide you with access to the most cutting-edge courses and industry-certified training.

At XYZ College, we simplify the complex process of finding the right class—at the right level and the right time and location—that offers the credentials you need to meet your needs today and in the future.

Dental Hygiene

A bright future

According to the American Dental Association, teaching institutions cannot graduate dental hygienists fast enough to fill the needs of local communities. Population growth and increasing longevity have fueled the need for an increased number of dental hygienists.

In addition to examining patients’ teeth and gums, cleaning teeth, taking dental x-rays and applying fluoride treatments to teeth, Dental Hygienists also educate patients about oral health and nutrition. Together with other health-care providers, Dental Hygienists help patients realize that good oral health is an important component of good overall health.

Magazine Copy

Command Spanish®: Instant Language

Ana Lucy Hernandez recently spent 16 weeks with a room full of police officers from Hoffman Estates, and she hadn’t even been speeding. What she had been doing was teaching the officers how to speak Spanish—at least the phrases they would need in the line of duty. Hernandez is an Assistant Professor at Harper College and coordinator of the College’s Spanish Department where she’s been teaching 11 years.

“The class was very interactive,” Hernandez says. “No one could just sit back in the corner and watch. And I didn’t teach any grammar.”

The class, Command Spanish®, is a non-traditional approach to language training that allows English speakers to learn occupational Spanish. Its key objective is to provide learner-friendly language materials that require no prior knowledge of Spanish. It teaches English speakers to ask controlled questions and give simple directions that elicit predictable responses from Spanish speakers.

Rumor has it that the classes were pretty athletic.

Legal Marketing Copy

Professional Liability

Our Professional Liability and Financial Malpractice Group has handled over 2,500 malpractice lawsuits against accountants and lawyers. In addition, the members of our group have extensive trial and appellate experience in malpractice lawsuits. Moreover, we have advised numerous accountants, directors and officers, lawyers and other professionals regarding ethical responsibilities, potential liability exposure, risk management, professional liability claims and insurance-related issues.

We offer a wealth of practical experience regarding the potential causes of professional liability claims and ways to lessen their severity. Providing proactive advice regarding potential conflicts of interest, effective client engagement plans, appropriate staffing, engagement handling, documentation, retention and ethical concerns is an important part of our practice.

When professional liability claims arise, however, our attorneys aggressively represent clients in claims and class actions alleging breach of contract, negligence, fraud, malpractice and violations of securities laws, RICO and other federal statutes at administrative and disciplinary proceedings and before state and federal courts from coast to coast.

Direct Mail Copy

Educational Foundation Letterhead

Dear (Name):

How do you measure success? Working at a well-paying job, enjoying good health, having a loving family, living in a nice home?

At ABC College, we measure our success by the achievements of our students and by providing the finest facilities possible to meet their needs. The ABC College Educational Foundation is an essential part of ABC ‘s success.

The Foundation’s Resource for Excellence Fund provides dozens of opportunities to create better prepared students, offer staff training, reward excellence in our faculty and provide the bricks and mortar that help make dreams come true.

1. As a ABC College alumnus who has donated in the past, you know how much Harper College changed your life.

2. As a (past) member of ABC College’s Board you know the importance of private donations to the ABC College Educational Fund.

Your donation is essential in maintaining this fund. When you make a generous donation to the Foundation, it can be used in a variety of ways as part of the Resource for Excellence Fund:

Technical Writing Copy

New Pricing Set-Up

The following section explains how to enable the New Pricing parameter.

To set the New Pricing parameter:

Action Steps

1. Go to the Supervisor Menu. (You may be asked for a password.)

2. Select Configure System Parameters.

3. Select <C> for Complete and then <2> for Order Screen Set-Up.

4. The parameter you need to set is:

37.1 : ENABLE NEW COUPON PRICING : N

Set this parameter to <Y> to begin using New Pricing.

RFP/Proposal Copy

Executive Summary

ABC Corporation is delighted to be able to submit a proposal to the Office of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). We believe that we have the right organization, the right attitude and the right approach to manage and market HUD properties in Illinois and Indiana. Moreover, we have experience working with HUD as the Broad Listing Broker (BLB) for Golden Feather Real Estate, the current management and marketing contractor for Illinois and Indiana. Our track record as BLB is impeccable, and we plan to work just as tirelessly to produce excellent results for HUD as the M & M contractor.

Overview of Our Plan

Our plan is simple. We will mobilize local listing brokers all across Indiana and Illinois. As BLB, we already work with many local brokers across the state of Illinois. Our current partnership with these brokers has been enormously successful, so we plan to build on that success by setting up a larger network of brokers. Since the local brokers in each area will understand the local real estate issues better than we will, we plan to use their expertise and knowledge of the local area as the basis of our management and marketing plans for HUD properties.

White Paper Copy

I. What is Predictive Management?

Predictive Management is the means to bring knowledge management technology into the realm of real-time decision-making in the health care industry. In short, all of the information that this collected about each patient can be viewed graphically based on the individual’s role in patient care.

Third Stage of Computerization in Health Care

Predictive Management is the third stage in the ongoing technology surge in health care. The first stage was automating a number of health care functions including billing, finance, patient records and insurance. The second stage involved bringing intelligence and knowledge management into the process, but all the information was “after the fact,” and could not always be used to help the patient at the point of care.

This third wave of computerization takes all the information available to caregivers and other administrative staff and allows each member of the care team to make decisions based on the latest information on the patient from others in the health care team.

How It Works

Predictive Management allows caregivers to see all the vitals as well as the physician’s orders, drug interactions and plan of care for each patient. At the same time, administrative personnel can monitor bed space, cost per day, personnel costs and billable services. And, insurance coordinators can track a wide variety of payers, types of payment and insurance for each patient, as well as use a HIPAA-complaint electronic billing and payment system.

In addition, physicians can monitor patients via a Web-based portal that allows them to electronically sign orders, change orders and instruct the on-site caregivers. E-mail can be quickly sent back and forth to ensure optimum patient care with minimum time expenditure.

In short, the intelligence on each patient (or group of patients) is brought together in one place so that real-time decisions can be made by the on-site health care staff. Each person’s role in the care of the patient determines what decisions that person is allowed to make and the information that person may collect and add to the system.