Beth Brooks' Resume

Mary Elizabeth Brooks

beth.brooks@patmedia.net

908-399-7374

SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS

Self-directed, professional Editor, Proofreader, and Technical Writer with more than 15 years experience improving the quality of documents and processes, mentoring writers, documenting complex products and systems, and educating clients and users.

Technical Skills:  MicrosoftWord...Excel...PowerPoint...Project * FrameMaker * Visio * CorelDraw * HTML * Adobe Acrobat * WebWorks Publisher * QuarkXpress * Rhythmx * SnagIt * Paint Shop Pro

Industries: Software Development * Pharmaceutical * Advertising * Marketing * Children’s Publishing * Scientific and Technical Publishing * Financial Services * Telecommunications

• Edited documents for accuracy, consistency, clarity, and adherence to corporate style and standards using references such as the Chicago Manual of Style and in-house style guides as appropriate.
• Mentored writers, helping them develop and improve interviewing, research, organization, and writing skills.
• Provided developmental editing of manuscripts and marketing materials for Work Wise Productions, Life and Wealth Management, and author Donnie Davis.
• Edited specifications and website content; tested new website design concepts and worked with customers and developers to identify and correct problems with website content.
• Reviewed and reformatted pharmaceutical laboratory standard operating procedure (SOP) documents to conform to new template and standards.
• Edited dissertations, articles, resumes, presentation and marketing materials, technical manuals, and more.

• Proofread scientific and technical manuscripts for adherence to style and standards, consistency with copyedited manuscripts, errors, omissions, and compliance with typesetting specifications.
  • Emergency Rescue Shoring Techniques by John O’Connell (PennWell)
  • Applied Seismology by Mamdouh R. Gadallah and Ray L. Fisher (PennWell)
  • Technical Rescue Operations by Larry Collins (PennWell)
  • Air-Cooled Heat Exchangers and Cooling Towers: Volume I by Detlev Kroger (PennWell)
  • Air-Cooled Heat Exchangers and Cooling Towers: Volume II by Detlev Kroger (PennWell)

• Researched, planned, wrote, and indexed user documentation, training materials, white papers, and other technical and marketing documents for print and web distribution.
• Met every deadline, producing high-quality user documentation that reflected product/service changes, improved organization, increased accessibility of information, and removed unnecessary text.
• Documented and updated procedures for the development of commercial pharmaceutical websites Wrote developer’s guides and implementation procedures for web platform components. Contributed to developer’s guides, implementation guides, and help desk operations documents.
• Wrote periodic technical and non-technical newsletters for clients and internal audiences.
• Led a team of writers in designing and writing user-oriented software manuals and web-based documents for programmers developing middleware applications.
• Designed a prototype for a web-based documentation system that saved money by eliminating the need to distribute paper manuals.

• Led a multi-discipline team providing document and graphic design, typesetting, production, copyediting, troubleshooting, and electronic file maintenance services to the documentation organization.
• Introduced electronic desktop publishing software to the company, established templates and all procedures for its use, and trained all staff accordingly. Reduced the company’s per document production costs by 73%.

• Defined and managed an end-to-end, cross-organizational process for developing and implementing new technical training courses worldwide; increased incidence of on-time courseware release from 35% to 95%.
• Improved efficiency of information flow among departments by approximately 75%; resulted in significantly faster response time when problems arose.
• Raised standard of quality for all materials released to customers; resulted in a 33% improvement in customer satisfaction ratings.
• Supervised a diverse, geographically-distributed team developing educational materials for e-business software and middleware in a high-energy, deadline-oriented environment.
• Managed up to six simultaneous documentation and courseware development projects from conception to final stage of production.
• Solved global electronic courseware distribution issues by recommending the software tool, FileOpen; developed a transition plan and new procedures to support its use.

PARAPHRASE, INC., Clinton, NJ Editor, Proofreader, President	03/2003 – PRESENT
BEA SYSTEMS, INC., Liberty Corner, NJ Senior Technical Writer (Contract)	02/2005 – 07/ 2005
DOLLAR RENT A CAR, Tulsa, OK Website Editor (Contract)	10/2004 – 01/2005
NETSILICA, INC., Piscataway, NJ Editor and Technical Writer (Freelance)	08/2002 – 05/2003
ESOTERIX, INC., Austin, TX Editor (Freelance)	07/2002 – 11/2002
JOHNSON & JOHNSON, New Brunswick, NJ Technical Writer (Contract)	03/2002 – 07/2002
BEA SYSTEMS, INC., Liberty Corner, NJ Education Manager (2000 – 2001) Curriculum Development Manager (1998 – 2000)  Lead Documentation Specialist (1997 – 1998)	01/1997 – 11/2001
BELL COMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH, INC., Piscataway, NJ Learning Support Developer (Contract)	07/1996 – 01/1997
AUTOMATIC DATA PROCESSING, INC., Roseland, NJ Lead Publisher / Editor	06/1992 – 07/1996
DONOVAN DATA SYSTEMS, INC., New York, NY Technical Writer	12/1990 – 06/1992
ANGEL ENTERTAINMENT, INC., Tarrytown, NY Assistant Editor	10/1989 – 12/1990

RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, TROY, NY
Bachelor of Communications, Emphasis in Technical Writing, 1989

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

Editorial Freelancers Association, 2004 – PRESENT
Society for Technical Communication, 1993 – PRESENT