About - Shirley Henderson

I’m Shirley Henderson

I’ve been writing and editing professionally for around 25 years. I work for not-for-profit and public sector organisations, mostly in Scotland. I specialise in plain English and clear writing for print and web.

Experience and qualifications

I’ve all-round experience: direct work with service users; project management; strategic planning; research; evaluation; reporting; even fundraising

I know about social issues: equalities, violence against women, social justice, environmental concerns. My customers value my insight and my writing, research and editing skills combined with my knowledge of their sector and the diverse people and issues they work with

As a modern language graduate, I know how English grammar works. It’s not all (ancient) Greek to me, because I learned that and Latin too once upon a time. There are rules but I apply these for clarity, not pedantry. I know where to put the apostrophe but I also love the fact that language keeps changing

I have worked as a communications specialist and project manager in the not-for-profit sector. A secondment to the Scottish Government, and a spell in a local authority enterprise, mean I understand how local and national government work

I also run a successful and established small business

Close the Gap

Shirley brings knowledge, insight and expertise. She understood exactly what we wanted to capture in the case study and developed a valuable resource for us. She is a pleasure to work with and we look forward to working with her again.

media coop

Working with Shirley is a real pleasure: she hits the ground running with her knack for succinct, clear, accessible writing and deep knowledge of the policy background. Whether writing for the web or print she magically turns a paragraph into a sentence or a sentence into a short phrase, without losing the meaning. Shirley wears her considerable writing skills lightly and is quick and totally reliable. Value for money and lovely to work with!

Parenting across Scotland

It's an absolute pleasure to work with Shirley: She ensures that information is in clear, accessible English that will entice people to read it. Her work is thorough, well organised, meets deadlines and is of a very high quality. Best of all, Shirley will always go that extra mile to make sure that the finished product is top class.

Scottish Government, Equality Unit

Shirley has worked on many projects for the Scottish Government, including producing a monthly electronic bulletin on violence against women issues highly valued by stakeholders; drafting statutory guidance; and a training module on equality impact assessment. She is punctual and highly committed, and 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.

Community Justice Scotland

Shirley’s service was professional, thorough and friendly. We were impressed with the results and her work gave us reassurance that our work was published to a high standard.

One Parent Families Scotland

Each time we’ve worked with Shirley, we have been impressed with her professionalism and her ability to turn our ideas into accessible and relevant reports that capture what we want to communicate. She takes an interest in the subject, asks great questions, and guides us through the process from start to finish. She has been invaluable in helping us articulate the value of our work and communicate our ambitions for the future.

Scottish Women’s Aid

Shirley has a deep understanding of gender and violence against women, so she hits the road running with every piece of work. And she always delivers. In a sector fraught with short timescales, scarce resources, and tragic stories, she’s the safest pair of hands we know. Her experience and clear analysis of tasks and topics mean that she makes links that add value to reports, research and proposals: links that we are too close to make.

NHS Lanarkshire, Gender-based Violence Services

Friendly, professional and focused, Shirley delivers on time and as agreed. I’ve worked with her on many projects from guidance materials to service evaluations. Her close engagement and the way she works really suit me, as a busy statutory professional. She gets on with the task, and gives just the right kind of updates and feedback to ensure you know your project is on track. At the final stages, her attention to detail ensures nothing is missed.

ECAS

Our old website was very text heavy and not the most accessible from a language perspective. Shirley did a fantastic job of distilling key messages. Her input into finalising the site navigation and preparing a style sheet was also much appreciated. We have received lots of positive feedback on how much easier our new website is to understand.

West Lothian College

Shirley used our new tone of voice guidelines and completely rewrote our content, ensuring every section of our prospectus and all case studies embodied the brand, were accurate and also consistent. She was incredibly easy to work with and flexible which worked well for us. She provided a style sheet so we could see her approach. And this has helped us to ensure consistency in our future work as it led to us changing our approach to writing and proofing content. We have used a number of editors/proofreaders over the years and none have come close to the level of detail and professionalism as Shirley.

Independent consultant

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!

Blake Stevenson Ltd

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

The Graphics 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 25 years now so we should know!

media coop

Shirley is the queen of clarity