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What We Do

Best Writers and Editors is a Washington, DC-based firm of internationally recognized writers and editors with extensive experience in journalism and more than 120 years on the job. We offer a full range of writing, editing, and marketing services to make your complex content clear.

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WRITING

Our accomplished writers take your most challenging and technical material and translate it into clear and elegant prose.

EDITING

Our experienced editors smooth your roughest drafts with rigorous rewriting, careful copy editing, and precise proofreading.

MARKETING

Our experts create content for every phase of the marketing funnel, matching your organization’s tone and finding language that resonates.

Expanded website copywriting and writing coach services. Contact Us.

Business Communications

You need effective content to explain what you do and why. You are focused on your business goals, or your mission—not on correct word choice and spelling. Let us obsess over language for you. Our accomplished writers and editors work on deadline to make your complex topics clear. We employ our expertise to craft blog posts, rewrite white papers, burnish annual reports, and more.

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Government Communications

You need content to convey your work to the public, from fighting COVID-19, to administering Medicaid for the needy, to keeping America safe from terrorists. But you are too busy to worry about proper sentence structure and punctuation. Our team works on deadline to make your complex topics clear. We can fine-tune your documents—proposals, research papers, evaluations, and everything in between—with precise rewriting and editing. Major products in our portfolio include refining policy documents on national issues such as the opioid crisis and formal apprenticeship programs, and local crises such as hunger among vulnerable populations in Colorado.

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International Communications

You need precise words to grab readers’ attention in the constantly changing international environment. You are concerned with global crises, not gerunds. Let us make your complex topics clear, on deadline, in brochures, infographics, research papers, and more. Our astute writers and editors have a combined 35 years of working internationally, in 27 countries in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, and South Asia, and throughout the former Soviet sphere. Our work includes perfecting annual reports, drafting blog posts, and energizing website copy.

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Creative Communications

You seek to add luster and sophistication to your writing, whether blog posts or poetry. Jack London famously said, “You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club.” We offer help with more delicate instruments—punctuation, tone, and word choice. Our coaching portfolio for individuals and organizations includes editing a book of poetry, helping a retiree write his memoir about surviving brain cancer, teaching creative writing at a retirement community, and coaching a group of entrepreneurs in effective writing to promote their businesses.

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Who We Are

Katherine Hutt Scott

FOUNDER AND PRINCIPAL

A decade as an international communications specialist and writing coach, following two decades as a reporter and editor.
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Leslie Hunter

ASSOCIATE

More than two decades of writing and editing experience for major international organizations, including the World Bank.
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Glen Justice

ASSOCIATE

Almost three decades as a reporter, editor, and media executive, with expertise in content marketing and digital communication.
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Esther Schrader

ASSOCIATE

Two decades as a national and foreign correspondent and six years writing and editing for international organizations and nonprofits.
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What People Are Saying...

  • Best Writers and Editors took a highly technical description of monitoring and evaluation and translated it into engaging language for our website.

    Kip Patrick, Senior Director, Advocacy and Communications

    United Nations Foundation, Clean Cooking Alliance

  • In addition to ensuring that all of our content is grammatically accurate and clear, Katherine takes the time to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the writing, questioning an inconsistency in an argument or suggesting ways to make connections between topics clearer. The professionalism of the editing is top notch, which includes brief, helpful explanations behind her suggestions so that similar thinking can be applied on future work.

    Satisfied Client

    Brookings Institution

  • Publishing a volume of poetry did not seem achievable. It was your expertise, your enthusiasm, your appreciation of my poetry that made me believe in myself. You encouraged me to stretch myself by having me write from different perspectives. I will be forever grateful.

    Rachel K. May , author

    Tell That to Your Sister

  • Our Foreign Policy academic partners are very pleased with the articles that Katherine and her team produce for our Graduate Guides. I've heard compliments such as, “They do a better job articulating what we do than we do ourselves,” requests to link the article we produce to their website, and overall satisfaction. Katherine does her best to put our clients’ needs first, is collaborative, and always manages to deliver top-quality within our established deadlines.

    Sherri Greeves, Director of Academic Partnerships

    Foreign Policy

  • Katherine masterfully edited several papers by visiting scholars from developing countries. Most of the authors had never written research papers before and needed help providing clear evidentiary logic as they refined their narratives under a tight deadline. In particular, Katherine helped transform a paper by a scholar whose first language was not English, patiently working with the author in both English and Spanish. Having such a skilled (and multilingual) editor was invaluable.

    Merrell Tuck-Primdahl, former Communications Director, Global Economy and Development program

    Brookings Institution

Contact Us

Please contact us to learn more about how we can support your writing, editing, or marketing needs. Also, please connect with us on social media to stay in touch.

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