Technical Writing
Writing has been my personal passion for as long as I can remember. I began composing stories as a child and kept a journal with ongoing installments of the adventures of a young girl that, not surprisingly, was a lot like me.
For me, the most challenging aspect of writing for school assignments was to finish within the allotted number of pages. In my school years I had an 8th grade English teacher named Ms. English and a high school literature teacher named Mr. Grammar. Both of them made an indelible impression on my life, particularly Ms. English who drilled us in sentence diagrams and cared more about the nuances of prepositions and adverbs than any other person I have since met.
While I never considered writing as a career option, when I was hired as the personal assistant to the CEO of a small software company, doors opened for me that I had not foreseen. Impressed by my careful editing of his letters, my employer asked me to edit the software user guides written by the company engineers. Eventually, I began to learn the software and write the guides myself.
For over 25 years and in multiple companies, I composed every kind of document associated with a software product, from white papers, magazine articles, and release notes, to installation guides, technical implementation guidelines and user guides. Eventually I began spending more time editing other writers’ work than writing myself and developed a style guide and writing manual to ensure company-wide consistency. During the last seven years of my career, I managed a technical writing department that included almost 20 writers distributed in five countries and five time zones.
Let my 25 year’s experience in Technical Publications help you meet your company’s goals. I can quickly produce accurate, clear documentation that conforms to your company style guide, edit and improve existing documents, and produce both print and online content for all of your target audiences from users, to administrators, to technical support. I can help you avoid costly errors and reduce translation cost through expert editing services.
Contact me for help with:
- User documentation
- Installation guides
- Technical architecture and interface documents
- Marketing overviews
- Data sheets
- Online help
- Training
- Template design that can be easily customized for your logos, colors, and style choices
- Expert editing based on AP, Chicago, or Microsoft Style Guide
Samples
User Guide Template
This self-documenting template was designed in Adobe FrameMaker and can be used to create a book that includes a self-generating table of contents, preface, chapters, appendix, glossary and index.
Writing Style
This chapter from a company style guide that I authored addresses general issues of style. Other sections of the guide addressed workflow, tools, content development, and templates.
Resume
This resume describes my work history and experience