A note from Dawn

Words, in the form of mechanics and meaning, have always fascinated me. I can still remember sitting in sixth grade English class and memorizing helping verbs. (And I can still recite the entire list from memory - in case you were wondering. "Am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been, have, has, had, do, does, did, may, might, must, can, could, should, would...") I devour words as a starving man gulps food.

Words have power, despite the saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." And it's a power we must all use carefully.

I became an English teacher because I wanted to help students communicate well and gain meaning and insight from the written word. While the experience of teaching wasn't what I'd hoped it to be, it was the foundation for all I would do in my life. I just didn't know it then.

I went on to start my own business as a virtual assistant. I helped my clients make their already-successful businesses into thriving ones. I managed their businesses, handling invoicing, travel arrangements, website design and maintenance, and all things words. I began to see, or maybe just to remember, that there was a real need for people to learn how to communicate with words so that what they wrote was what others understood.

It's not a surprise, then, that I completely shifted from one path to another; I was still a business owner, but this time I was creating a company around helping others become stronger writers. I took everything I had done, as a teacher, as a virtual assistant, and as a business owner, and applied it to my new venture. I'm a teacher at heart, even though at one time I would have been disdainful of the notion.

My mission is more about helping women entrepreneurs get their authentic messages out through words than trying to make sure everyone understands what a predicate nominative is. Writing well doesn't mean perfect grammar and mechanics. It means that you are conveying your message with passion and power and having an impact on the world through your words.

And my mission isn't just for others; it's for me as well. I want to write. I need to write. I must write. And I want to write in a way that has people begging for more.

May we all write that way.

What you might want to know about Dawn

She graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a minor in business administration.

She was awarded honors in the following societies and programs:

  • Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society
  • Sigma Tau Delta English Honor Society
  • Golden Key National Honor Society
  • University Honors Program, SMU

Dawn has been volunteering and working with people in some capacity of teaching writing and the English language since the early 1990s:

  • Trainer and coach with Write Well U, helping writers at all levels improve their writing, work on their writing hurdles, and become more self-confident
  • Business owner with Virtual Angel, helping her clients with all writing projects and issues imaginable
  • Chief Operating Officer of AssistU, the premier training and support organization for virtual assistants
  • Volunteer for LIFT (Literacy Instruction For Texas)
  • English teacher at Austin Junior High, Irving, Texas
  • English-as-a-second-language teacher at LADO International College

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Catching up with Dawn



Write Well University is the mostly serious side of Dawn. For the more personal side of Dawn, check out her blog at Write Well Me.

(Get it? Write Well U and Write Well Me?)

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