Curriculum Vitae
You can also download my CV as a Word document.
Experience
2007-: Technical Writer, Transversal
- Created technical documentation including: complete user manual, online support FAQ, Web site copy, task-oriented worksheets, product datasheets and competitor analyses.
- Converted legacy documentation to the DocBook XML format, simplifying its upkeep. Developed XSLT style sheets to control layout and branding.
- Created a house style guide to standardize spelling and usage across the documentation.
- Proofread copy created by other departments.
- Tested new software releases, reporting programming bugs, interface issues and accessibility concerns.
- Audited internal information security procedures, contributing to the company's retaining ISO 27001 certification.
[2001-2007: Ph.D. and accompanying temporary work]
2000-2001 Editor, LookSmart UK
- One of a small department maintaining the UK and Ireland databases of leading Web directory and search provider LookSmart, Inc.
- Sourced, categorized and wrote synopses of material in areas including film, hobbies, sport and family/home.
- Carried out six-month project to produce a comprehensive list of resources on British literature, locating thousands of quality links and performing a major expansion of the existing directory structure.
- Handled commissions from clients including Microsoft and eBay.
- Trained new staff to use the in-house authoring software.
- Produced HTML versions of the department's style manual and other documents for publication on the company intranet.
Education
2002-2006 University of Cambridge
Ph.D. in English
- Submitted and defended 80,000 word thesis on the historiography of the Imagist poetry movement. Thesis incorporated extensive research from unpublished materials.
- Delivered paper at the Modernist Studies Association conference 2003, as part of a panel on WW1 literature.
- Discovered hitherto forgotten poems by one of the authors relevant to the thesis. Published these, together with commentary, in the journal English Literature in Transition where they appeared as the lead article.
1995-1999 University of Cambridge
-
M.Phil. in Medieval History
Completed two extended pieces of research, one of them a 25,000 word dissertation, together with classes on bibliography, Latin, palaeography and codicology. The bulk of the dissertation was based on original research among primary records. Received distinction equivalent to First.
B.A. (Hons.) in History (upgraded to M.A.).
Awarded a First in exams after each year of the three-year course. Awarded a college prize, the Joslin Prize for Economic History, for performance in second-year exams. Graduated with Double First.
- Diploma in French.
Other Skills
- Excellent language skills.
- Poetry, short fiction and reviews published in small press magazines such as Staple, Other Poetry, Poetry Nottingham International, Simply Haiku, Nailpolish Stories and Lynx.
- Member of college poetry society. On the editorial board of the Oxford and Cambridge May Anthologies.
- Proofread writing in online hobby communities.
- Good computer knowledge with a particular interest in Web design and development.
- Write standards-compliant HTML, XHTML and CSS.
- Built database-driven Web sites using ASP and SQL.
- Familiar with the Microsoft Office suite, image manipulation and Web research.
Other Interests
- Voluntary work for Oxfam, 2005-2008.
- Children's and YA fiction (both reading and writing).
- Fanfiction, on which I gave a paper at an academic conference in 2008.
- Collecting vintage coloured glass.
- Walking and doing circuits at the gym.
- Interactive fiction games and fantasy RPGs.
