My name is Neil Victor Stern, and I am a writer in historical, archaeological, and cultural subject matter. I am based in Northern Virginia, where I am active in spreading awareness of local issues of historic preservation. My other main areas of work concern recreation, the visual arts, and regional culture. I am currently a student at Northern Virginia Community College, where I am studying writing and communication.

I am interested in writing historical surveys in a state or local government environment or non-profit. My other interests include editing, writing short articles and press releases, and writing advertisement copy.

Short Term Goals

Currently, I work for both the Fairfax County Park Authority and the Loudoun County Department of Parks and Recreation, where I teach aquatics at both locations. My short term goals are to write documents for my current vocation within these two organizations, and to seek other local employment in a technical or business writing capacity.

Long Term Goals

In the long term, I seek to complete two short stories I am writing and see them published. I also wish to write essays and short articles for local publications. Professionally, I would like to eventually see myself writing reports and analyses for a museum, historical institution, or non-profit.

While collecting and revising the artifacts included here, I have had time to consider the various differences in formatting between genres. These differences stand out and are easier to contemplate once the various genres of document are collected into one place. Then, any changes  that are made to documents are an effort to assert the identity of each document’s genre. Two examples of this are adding subject matter background text and a diagram to a user manual and adding context-specific headings and tables to a report.

I chose these artifacts for this portfolio, because I wanted to show writing in the active voice in both a business tone and an instructional tone. I also wanted to show passive voice in some writing, such as narrative. I believe the blog example I have included has allowed me to practice a little of each. Writing such as this has taught me to trim sentences and find the action, cause, and intent of a specific communication.

All of the artifacts herein have required revision, and some will still be revised as I continue to learn technique. Future documents should reflect my growing ability to show clarity and conciseness when defining the rhetorical situation.