I’m always looking for opportunities to write. Over the years, I’ve had a few good ones. At one point, I wrote marketing material for a management company. I later wrote book reviews, press releases, specifications, white papers, case studies, scripts, and sections of proposals. I’ve also written articles for popular magazines and trade publications. One of the more memorable writing projects was a history of Maryland Highways. A second has been writing blog entries about the environment for a landscape architecture firm. But honestly, the best writing project is always the next one.

While writing is my passion, I’m not adverse to editing either. I’ve edited medical journals, engineering proposals, and a variety of bios, resumes, and other people’s fiction and non-fiction articles. At one point, I edited for journals with names like “Drug Metabolism & Disposition,” “Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics,” and “Cancer Research.” It wasn’t always easy reading, but I managed.

One day while looking for more opportunities to write and edit, a former professor of mine enlisted me to teach writing at Towson University. Over a six-year time span, I’ve taught Freshman Composition and Business Writing to undergraduates of all ages. I’ve also volunteered to teach writing at an elementary school. There I helped the students report school news and publish their own broadsheet.

The rewards of teaching are great, but nothing is more rewarding to me than sitting down at my keyboard and shaping a story: doing the research to get it right, getting it all to make sense, and gaining an audience. It doesn’t matter what the subject is, I believe it’s my job to make it interesting. And whatever the subject, having someone read my writing and understand it—or even take pleasure in it—is always the goal. I find the whole process not only fascinating but energizing.