Sydney Merritt

Freelance Writer
Content Marketing Specialist, All County® Franchise Corp.

University of South Florida St. Petersburg, B.A. English, Writing and Rhetorical Studies

At present, I produce and sustain content marketing efforts for a nationwide franchise corporation and its 70+ individual locations. In this work I research and record market data, SEO strategy, create topics for content material, and write articles, press releases, educational resources, and internal documents.

However, I worked at restaurants through college, and it’s in those years I cultivated my work ethic and capacity to value what I contribute. I’m grateful for my experience originating in the service industry. It’s there I owe the innate character in which I’ve cultivated my intentions as a writer—the sort of irreplaceable understanding of the degree to which each person encountered is one worth knowing. It’s come with a lot of stories and even more book recommendations, many still to pass along.

I was lucky to work under a directed research program for a professor’s personal human rights advocacy research work in my last year of undergrad. Through participatory education, I learned about research collection, data synthesis and organization, and content creation for various research conferences and projects. More than anything, I was trusted to work with sensitive data that mattered to a lot of people and made a difference to many more. The respect I learned and the disciplined effortful, organizational ability I gained from that experience is indispensable to me. It helped inform who I want to be as a professional as well as the ability to which I’ve grown capable to treat my work with respect and intention.

In writing, I’ve always been interested in narrative. To understand its confines is only to revere the vastness we’re able to stretch ourselves to communicate with both clarity and thoughtfulness, and it’s often our best opportunity to connect with others and even, ultimately, ourselves.