I cans be rewriter?

I AM SO EXCITED! Eeeee!

Ok, so last week I responded to a CL ad for a part-time copy-editor/rewriter job. A commercial real-estate investment firm in Dupont Circle is looking for someone who can rewrite their promo materials in grammatically correct, good written English. I seriously practically pee'd my pants when I read the ad, because I LOVE REWRITING. Friends who've given me term papers and grad school applications and asked for suggestions usually end up running far, far away as I end up red-inking and then rewriting the whole thing. (Sorry, friends. I know it's annoying.)

As in any other profession, actual for-real copy editors and copywriters need some kind of cred: you've either got to have samples (I have zero) or be familiar with A.P. and Chicago style guides (huh?) and growing up in a family of professional wordy types, I know I can't hold a candle to the real pros. (The test that my mom's editing firm gives? I would fail eet.)

So imagine my joy when I saw this ad, and saw that the job is part-time, and saw no mention of style guides or portfolios, and saw that the ad contained NUMEROUS GRAMMATICAL AND STYLISTIC ERRORS! I promptly responded and said I'd gotten a 5 on my Advanced Placement English exam (true) and also rewrote their ad and sent it back to them. Ha ha.

Then, to my grief, I went to check the ad, and it was gone from CL. Of course it was. They were probably flooded with five gazillion responses from the beelions of unemployed writers in the area. Who knows, I thought, they probably filled the position in five minutes. I was one sad wannabe.

But then today I got an email from their HR guy! He sent me a sales letter with instructions to rewrite it as I saw fit and send it back. They'll be picking the top three and interviewing after Thanksgiving. So I just spent a couple of hours researching Tax Lien investments and Mortgage Note CD's. At first I was like, this is all finance crap, I can't rewrite this. But then I started to understand the products (guess what, there is a way to make money off the foreclosure crisis) and rewrote what I think is a hell of a sales letter. I hope they think so too. I looked at their website, and there's a ton of rewriting to be done... Fingers crossed!