Merrill Perlman

About Merrill Perlman

With more than 40 years of professional experience, 25 at the New York Times, I\'m a consummate communications professional with a national reputation for teaching, training and motivating. I specialize in writing and editing training for organizations where clear communications are essential. I\'m also a consultant for media organizations, helping to create workflow or tweak it for maximum effectiveness, and advising on recruiting and hiring. I am also a freelance editor, taking on projects from news articles to company publications to books. I do everything with a sense of humor, understanding that people learn better when they\'re being entertained.Specialties: Clear and concise editing, nonthreatening communications training, innovative and customized presentations, problem-solving.

Experience

1. Editor, Communications Trainer, Writing Coach, Consultant

   Merrill Perlman Consulting

   Jul 2008 — Present · NY, US

   My company provides consulting and freelance editing services to entities ranging from news publications to the United Nations.(Is that a false range? I can explain.) Consulting services include customized training for any industry to make internal and external communications clearer and more effective. I examine communications workflow and make recommendations for streamlining or improving the current structure, or for creating a new one. I offer training in English grammar and usage and clear communications to organizations serving high schoolers through advanced professionals. I can help media organizations recruit and hire new talent. As a freelance editor, my strengths are nonfiction books and stories, internal and external communications, and white papers.(That last serial comma is deliberate; I can explain why.)My clients have included The New York Times and its Times Journeys marketing unit, ProPublica, foxnews.com, Amazon Kindle Singles, New York Life and nonprofit organizations including Rotary International, the Kresge Foundation and The Atlantic Philanthropies. I have edited Pulitzer Prize winners, Stephen King, Erica Jong, Armistead Maupin, John Sculley, Mara Altman, Jamie Merisotis, Mishka Shubaly, Eliot Spitzer, Jonathan Biss and Kurt Vonnegut (who was dead by then and couldn\'t complain). I was named to the American Heritage Dictionary Usage Panel in 2015, though it is sadly defunct. I received an Honor Medal in Journalism from the University of Missouri for my contributions to editing, the Glamann Award for contributions to ACES: The Society for Editing, and the Charles R. O\'Malley Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. That\'s an indication of my range, and another deliberate use of the serial comma.I\'m also a member of the board of Wayword Inc, the nonprofit that produces and distributes \"A Way WIth Words,\" a call-in radio show and podcast about language.

Education

• University of Missouri-Columbia

  Bachelor of Journalism, Journalism

• Drake University

  MA, Mass communications

  1980 — 1982

• University of Missouri-Columbia

  Bachelor of journalism, News management concentration

  1970 — 1974

Skills

• Consulting
• Feature Articles
• Wordpress
• Proofreading
• Publications
• Ap Stylebook
• Copy Editing
• Writing
• Newspapers
• Training
• Web Content
• Television
• Fact-Checking
• Freelance Writing
• Journalism
• Blogging
• Newspaper
• Ap Style
• Magazines
• Books
• Storytelling
• Breaking News
• Editing
• Newsletters
• Editorial
• Publishing
• News Writing
• Headline Writing
• Online Journalism