By the time I was eleven, I had read nearly every book in the Juvenile section of my local library branch. I was not yet allowed to branch into reading YA, and the other branches were too far of a drive for my mom, so to alleviate my boredom, I decided to write a book.
From the first day I put pen to paper, I fell in love. From the rush of stitching a messy first draft together in far too short a time while drinking far too much coffee, to the subtle technical magic of adjusting comma placement, I find it all enthralling. Over the years, I've honed my skills by taking dozens of writing classes, seeking criticism from hundreds of peers and mentors, and contributing to or editing for 5 publications.
Today, I continue to submit past work for publication and apply for writing jobs and contracts while chipping away at a novel. To see some examples of my work, please continue reading.
For your convenience I've split these examples into Copy and Technical Writing, Academic Writing, and Original Fiction.
Copywriting includes any and all writing created with an eye toward marketing and uplifting a brand, including internal copy such as the business plan linked below. Technical writing includes documentation for programming projects I've worked on. Pieces in this section exemplify my ability to write to a specified style and tone, resulting in readable copy that draws in potential clients rather than bores them to death.
As a volunteer and team member at the Kansas City Robotics Foundation, I wrote a new marketing strategy and composed dozens of tweets from 2016-2019, eventually growing our Twitter account from around 25 followers to nearly 1,000 when I left the organization. I also took accompanying photo and video footage, and edited promotional videos to embed on our social medias. Examples below.
Proud to announce we set an @FTCMO score record yesterday & took home the Inspire Award! Looks like we're Houston-bound ✌ pic.twitter.com/3RRpnoxjCM
— KC Astromechs (@KCAstromechs) March 10, 2019
Getting a little pre-State practice in, hosted by our friends @4964Ftc 🇺🇸👍 pic.twitter.com/Uo8G4j4ycD
— KC Astromechs (@KCAstromechs) March 9, 2019
Meet SlaHappy, our first robot of the season. We're excited to compete with him tomorrow in our first meet at St Teresa's Academy. #RoverRuckus #FTC pic.twitter.com/SS3oWP2t2G
— KC Astromechs (@KCAstromechs) November 30, 2018
Garet's proposed alignment grid accurately shows our feelings about different building materials. We're definitely chaotic good. 😉 pic.twitter.com/kLZlZ6BVZA
— KC Astromechs (@KCAstromechs) January 17, 2018
New system on a robot? High five! pic.twitter.com/bEJgJAYPwa
— KC Astromechs (@KCAstromechs) December 10, 2017
I wrote this business plan with an aim of increasing the visibility of both my team (KC Astromechs) and our host organization (KCRF), with the hope of establishing potential for long-term brand and organizational growth.
Completed as part of a "writing challenge" for a past potential client, this piece was designed as copy for the website of a hypothetical medical spa that recently acquired an Exion machine. My challenge was to write something that could both attract new customers searching for Exion treatment, and educate existing clients about the treatment.
Under construction
These are research papers written during the completion of my undergraduate degree. Pieces in this section demonstrate my research, analysis and synthesis skills, as well as my ability to translate complex topics into easily understood prose.
This essay, an exploration of literature, science, and philosophy, was written as a final paper for a senior-level honors English course designed to prepare students to write an undergraduate thesis. It earned an A.
This piece, a response to the Dobbs ruling focusing on its implications for American social policy, was written as a final paper for a senior-level Sociology course.
Fiction pieces are writings I have completed on my own time. This comprises the majority of my writing experience and taught me my rigorous attention to detail, command of diction and grammar, and sense of storytelling.
This piece of flash fiction was originally drafted in 2017 and ultimately published under a previous name by the undergraduate literary journal of the University of Missouri, EPIC. It's found on page 40 of the Fall 2020 edition and is also mentioned by the editor in the edition's foreword.
This short story was originally drafted in 2023, in the midst of a then-record-breaking heat wave, during which I also had to move between houses. While trying to stay cool, I was inspired to write about someone who had it even worse than me.