Tell Me More

A few samples of IEC's work are available online, but more can be viewed during a personal interview. Read what clients say about IEC's work, and details of IEC's rates and doing business with IEC.

Sample Work by IEC

Editing

• Business memo
• Technical report

Business Writing

• Getting Started With Your Website: Eight Key Questions for Small Business Owners and Nonprofits
• Top Ten Quality Assurance Checks To Make Before Your Document Goes Out The Door

Website Design and Maintenance

• Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder — Major site redesign to enlarge and update small, frames-based site to improve search engine "findability" and attract new visitors to the church. Site overhaul included developing a new information architecture to organize greatly expanded content that would meet current and future needs of diverse groups; performing search engine optimization; reorganizing existing content and writing copy for several brand new pages; and enhancing and unifying page layout design by adding many photos, page templates, and a CSS stylesheet. Check out some before and after pages:
  

  Before home page	After home page
  Before religious education page	After religious education page
  Before groups page	After activities page and committees page

  
  
• Rocky Mountain Publishing Professionals Guild — Created the overall information architecture and wrote web copy for this redesigned website, taking care to maximize search engine optimization techniques. Worked as part of a site redesign project team that contracted with a graphics designer and a database programmer.
• Niwot High School Library — Designed site to present all key information on home page and use the "@ your library" slogan, plus wrote and organized all content.
• Magellan Center for Business Exploration — Designed site to harmonize with existing logo and organized all content. (Site has since been taken down.)
• National Lightning Safety Institute — Redesigned site to make it easier for users to understand and navigate, plus simpler and cheaper for webmaster to maintain. Site overhaul included creating electronic stylesheets and templates, adding search engine capabilities and a photo slideshow, plus simplifying and unifying page layout design. Check out some before and after pages:
  

  Before home page	After home page
  Before site map page	After site map page
  Before section contents page	After section contents page
  Before information page	After information page

  
  
• Friends of Longmont Youth Center — Designed site to harmonize with existing logo, plus wrote and organized all content.
• Sunset Middle School Library — Designed mini site to coordinate with layout of existing school site, wrote and organized all content; and added a site search function. (Library site has since been folded into overall school site.)
• Sunset Parent Advisory Council — Designed site to coordinate with layout of existing school site and be very easy to maintain by lay people; also wrote and organized all content.
• Gilded Lily Works — Under construction; designed site plus wrote and organized content.
• Boulder Writers Alliance site — Wrote this new page to match existing site; also redesigned much of site to include an internal search feature, implement style sheets and templates, and optimize site's Google ranking, going from 97th to 2nd place on targeted keywords.
• Colorado Business and Professional Women's Foundation — Did site maintenance work.
• Departmental intranet site — Designed this site and responsible for all its content.
• Gender-Fair Writing Guidelines — Wrote this page as part of a corporate training package

Technical Writing

• Chapter from software user's guide (168K RTF file)

Newspaper Writing

• Community news
• School news
• Small business profile
• Non-profit group profile
• Personality profiles

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Client Comments

Here are a few comments Mary has received from clients. (For additional references, see recommendations on my LinkedIn page or email IEC.)

Barb Goldworm, President and Chief Analyst, FOCUS Consulting, (303) 543-7388

"Thanks for all your hard work to make this project successful. I appreciate all that you did, and especially putting in so much extra at the end, late at night and over a weekend. It's great to have you part of the team!" 4/08

Nina Peterson, Chief Operating Officer, Wisdom Works Group, (303) 473-9000

"I really appreciate the quality of your work and your response time. It helps us stay on track! My colleague told me she really appreciated your patience and skill in taking a complex form and helping her make it more simple. Thanks again for your help. The notebooks really look great!" 10/07

Theresa Benda, Owner, A Health Care Market Research Service, (507) 356-2856

"Just wanted to let you know, you are doing an excellent job. Your editing is wonderful and you catch many issues. Also, I really appreciate your questions and comments regarding how [our authors] can improve. This is the best way for all of us to learn." 2/07
"Mary's editing skills are excellent and her communications are superb. She is a delightful person to work with. I highly recommend giving Mary a call." 2/07

Tessa Davis, Communications Liaison, Board of Trustees, UU Church of Boulder

"Mary Headley has done an outstanding job in redesigning our church website. She accepted our request to make our church more visible on the Web and her efforts brought our site from #70 in Google to #2 on targeted keywords within 2 weeks of launch. I can't recommend her highly enough for the page design, excellent editing, and creative thinking she brings to her work. Mary's thoroughness, attention to detail, and follow through are particular qualities that set her apart from others in the field." 7/06

Anita Schwartz, Development and Communications Director, Western Resource Advocates, (303) 444-1188

"Thanks for all your hard work on that report — you helped more than we even knew we needed. It is a very good thing that you went through it so thoroughly." 4/06

Chris McGary, Marketing Communications Manager, Sun Microsystems, (303) 661-8031

"Thanks, Mary, for an outstanding job. You are so thorough! I'm glad you are part of the team." 10/05

