I help you choose the best words to tell your story and win business. I provide training and advice in all kinds of writing, particularly writing for the web.

I’ve always loved words, in whatever language, from when I was at school and we took an exam called Use of English. It was aimed at scientists who didn’t have much opportunity to communicate in English, but it was a good exercise for all of us.

I taught English for a while to secondary school students. I wanted to encourage them to be careful in their use of language and to be critical of others’ use of words that might deceive them, whether they were advertisers, politicians or ideologues.

I became a journalist working in a newsroom devoted to the use of simple, objective English – BBC World Service News – for nearly twenty years. Then I moved into training others in broadcasting and producing clear, user-friendly websites.

Loving language doesn’t have to mean getting involved in arguments about grammar or the origins of words, though it sometimes does. It means valuing the meaning of every word and wanting to use it as well as possible to communicate with someone else.

I run tailored writing courses for clients in business, banking and public service organisations.

I advise clients on their websites, online strategy and all written communications.

I’ve worked in websites since the early days of the worldwide web. I developed the BBC’s web writing training and am the author of Writing for the Web (Chambers Desktop Guides).

I’ve drawn inspiration from the Nielsen Norman Group’s research into usability, attended many of their courses, taken some of their exams and acquired their certificate in user experience (see below).

For details of my career, see my biography.