A note from Dawn

I'm Dawn Goldberg, Chief Writing Officer of Write Well University and Resident Grammar Goddess. While I can't quite diagram sentences in my sleep, I'm a whiz when I'm awake.

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...")

Books have been my closest companions, and I still reach for them in times of trouble as well as joy. I devour words as a starving man gulps food.

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.

What has creating Write Well University done for me personally? First, it's allowed me to connect with people. I'm a teacher at heart, even though at one time I would have been disdainful of the notion. Second, it's allowed me to bring to the world programs that truly help people write. Finally, and most importantly, it's compelled me to write and create.

Words are truly my life.

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:

• 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
• Business owner with Virtual Angel, helping her clients with all writing projects and issues imaginable

Other serious sides of Dawn

Director, Gaithersburg-Germantown Chamber of Commerce

Chief Operating Officer, Assist University

Presenter, Virtual Publishing Conference, 2008

Panelist, eWomen Publishing Network Conference, Dallas, 2008

Presenter, Virtual Assistant Networking Association (VANA)

The not-so-serious side of 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?)

Here's what Dawn and her blog friends are talking about today on Write Well Me.