Dear Nick Penniman,

Please consider me for the “health care blogger / researcher for a full-time six-month fellowship” position at United Republic posted on Idealist.org.

Welcome to my blog.  I have been writing here at All Things Democrat since the editor discovered my blog, The Marble Global and asked me to join the team.  In this space, I research and write analytically about politics with a sharp focus on the special interests influencing our government.  I share the convictions outlined in your mission statement that government should be transparent, accountable to the people, and not beholden to special interests.  In my blog, I have pursued the same goals because I also believe that “this vision is achievable and central to the success of the republic.”  Issues I’ve wrestled with recently include:

• The Supreme Court’s ruling on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
• Corruption at JP Morgan Chase, how they use the ‘revolving door’ to get away with it, and how they influence Mitt Romney and support war criminals.
• The role ALEC and the NRA play in designing gun laws and the role that new media plays in informing the public about it.
• Romney’s fealty to big business and history of outsourcing jobs overseas.
• The influence of the Texas Board of Education and the Tennessee Tea Party’s attempt to whitewash slavery out of high school history textbooks.  (Crooks and Liars linked to this post, which increased the overall readership of our website.)

At my blog, The Marble Global, I have covered issues such as:

• How the 1% is trying to monopolize speech and the public sphere.
• The hidden sources of funding for big media and how the media works for the elite.
• A summary of America’s overall political situation focusing on how “Wall Street makes our elected officials dance on strings of gold.”
• The undue influence of large corporations on American culture and politics, and the effects of the Citizens United ruling on campaign spending.  

I’ve been a writer all my life.  I won awards for writing in high school and college where I majored in creative writing.  While teaching English in South Korea, I wrote a column for The Korea Times, Korea’s largest English language newspaper.  I honed my research and writing skills in graduate school, where I focused on international conflict analysis.  I teach writing in Washington D.C. and attend political events while pursuing my writing hobby.

I would like to join you in applying my writing skills and researching interests to the cause of exposing corruption and championing transparent government.  I would be a high quality researcher and writer for United Republic.  I always strive to write in a clear, concise, entertaining voice.  I am interested in a broad range of policy issues, including healthcare.  In grad school, I learned to conduct research using government, academic, statistical, internet, archival and interview sources and graduated near the top of my class.  I maintain extensive files of media sources and notes on issues that I follow so that I can rapidly publish informed posts in response to news events.  Since I already write on these issues for fun in my free time, I would approach my job with zeal and would have no trouble writing posts every day.  As my writing students know, I understand that another pair of eyes can always help a writer so I would always be open to criticism.  Please help me in my quest to switch careers and take up writing full-time. 

Sincerely,

Marc A. Belisle

Marc A. Belisle

4315 River Rd NW, Apt 3 ● Washington, DC 20016 ● marcabelisle@yahoo.com ● 202-390-6662

International Language Institute, Transemantics  Washington, DC: 2011                 Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Certification

University of Kent, Brussels School of International Studies  Brussels, Belgium: 2009-2010                                                                                                                                Master of Arts in International Conflict Analysis—Distinction (A)

• Top ten percent of graduating class
• Political Rhetoric essay accepted to Rhetoric in Society III academic conference

Connecticut College  New London, Connecticut: 2000-2004                                    Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing and History—3.35 GPA

• Marshall Award for Outstanding Achievement in Creative Writing: 2004

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

AllThingsDemocrat.com  Washington, DC: 2012 – Present                                       Blogger

• Research and analyze politics and policy issues
• Write, edit and publish blog posts in opinion format under deadlines­

The Korea Times  Seoul, South Korea: 2007-2009                                                    Opinion-Editorial Columnist

• ­Researched and analyzed domestic and international politics
• Wrote, edited and published 800-word opinion articles under deadlines

International Language Institute, Transemantics  Washington, DC: 2011-Present                                                                                                                                      English Instructor

• Teach English speaking, reading, writing, listening and vocabulary to students from all over the world
• Teach advanced American essay style, including writing, proofreading and editing techniques
• Evaluate students at all levels of ability and produce progress reports under deadlines

Vote Abroad  Seoul, South Korea: 2008                                                                Volunteer

• Organized advertising events, created advertising materials
• Educated Americans in South Korea about voting abroad and registered them to vote in 2008 election

Semyung University   Jecheon, South Korea: 2007-2009                                          Mokpo National University  Mokpo, South Korea: 2006-2007                            Advanced Writing Instructor

• Researched and taught proofreading, editing, concise writing, grammar and usage to English majors
• Proofread, edited, critiqued, and graded student essays

Springfield School District  Springfield, Massachusetts: 2005                                     High School History Teacher

• ­Researched, analyzed, and taught US and world history to high school students
• Taught high school students to research, debate, and write analytically

COMPUTER AND LANGUAGE SKILLS

• Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel, Adobe Pagemaker, Blogger and WordPress, Internet and social networking media
• Fluent English, intermediate Korean, beginner Spanish