What She Does & How She Does It

Project Management

There is no one way to approach a project, but it’s extremely advantageous to define the big picture and the deadlines up front, as much as possible, as well as your goals, your concerns, and anything else that’s important to you and your stakeholders. It’s also important to know the state of your current communication efforts and who is involved in a project or product.

I spend time planning a project and revisiting that plan often, keeping you informed of progress, questions, and any additional information or resources that would be useful.

Writing and Editing

I routinely interview, research, and compile information from engineers, scientists, designers and developers, other project or program managers, marketing representatives, service personnel, and other subject matter experts as well as published sources, including your current documentation. I judiciously use AI tools as part of my research and editing workflow.

Writing about a subject requires learning it, which means I approach content the way a reader would: asking the questions that subject matter experts stopped asking years ago, noticing what has been assumed rather than stated, and identifying where a reader might get lost. This perspective is one of the most valuable things a technical writer brings to a project.

Additional Services and Capabilities

In addition to managing projects, writing, and editing, I also

  • Support and contribute to projects and teams, including in Agile environments
  • Specialize in working with authors whose primary language is not English
  • Track changes, provide feedback, and maintain version control
  • Create indexes
  • Write and edit for an ESL audience and for translation
  • Design or improve documentation templates
  • Format and lay out text and graphics
  • Implement established industry, publisher, corporate, and departmental styles and standards. Style guides most often used include Chicago, CSE, APA, AMA, AP, MLA, and Microsoft [more…]. (I can also help you create your own style guide if you need one.)
  • Edit graphics and work with technical illustrators and graphic designers

Along the way, I have learned and used a number of other skills:

  • Business analysis—identifying business needs and recommending solutions
  • Gathering and managing process, project, and software requirements
  • Designing and reviewing documents and web content for ADA accessibility compliance
  • Basic website design and implementation
  • Basic database design and implementation
  • Usability assessment of software interfaces and websites
  • Software testing (verification and validation)
  • Compliance and quality assurance

I have also worked as a technical computer animator (in the forensic engineering industry), technical illustrator, and UNIX system administrator, giving me a depth of technical familiarity that informs my work across engineering and scientific fields.

Tools I have used include

  • Microsoft Word and the entire Office suite
  • collaboration, project management, and version control platforms
  • Adobe applications, including FrameMaker, InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Acrobat
  • requirements management tools
  • programming and markup languages, including HTML, CSS, XML, and SQL
  • XML and DITA authoring tools
  • help-authoring and online documentation tools