About Me

Sally Duncan MISTC (Member of the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators), MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional), MCT (Microsoft Certified Trainer).

I am self-employed seeking contract, temporary or freelance work. I am an experienced technical author and documenter, based on a varied career including Computer Training, User Support and Documentation with skills in both software training, organisation of training and network structuring and management. I have experience in analysing and providing documentation on customised systems with particular reference to Information Technology and Telecommunications and latterly Banking and Finance, including the production of marketing collateral and sales presentations. I like variety and change in my work and particularly enjoy expanding my knowledge into new arenas.

I am patient and cheerful and have excellent communication skills, essential when I need to extrapolate from in-depth technical information in order to provide documentation at any necessary level on a variety of subjects from multiple sources as well as including detailed and accurate illustrations and diagrams.

I am well equipped and experienced to handle all your documentation needs: training manuals, instruction guides, support presentations and leaflets, as required. I am also experienced in proof reading, from all of the above to medical dissertations and science theses.

I began my career as a junior editor for a publishing company and rapidly moved into IT training. After working in IT training and support whilst abroad for several years, I returned to the UK where I worked for a commercial IT training and solutions company as a consultant, building small business IT solutions, IT training solutions and providing professional documentation for all of this. During this time, I qualified as a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) and a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) among others.

For seven years I worked as a Technical Author for Axiom Systems Ltd (now Comptel), a software company in Reading specialising in telecommunications equipment ordering and inventory. I produced reports, user guides, technical specifications, training documentation and online help amongst other tasks. I continued to provide this service for the company remotely from 2004 as I no longer live in the area and ceased working for them in November 2007. My line manager during my time there will be happy to provide a reference on request.

From March 2008 until September 2009 I was employed as the first and only technical author with Quadrant Risk Management (International) Ltd in order to support the technical arm of this financial and banking consultancy. During this time I have written technical documentation for support as well as for marketing and pre-sales including detailed illustrations and diagrams for marketing and the company website. I also became part of a team designing a data model for use in the financial and banking arena. I was solely responsible for ongoing documentation in this project and also helped to determine the design using Sybase PowerDesigner. The documentation uses elements of Excel to map all the tables and design elements at the lowest level with detailed metadata and Visio diagrams in order to illustrate the central design document in Word. This was the main focus of my time from July 2008 until September 2009 when the project concluded, although I also continued with other documentation requirements throughout this process.

I created and continue to manage a Hash House Harriers website: http://www.deepcuth3.co.uk/

Essential Authoring Skills

	Business Analysis – I have the experience to analyse existing documents and future requirements so that the correct documentation can be produced. This may be in the form of software requirements, technical specifications, proof of concept, user guides, online help, sales and marketing collateral – documents and presentations, whatever is necessary.
	Documentation Management – I am able to suggest clear strategies for documentation management and change control to suit requirements.
	Libraries – Library maintenance of documents and illustrations is an extension of documentation management where, for example, diagrams may be used and reused in presentations. This becomes essential for sales and marketing documentation where accurate collateral needs to be provided quickly.
	Proofreader – As a part of my job I am accustomed to proofreading my own work and that of others.
	Editing – I will assess and, if necessary, edit any documents or presentations in both text content as well as diagrams to ensure clarity and accuracy.

Software Skills

I have in-depth knowledge and ability using the following products:

	Microsoft Office – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, FrontPage, Visio, Project, SourceSafe, OneNote
	Adobe RoboHelp, Acrobat, Photoshop and Framemaker
	Paint Shop Pro