Ms Shirley Henderson |

Featured

Clear writing and editing for print and web. I specialise in writing, editing and consultancy for organisations which want to communicate clearly with service users, staff, commissioners, funders or anyone else.  I've run a successful business for over 25 years, trading on my name, my approachability, attention to detail and reputation for meeting deadlines to a high standard. My ethos is about making an organisation’s ‘voice’ shine through, and writing which inspires confidence in them and their message.

Media

All sorts of information materials for third sector and public sector organisations including websites, annual reports, conference reports; guidance documents, case studies, articles, press releases, leaflets and handbooks for practitioners and service users, research reports; educational materials and newsletters; government reports; journals; online materials

Experience

Freelance since 1996

Recent training

Efficient copy-editing (SfEP) 2016, Editing in Word (SfEP) 2016, Brush up your grammar (SfEP) 2016

Clients

Scottish Government; Social Research Association; Parenting across Scotland; Scottish Women's Aid and member WA groups; Community Justice Scotland; British Educational Research Association; Commonwealth Secretariat; One Parent Families Scotland; British Red Cross

Subjects

• Equalities and human rights
• Violence against women, gender-based violence
• Social and justice issues
• Legal rights
• Environmental issues
• Parenting and families
• Third sector
• Plain writing 

Qualification

MA French Language and Literature

testimonials

Shirley has worked on a wide range of projects for the Scottish Government, including producing a monthly electronic bulletin on violence against women issues and the statutory and practitioner guidance for the Forced Marriage etc (Protection & Jurisdiction)(Scotland) Act 2011. She can always be relied on to meet deadlines and produce work of a very high standard, in a variety of styles, to suit different audiences.

Lesley Irving, Scottish Government

Shirley is an excellent researcher, writer and editor. We know that if we contract with Shirley we will always be sure of high quality, thorough, and intelligent work delivered on time and in a professional and friendly manner.

Glenys Watt, Blake Stevenson Ltd

One of the best, most engaging conference summaries I’ve ever seen.

Suzanne Zeedyk

I am impressed by Shirley’s skill and ability to take the rawest, thinnest, sketchiest material and turn it into a document that informs, educates and enlightens. Not only that, but she ALWAYS knows where to put the apostrophe!

Lily Greenan, Scottish Women's Aid

The 'queen of clarity'.

Louise Scott, media coop

Shirley’s a great person to work with. She comes up with the goods as briefed, on time and at a very reasonable price. She’s a good sounding board too. We’ve been working with Shirley for over 20 years now so we should know!

Graphics Coop

We recently worked with Shirley to create a new series of information leaflets for women using our service.  They needed to be clear, concise but not overwhelming – not an easy task given that we work with issues of violence and abuse. Shirley did an excellent job, interpreting our requirements and producing a great set of tools for us to introduce women to our services and help put them at ease.

Ann Hayne, GBV operational adviser, NHS Lanarkshire

Shirley has worked with us for a few years to write our award winning annual reports. She takes time to listen and find out about our work. This has resulted in the production of a promotional tool which conveys Visibility’s ethos and values whilst describing what we actually do to donors, service users and partners.

Fiona Sandford, Visibility

• Editor