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Laura J. MacKay
Copywriter & Editor
Clients
Among my repeat clients are these marketing/design and business development firms:
Copywriting / Strategic Web Copy
 Nortel Web site
This international communications company needed a Web site to promote a new business product, Software Communications System (SCS). Using the branding developed by Titanium and working closely with Nortel techs, I created copy that nailed the messaging and struck the right balance for an informed but not necessarily technical audience. View sample pages (pdf)
 NVC Mediation Web site
The clients, long-term practitioners and teachers of NVC Mediation, were ready to launch a business based on their own techniques for teaching NVC—techniques they had spent a decade refining. Their marketing/business development team, comprising Jandro Levins, Mitch Anthony, and Laurie Breitner, brought me on board to develop a fully realized copy platform and then write the copy for a new Web site. I executed new messaging for the clients’ multiple audiences and brought clarity and consistency to existing copy. View home page
 Chroma print ad
FreshJones Creative asked me to write this print ad for their longtime client Chroma, a Vermont-based manufacturer of precision optical filters used in scientific research around the globe. For a campaign celebrating its 20th year in business, Chroma wanted to thank its customers while highlighting the stunning images taken through microscopes equipped with their filters. View (pdf)
 CHD annual report
CHD, a large human services organization, had just undergone a rebranding by Radwell Communication by Design. The annual report introduced the new look to the public, and CHD wanted a new tone to go with it. I tapped the positioning study for on-message headlines, and I cut back on the usual jargon to create a more readable and more persuasive piece.
View report (pdf)
 Storey Publishing brochures
For Massachusetts-based Storey Publishing, I wrote a series of brochures aimed at book buyers. Storey has long specialized in practical how-to books for independent living in harmony with the environment, putting it at the center of the DIY movement. I especially enjoyed writing up the horse book, and I plan to acquire the herb book! Click the images to read the copy (pdfs).

 Studio Helix A startup holistic physical therapy and fitness studio needed marketing materials and Web copy that showcased its unique approach. As part of the Titanium team, I assisted in the development of the brand and the initial advertising materials, including the sandwich board at right, which alerted passersby to the studio’s top-floor location (design by Anja Schutz). For the Web site, I designed a navigation scheme and wrote content that drove home the primary messaging, communicating a highly professional yet warm environment.
Editing
 I have edited, copyedited, or rewritten nonfiction and fiction books, magazines, marketing pieces, white papers and other business materials, scholarly articles, and more. Got a manuscript that needs work? See my manuscripts page. View book and magazine editing credits
Journalism
 I started my career as a newspaper reporter (see my profile), writing up the goings-on of small New England towns. Since moving on I have occasionally written for magazines. Here’s an arts piece I did for Design New England. The early days remain memorable. Below is a selection of feature stories from my time as Provincetown Bureau Chief for the Cape Codder newspaper in the early nineties. What a great beat that was!
“Scientists to Study Humpbacks.” A team of whale researchers set sail for the West Indies aboard a wooden schooner captained by a former engineer who bailed out of Boston’s Big Dig (before it became a debacle of historic proportions).
“Reigning Cats and Dogs.” As an animal-lover, I could not resist writing about Provincetown’s stellar cast of four-footed characters.
Creative Writing
A selection of published and unpublished writings.
“Come the Light.” A short memoir of my years in Provincetown in the early 1990s. Published in the Berkshire Review, 2006.
“At the Bend.” A creative nonfiction piece, this relates an incident that occurred at the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts.
“Pollywogs.” Another creative nonfiction piece, set in the salon where I got my hair cut for many years.
> Contact me: laura@lauramackay.com or 413-585-9975
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Copyright by Laura MacKay, www.copywriter-editor.com
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On Writing
“Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.”
—Gene Fowler
“Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
—E. L. Doctorow
“Writing is making sense of life. You work your whole life and perhaps you’ve made sense of one small area.”
—Nadine Gordimer
“It might be said that until he developed language, man had no soul, for without language how could he reach deep inside himself and discover the truths that are hidden there, or find out what emotions he shared, or did not share, with his fellow men and women. But because this greatest gift of all gifts is in daily use, and is smeared, and battered and trivialized by commonplace associations, we too often forget the splendour of which it is capable, and the pleasures that it can give, from the pen of a master.”
—Robertson Davies
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