PROFILE: OXUS COMMUNICATIONS

PO Box 20042
Duncan, BC
V9L 5H1
CANADA

OXUS COMMUNICATIONS

Oxus Communications provides writing, editing and web publishing services to private and public sector clients. We produce quality work on time for competitive rates. Here are some of the projects we have worked on since beginning in 1994:

Writing and Wordsmithing

Editing and Proofreading

Websites

Other

BACKGROUND

Mark Dickens has a solid background in research and communication. Prior to graduating from the University of Victoria with a BA in Applied Linguistics in 1990, he worked as a research assistant to Dr. Barbara Harris at UVic. "I have always enjoyed doing research. During my university days, writing papers was the highlight of my courses." After graduating, Mark taught English as a Second Language for three years at Fields College International in Victoria before launching his own business, Oxus Communications.

"My time at Fields College gave me the opportunity to do a lot more than just teaching, although that was my primary focus. In addition to 25 hours a week in the class, I was also involved in designing and preparing educational materials, evaluating and recommending textbooks, administering placement tests for new students, cataloguing and keeping track of resources in the school library, designing the school curriculum, helping to prepare proposals for government-funded ESL programs, and supervising University of Victoria student teachers during their practicums."

During his three years at Fields College, Mark developed a number of activities for ESL teachers which have been included in the books New Ways in Teaching Listening Comprehension, edited by David Nunan and Lindsay Miller (TESOL, 1995) and New Ways in Teaching Adults, edited by Marilyn Lewis (TESOL, 1997). He also had the opportunity to put on two workshops for ESL teachers: Ways of Dealing with Grammar and Realia: Bringing the Real World into the ESL Classroom. In part, these experiences fuelled his desire to expand his career focus to include writing and editing and in the spring of 1994, Oxus Communications was born.

THOUGHTS ON COMMUNICATION

"Written communication needs to be concerned with such basic questions as ‘Who is our audience?’ ‘What are we trying to communicate to them?’ and ‘Have we communicated in a way that they will understand?’ Obviously, different products require different approaches and writing styles. However, no matter what the ultimate purpose of the communication is, there are certain things, such as wordiness or excessive use of jargon and ‘technobabble’ that should be ruthlessly cut from all written products. Clients deserve to be communicated with in a straightforward and understandable manner.

"The Internet is growing in importance as a means of global communication. Electronic publishing may soon rival print communication in its ability to reach large numbers of people. My ability to create documents in Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) for the World Wide Web has equipped me to take advantage of this new medium."

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