Testimonials for Professional Word Services
Industry awards entry writing
Nilsen (Vic) has a long-standing working relationship with Paula Ruzek and her dedicated writing team. For the past eight years, Professional Word Services has produced our NECA Excellence Award submissions, with 2017 proving our year to truly shine. Paula and her writers worked with four of our project teams to capture, in detail, the meticulous planning, design and execution of major electrical and data communication works.
In 2017, with the writing team’s detailed preparation, Nilsen (Vic) secured four wins from four submissions in NECA’s Victorian division awards – an unprecedented result for us. In going on to the national finals, we achieved one national category win, too.
A pleasure to work with and highly professional, I recommend Paula Ruzek to anyone seeking professional writing services.
Rob Selymesi, General Manager, Nilsen (Vic) Pty Ltd
___
Editing and proofreading
Paula Ruzek has proofread and edited work for Coretext for many years, including magazines, reports and fact sheets in areas of research and development, agriculture, fisheries and education. She is a personable and engaged contractor who has a thoughtful and thorough approach to her work. She displays an exceptional commitment to client deadlines and plays a vital role shaping the quality, tone and consistency of the products she works on. We happily recommend her services.
Adrienne Dolphin, General Manager, Coretext
___
Tender writing
Paula Ruzek was engaged by the Victorian Interpreting & Translating Service (VITS) in 2013 to assist us with the preparation and development of tender submissions. Since that date she has completed five tender responses for the company. We have a 100% success rate. This result is a clear reflection of the quality of her work.
She is thorough, methodical, well organised and totally professional. The final documents are of the highest quality and because of her expertise in this field she ensures that they clearly conform to the requirements of the tender. Paula is a pleasure to work with and I cannot recommend her more highly.
George Bisas, CEO, Victorian Interpreting and Translating Service (VITS) (2010-15)
___
Tender writing
I just wanted to say thank you for all your help with the proposal. It was well received by the client and their feedback has been very complimentary. Without your help, I doubt if we would have got to the finished product in the time available.
KPMG Partner
___
Editing and proofreading
I’ve known Paula since she first established Professional Word Services and my company, SUBStitution, has used her services for more than a decade. Paula’s daily newspaper background shines through in her unwavering commitment to deadlines, accuracy and smooth work flow. When Paula takes on a project, you know it will be delivered — on time, on budget and to a high standard.
Anne Burgi, Director, SUBStitution
___
Professional association magazine editor
I had the privilege to work with Paula Ruzek over a 10-year period on two leading human resources publications, HRMonthly and Inside AHRI.
As Managing Editor I relied heavily on Paula as editor to manage and execute all editorial coordination and collection; editorial compilation and pagination; pre-print and completion to print through to distribution of these two very different monthly publications.
Paula is a gem. She is intelligent, insightful, hardworking, completely trustworthy, a skilled wordsmith, a technologist, a project manager, a relationship builder and a thinker and doer.
She is wonderful to work with as she is collaborative by nature and although a self-starting autonomist, is equally a team player. I would strongly suggest that Paula is one of the best independent operators in the business.
David Wallage, Life Fellow, Australian Human Resources Institute, founder and former Managing Editor, HRMonthly and Inside AHRI
___
Proofreading and editing services
Paula Ruzek’s contribution to the Business Review Weekly (BRW) production desk was invaluable. She was mainly involved in proofreading and the editing of the contents page, which meant that she had an overall final view of the magazine.
From this perspective, she was able to see inconsistencies and errors in the editorial content. The errors might seem small, such as a little word such as million instead of billion, but as you can imagine that has great impact in a business magazine such as BRW.
Paula’s energy and enthusiasm, and love of words and a good story are qualities that make her a great asset in any editorial team.
Anna Wolf, Production Manager, BRW Magazine (1999-2006)
___
Editorial services to a professional association
It was my pleasure to work closely with Paula Ruzek for six years when she was editor of HRMonthly and Inside AHRI, national publications of the Australian Human Resources Institute. Paula did an absolutely outstanding job. Apart from producing high-quality work, Paula was a delight to work with — she made things easy for me and other contributors.
Paula is one of the most organised people I have ever worked with. She never missed a production deadline, although people like me and many others did. As a consequence, she would continually work with us, providing fantastic support in helping us with our contributions about AHRI, both writing and rewriting our work. She never made us feel inadequate and was never judgmental, only helpful and supportive.
At the same time, Paula ensured that the editorial content was of high quality and her professional work with HRMonthly was top class. Her passion and energy were keys to her success with this publication.
Paula displayed excellent technical skills and fine people management qualities — it is rare to fine both these dimensions in one person.
Sandra Cormack, former National Professional Development Manager, Australian Human Resources Institute
Paula Ruzek provided a range of writing and editing services to the Australian Human Resources Institute, which I headed as National President for several years.
Every publication we produced spoke to more than 10,000 members, all with a different involvement in human resources. Paula’s capacity to quickly pick up the tone and language, and help us minimise the jargon, was nothing short of amazing.
A true professional, she presents written information clearly and interestingly, yet also has the interpersonal skills to edit what people have written and have them feel happy about the changes.
Part of my role was to write a monthly column for our newspaper, Inside AHRI. Paula would take my draft and work her magic so that when I saw it next, it was so much more alive, succinct and interesting.
Professionally, I have worked in executive recruitment for many years. Having recommended Paula to a client organisation of mine, they have since been glowing about her enhancement of their written material, whether marketing collateral, online presence or testimonials.
I would not hesitate to recommend Professional Word Services to any organisation or individual needing to create a powerful pathway through the thicket of words that confronts us every day.
Jim Bailey, Partner, BaileyShaw, and former National President, Australian Human Resources Institute
___
Publication production services
Paula Ruzek is a rarity among journalists, being able to take a holistic view of the entire production process. This translates into a practical, hands-on ability to produce layouts and understand the essential role of revenue (i.e. advertising) and, consequently, the need to place display ads to maximum benefit.
Paula is exceptionally disciplined, which means she is able to not only set (and accept) tight deadlines, but also to meet them.
She is assiduous and her attention to detail is impressive. During our many years of working together on HRMonthly we were based in different production offices, which meant her rigorous communication skills were essential.
She was also attending to the needs of other diverse clients, which was a test of her considerable organisational and time-management skills that she passed with flying colours.
Paula is an exceptional wordsmith who delivers much, much more.
David Fallick, Publisher, Indigo Arch Pty Ltd, and former Advertising Manager, HRMonthly, the national magazine of the Australian Human Resources Institute