Hi, nice to meet you. My name is Jimena Tavel, and I’m a writer.
I’ve been a newspaper reporter for five years and now I’m looking to transfer my skills to other ventures. Maybe you need someone to review your copy. Maybe you’d like to tell stories but don’t know how. Or maybe you want to improve the quality of content on your social media accounts. Whatever it is, let me help you.
I’m fluent in English and Spanish, and I’m a citizen of four nations — Honduras, Cuba, Costa Rica and the U.S. This enables me to bring a unique perspective to every project.
My main skills
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I’m most passionate about words. I can effectively document a process for others to learn it, summarize a meeting for record-keeping, craft a newsletter to deliver in a mass email to thousands, write social media scripts or captions to engage users — and more.
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After spending five years in the ever-demanding, short-staffed journalism industry, I have mastered my ability to effectively clean up my own ideas as well as others’. When it comes to editing, I’m detail-oriented, but brisk.
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Producing valuable assets like text, photos, videos and audio to make a brand more appealing is only part of content marketing. I can also analyze data trends to identify what content is working to make strategic decisions based on that; and constantly brainstorm new ideas to engage customers.
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Interviewing is one of those skills that sounds easier than it is in practice. It’s more like an art, just like decorating or baking. It involves gaining others’ trust slowly and steadily, allowing them to feel comfortable enough to speak frankly and hopefully even forget they’re being interviewed. And all of that while taking robust notes.
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Delivering a large project under a deadline requires time, organization and people skills. Luckily, I have experience turning over ample coverage featuring photos, videos, several articles and social media campaigns, and working collaboratively with colleagues across the board.
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As a news reporter, I have spent dozens of hours researching seemingly obscure details. To cite a few examples, I have been able to digest large databases to analyze trends, nail down the outcome of an 1800s court case and contact an elder person with zero online presence.
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Enhancing SEO information has been a daily task for me as a newswoman. Reporting and writing stories matters, but it means nothing if the end product isn’t easily accessible. That’s why I work hard to add the correct keywords to increase visibility on search engines.
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I was born and raised in Tegucigalpa, Honduras so Spanish is technically my first language. But I attended a bilingual school from kindergarten to 11th grade, so I can also write, read and speak English fluently. As an employee of the Miami Herald, I often translated my own stories for el Nuevo Herald, the Spanish language sister paper.
Check out some of my writing
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Inspiring tale
Janiya Baker, 16, unexpectedly skipped from ninth grade to 12th grade at Homestead Senior High School this year. She made history in Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the third largest school district in the U.S., so I wrote about how she did it. This story became one of my most read in 2023.
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Investigative work
The University of Miami, the largest private university in South Florida, experienced a record housing crunch in 2022. I found students who suffered because of the lack of on-campus dorms and the skyrocketing rents off campus. The article looked into what caused the chaos.
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Breaking news
In 2018, an expelled student murdered 14 students and three educators inside a high school in Parkland — the deadliest mass shooting at a high school in U.S. history. Five years later, the relatives of some of the victims entered the high school building of the tragedy took place this summer.