diff --git a/project.rb b/project.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..df1a145
--- /dev/null
+++ b/project.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+require_relative 'word_counter'
+
+# you can initialize and use a new WordCounter with a file
+counter = WordCounter.new(File.open('speech.txt','r'))
+p counter.ordered_word_count
+
+# but you can call word_count on any file so that you
+# don't have to create a new WordCount object every time you
+# create a new file; you can just use the existing one
+p counter.ordered_word_count(File.open('speech.txt','r'))
diff --git a/word_counter.rb b/word_counter.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9052c13
--- /dev/null
+++ b/word_counter.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+require 'pry'
+
+class WordCounter
+  attr_accessor :file, :file_string, :word_array
+
+  # you can choose to initialize a new WordCounter 
+  # with or without a file
+  def initialize(file = nil)
+    setup_new_file(file) unless file.nil?
+  end
+  
+  # you can choose to pass any file into WordCounter
+  # and the internal state of your WordCounter 
+  # instance will be setup to reflect your new file
+  def ordered_word_count(file = nil)
+    initialize(file) unless file.nil?
+
+    # will create a hash of counts and then transform that hash into an
+    # array of arrays ordered by highest count to lowest count
+    @word_array.each_with_object(Hash.new(0)) { |word,hash| hash[word] += 1 }
+               .sort_by { |key,val| val }
+               .reverse
+  end
+  
+  private
+
+  # get file contents as string
+  def read_file
+    @file_string = IO.read(@file)
+  end
+
+  # remove non-words and set word_array 
+  def parse_file
+    @file_string.gsub!(/[^a-zA-Z']/,' ')
+  end
+
+  def set_word_array
+    @word_array = @file_string.split(' ')
+  end
+
+  def setup_new_file(file)
+    @file = file
+    read_file
+    parse_file
+    set_word_array
+  end
+end