Sue Leenerman, Director of Marketing, StrionAir, Inc., (303) 926-5693

"Thanks for your excellent work on the Sales Guide! We will use your service again in the future." 5/05

Jim Martin, Executive Director, Western Resource Advocates, (303) 444-1188

"Thanks VERY much. Your edits [on this report] were tremendously helpful. You caught a lot of things I just did not see after reading this the ninety-first time. And who knew there was a WRA style book?" 5/05

Kelly Robbins LLC, Copywriting/Marketing Consultant, (303) 460-0285

"I recommend Information Engineering Company and Mary Headley. Mary edits much of the work I do. She edits my newsletter, feature articles, and copy I write for clients. Many of us who are home-based or run small businesses work alone and it's important we have resources to go to for help. Mary ensures the work I do is of high quality and error free, and her business background allows her to provide quality feedback in many areas. One of the best things about Mary is she is fast. She turns work around faster than anyone I know!" 6/04

Tiffany Merlo, Marketing Communications Manager, StorageTek, (303) 661-4879

"You have been a fantastic addition to our team. Without your dedication and attention to detail, we never could have met such an aggressive deadline. You are a pleasure to work with and a true asset! Thanks again!" 4/04

Patricia Werner, Managing Editor for Visual Communications, StorageTek, (303) 661-7127

"Thank you for your help these past months. We have depended upon your high standards and availability to get us through our re-branding push. We are pleased that you helped us meet the challenge and we look forward to our continuing relationship. We appreciate what you do!" 4/04

Richard Kithil, Founder and CEO, National Lightning Safety Institute, (303) 666-8817

"The revised NLSI site looks very nice. Many thanks for a very professional effort in this revision." 10/03

Dawn Macy, Assistant Principal, Sunset Middle School, (303) 776-3963

"In case you didn't get my wow at the meeting, I want you to know how wonderful this work of yours is! Thank you so very much for all of your time and energy on this [Sunset PAC website] project; it truly is amazing." 3/03

Nancy Eletto, Treasurer, Friends of Longmont Youth Center, (303) 682-0854

"I love the site you designed for us — it is so much fun! Thanks again for everything. You have gone beyond the call of duty, and are very patient and helpful. We certainly couldn't have done this without you." 2/03

Cathy Weitzel, Media Specialist, Sunset Middle School, (303) 776-3963

"Mary's design of the website and its continued upkeep have allowed the Sunset Middle School IMC (Library) to offer the latest and best on-line sites for student use. Students and parents are impressed with the work that has gone into the site." 9/02

Alicia Abbott, Production Manager, Enterprise Management Associates, (303) 543-9500, x116

"We *really* appreciate your editing help on this book and feel that you've added a ton of value!" 6/02

Shawna K. Smith, Marketing Coordinator, MWH, (303) 410-4083

"On this first assignment, I've been very impressed with the depth of your questions and how quickly you have picked up the feel for civil engineering." 3/02

Janine Fornarola, Lead Engineer, Qwest Communications, (303) 992-6092

"Mary was responsible for translating our group's scribbles and technical mumbo-jumbo into documents and Web pages that average U S WEST employees would understand. She excels at figuring out how to explain technical information to non-technical readers...Mary is very thorough. When working with her I knew that our final published documents would be free of grammar and spelling errors, and that they would accurately convey our ideas and technical findings...Lastly, Mary is easy to work with. She works hard, but is always pleasant and professional. She always delivered what she promised, and on time." 3/01

Nancy Shepard, Manager of Human Factors Engineering, Sun Microsystems

"Mary is very experienced in technical writing and information design. She has always given particular attention to the details that make a big difference and produces very high-quality work. I've known Mary for many years and would recommend her to anyone." 3/01

Mike Jude, Senior Analyst, Enterprise Management Associates

"Mary does a wonderful job providing feedback that is both extremely useful and non-threatening. She is a marvelous editor...I am very happy with IEC. Mary adds significant value to EMA's service offerings." 2/01

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Doing Business With IEC

Rates — IEC typically works with clients on an hourly basis, but may also work on a fixed-price or word-count basis if that seems more appropriate. Hourly rates usually range from $40 for proofreading to $65 for writing or Web content development (which includes researching, writing, coding, and testing of original copy). Rates may be adjusted for nonprofit organizations and repeat assignments, as well as for the project's scope, difficulty, and deadline.

Work process — It's easy to work with IEC; just follow these steps:

1. Contact IEC to discuss your needs and provide the basic project information outlined for the initial assessment. IEC will promptly tell you whether it feels qualified to handle your project's requirements in the timeframe you desire.
2. (optional) If you want a ballpark estimate of your project's cost and schedule in advance, complete IEC's work planning questionnaire.
3. (optional) If you want to test the quality of IEC's editing services first, request a $25 sample edit (prepayment required; up to 750 words or 3 pages; contact IEC to make arrangements to send the URL or document sample in RTF, PDF, or ASCII format).
4. Sign a project agreement with IEC outlining the work to be done.
5. Enjoy working with a communications professional committed to delivering a high-quality product, on time and budget!

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