Toby Wardman

Science features

I was asked by the University of York to research and write content for two issues of their new flagship research magazine in 2008 and 2009. The brief was to interview leading researchers, then to describe their work in a way that will interest a general audience. It was fun and pretty challenging at times. [view]

Medical school magazine

I created and developed Pioneer, the glossy magazine of the Hull York Medical School. It was aimed at both general and specialist audiences across the UK, highlighting the activities of HYMS staff and students. So far I've written and designed two issues of the magazine from scratch, including sourcing images and writing features on the subject such as the school's first graduate doctors. Beware: this is a large PDF. [view]

PR for a national museum

From 2006 to 2007 I ran the press office for the National Railway Museum. In that year, media exposure topped a record £4m of PR value, including extended coverage on national BBC and GMTV and a full-length documentary for UKTV History. Here's one story I wrote that made front page in The Independent in 2007. [view]

KT-EQUAL

I have a three-year part-time contract as communications officer for a national, government-funded research consortium working on technologies for older and disabled people. This is mostly a combination of science communication, PR and publications design. It's fun, if very demanding -- feels a little like five jobs rolled into one. [view]

Game and tournament materials

I'm very keen on games, and it's always rewarding when my professional life overlaps with this interest. Since Spring 2010 I've had the contract for producing all tournament packs and related materials for the UK's biggest independent distributor of Games Workshop wargames. Separately, I also design and write all the publications, publicity materials and rules for a Yorkshire-wide gaming network, including rules packs for tournaments and other events, and a widely-visited website. [view]

Web design and authoring

I recently finished a project to create a complete new web presence for the Hull York Medical School, replacing the School's existing rather dated website. My role was on the creative and policy side, rather than the technical side -- I collected information, wrote copy, organised pages, designed layout and structure, and provided functional specs for the developer. After six months, we completed the main site on time, but background development of new features continues. [view]

Undergraduate teaching

I teach a short course in Media and Medicine at the University of York, specialising in writing for the printed media.

Award-winning political web work

The website I designed and wrote for Richard Corbett MEP was nominated for the national New Statesman New Media Awards 2005, with the judges' comment "keeps constituents well informed at all times. Superb".

A major part of this site, the first blog kept by a British MEP, was recently voted one of Europe's top ten political blogs by the Wall Street Journal. Craig Winniker of the WSJ commented, "between reading all the fun and frivolous blogs it's worthwhile checking out something as sober and sincere as MEP Richard Corbett's". Sober and sincere was all part of the brief, of course. I launched the blog in 2004, and was its main editor until 2006. [view]

New Statesman blog

A few years ago I was invited to blog for New Statesman, a political magazine in the UK, during Labour party conference in Brighton. Although I was working for an MEP at the time, he couldn't attend the conference, so (unusually for that time) I wrote under my own name. [view]

Columns in the Guardian

Alongside the European elections in 2004, the Guardian commissioned a series of diary-style columns written by politicians on the campaign trail - or, in many cases, by their press officers. Here's one piece that I drafted, published on 8 June 2004. It waxes a bit rhetorical, but that was all part of the fun - as was the opportunity to engage directly with the writers of the preceding columns. [view]

University of York prospectus

In 2008, the University of York decided to do a complete redesign and rewrite of its undergraduate prospectus. Needless to say, this kind of thing is good news for freelance writers and designers. I researched and wrote all the copy for the first third of the prospectus, covering everything from life in York to how much to pay for a can of beans. [view]

Charity web copy

I wrote extensive web copy for the Karen Hilltribes Trust in 2000-2002. My old site design is long gone now, but much of my copy is still in use on the new one. [view]

Sustainability briefing

One of my more heavy-duty commissions for the University of York was to write a public briefing on sustainability, one of the key planks of the university's development strategy. My brief was to transform several pages of dense technical prose into a simple, accessible and persuasive piece for a general audience. I won't bore you with the whole thing, but here's an extract from the opening pages. [view]

Corporate newsletter and website

NYS Corporate is a conference and training bookings consultancy based in York. They asked me to design and write the first issue of a regular newsletter for their corporate clients, and then to redevelop their ageing website. I don't normally do private sector stuff, but this was a new departure for me. Here's the result. [view]

Jeckyll and Hyde bacteria

I do regular stints as a freelance press officer for the University of York. Most of my work is in researching and drafting material for general release to the media, often on fairly obscure scientific topics. This is an example of one successful story worked up from almost nothing. [view]

Proof-reading and copy-editing

I'm a professional writer with a degree in English Language and Linguistics. This means you should not engage me in dinner-table conversations about apostrophes. I proof-read and edit texts every day, and I'm even sad enough that I wrote the styleguide for a UK medical school. Here it is, in all its geeky glory. [view]

What on earth does an MEP do?

Working as communications officer for a politician involved me regularly in political campaigning. The most crucial was the campaign for my employer's re-election, without which I wouldn't have had a job either, of course. But I also had a part to play in campaigns on other issues: one perennial challenge was communicating to people what MEPs actually did. This brochure was one of our most successful publications. [view]

Manuscript paper on steroids

This short article for a musicians' periodical was part of a pitch I made to Sibelius Software for some freelance marketing work a few years ago. With hindsight, it waxes a bit lyrical, but it seemed all right at the time. [view]

Head-to-head with Tony Blair

Smith Watkins is a one-man company based in North Yorkshire that makes some of the world's best brass instruments to supply most of the British military. I was lucky enough to be able to do some PR work for them in 2007, and we worked up a great story. Sadly, I was also unlucky enough that our planned photocall coincided with the day Tony Blair resigned as prime minister in the very same constituency! All things considered, I was pretty happy with a half-page piece on page 17 of the Northern Echo, considering that pages 1-16 were dedicated to the Blair story... [view]

Honorary graduands

I researched and wrote short biographies for several unviversities' honorary graduands in 2008, the great and the good of the academic world. Here are two of the least dull. [view]

Writing for German sixth-formers

One of my most intriguing commissions was to write a short piece on student life in the UK, aimed at 16-year-olds in Germany. The piece was one of a dozen similar articles covering various aspects of British culture which were included in a brochure published by the German government in 2007. I no longer have any idea why the German government decided to approach me, but I still have my untranslated original piece. [view]

Choral programme notes

As a bit of fun, I write programme notes for choral concerts in York. Here are some. [view]

The Sprout

In the period around the European elections of 2004, Private Eye had a short-lived sister publication in Brussels called The Sprout. It wasn't very widely read but it appealed to political nerds like me, especially as I wrote a monthly column in it until 2005 on behalf of Richard Corbett MEP. Here's a sample. [view]

Murder mysteries

Collaborating with another writer, I put together three 'advanced murder mystery' parties between 2001 and 2007 for local groups. It was one of my favourite projects. [view]

Creative writing

Yes, I write fiction. The reason it's hidden away near the bottom of this list is that I rarely finish what I start. Here are some halfhearted samples. [view]

Limericks

Ultimately there should be a limerick for every single suburb and satellite village of York, but thankfully this is another of those perpetually incomplete projects. I can only take 50% of the blame for these appalling concoctions, as about half of them were written by a friend. [view]