 |
Technical Manuals written on (almost) any subject
I have about 20 years' experience as a Technical Author, and have been
running my own business since 2000.
I have a Passion for Good Writing
I have always had a natural ability to explain things to people. Even
when I was still in sixth-form at school, I used to give talks to my
local Amateur Radio Club. (I built my first radio from the bits when
I was 13 - and I still build my own PCs from the component parts.)
In my career, I have worked in many areas of radio, electronic,
electrical and mechanical engineering; technical sales (turnkey software
systems) and Software Product and QA Management.
At Bath University, where I studied Applied
Physics with Electronics, I won the Year Prize for the best Finals Thesis
- my first award for good documentation.
Now, as a
full-time technical author, I am passionate about good writing, and I value the quality of good documentation for my clients and their
customers.
Across my career, I was often asked to write the
Technical Manuals and Help Guides. I improved my skills by continually asking
our many customers
for feedback on what they liked to see in a good Manual or Help Guide.
And I am most grateful for all that feedback!
I have studied the best practices of Technical Writing
and Plain English across the
English-speaking countries world-wide. Fortunately, they were all saying
the same things, so I adopted their recommendations into my technical writing
style, and later developed a
Technical Writing Course.
Technical and
Scientific interests and background
At 4 universities,
I studied Applied Physics, Electronics and Control Engineering
to Masters level. This also included a fair bit of Chemistry too.
I have always had wide scientific and technical interests. Before I left
school, I designed and
built radio transmitters / receivers / power supplies / amplifiers, and later I built a complete 2-manual electronic organ
from the individual components. In my early career years, I was a member of the
British
Interplanetary Society, – fascinated by advances in space exploration.
 Freelance
Writer -
What
can I write about? ... What am I good at?
I find that I can write competently about almost any
technical, industrial or business area. I have helped customers in diverse areas
such as:
- How to operate Leisure Centre Management Systems
- How to run a business franchise
- Technical Specifications for the European
Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), which will be the world's
biggest optical telescope,
having a 130-foot mirror.
- How to use dozens of software applications in diverse fields,
such as the
BP Shipping oil fleet cargo management;
pharmacy dispensing; physiotherapy booking systems...
- How to operate a personal blood-testing device (e.g. for
diabetes)
- How to operate and maintain
industrial, 3D X-Ray scanning systems
- I edited the database of all the medical equipment used in all
the hospitals and dental practices in India, via Crown Agents
- Operator Manual,
equipment for freeze-drying of nuclear waste for Berkeley
Nuclear Power Station
- Aircraft refuelling procedures for Heathrow Airport.
What can't I write about?
 Blessed with a pretty good scientific and technical background, in 15 years of
running my own business there was only one occasion
when I had to decline writing a Help Guide - for DNA analysis. When they got to
alleles and genomes, I "raised the
white flag" and declined. I didn't know enough about the science to be
able to explain it confidently to specialists in that area. Fortunately,
they were then able to find someone who could.
On the other hand, when the
Cardiac Research
dept. at the University of Oxford asked me to do a Help Guide for some new software
that predicted the effect of proposed new drugs on heart
cells, I was able to pick up the science of it and did the job: they
were well pleased indeed.
Ask the Technical Author
If you need a good freelance technical
author, just call me, Philip Tory, and let's see if I can help.
I'm on 01452 500639 ... or >
Contact us.
|
