Resume

Elizabeth "B" Holroyd

Resume
Technical Writing
News & Column Writing
Illustration & Graphics
Recommendations


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Work Objectives

Create instructional and informational materials that give people a better understanding of the tools available to them or the world around them; help individuals successfully meet their own goals using those tools to great effect.


Experience

Teaching, tutoring, sharing the knowledge

On-the-spot technical help for Corner Guru clients, achieving specific goals using computers and the Internet; may include individual or small-group training on site, creating written procedures for rarely done or complex computing tasks, and serving as an on-call help desk. Available support includes a wide variety of applications as well as Windows operating systems and hardware. Available exclusively in the Research Park Triangle, NC, and surrounding areas.

Instructor, Carrboro ArtsCenter, teaching Adobe Illustrator, Dreamweaver, digital photography, Web applications (have also taught typefaces and fonts and technical theater for children) (ArtsCenter site; Digital lab course catalog)

Freelance illustration and Web creation and maintenance

Illustration using Adobe products
Patent drafting, M.J. Holroyd, Princeton, WV (samples); advertisements and signs for Terra Nova Global Properties, Carrboro, NC (samples); design, illustration, layout, preparing materials for printing, Digital Printing and Graphics, Carrboro, NC (samples)

Web design and maintenance using Adobe's Macromedia products, Terra Nova Global Properties, Carrboro, NC (primary site; secondary site)

November 2006 to December 2007

Operations support (subcontract) at Lulu.com, in Morrisville, North Carolina; technical writing/editing (link) and illustration (cover template), addressed Adobe printing issues for clients.

July 2000 to 2002

Web Designer and Instructor for Net Friends, Inc., in Durham, North Carolina.
Create Web sites (design and code templates) for clients using Macromedia products; teach client representatives how to use Macromedia applications to maintain the site. (For examples, see Jarvis Lab and Duke Community Housing)

Freelance article for Urban Hiker

January 2000

Contributor to Mastering Dreamweaver 3 and Fireworks 3, a third-party manual published by Sybex Inc. Create (design, write and illustrate) six tutorials demonstrating basic and advanced capabilities of these two Macromedia products.

July 1998 to December 1999

Information Architect at Make Systems, Inc., Cary, North Carolina.
Designed, wrote, illustrated, and coded web-based online help for the company's flagship product, NetMaker MainStation (a network modeling application); designed and created buttons for the application interface; copy edited the application's paper documentation.

September 1996 to July 1998
Short-term contract and freelance

Information Specialist at AT&T in Greensboro, North Carolina (temporary through Butler International). Assignments included creating online help and creating and updating manuals for PeopleSoft projects. (Recommendation from AT&T manager)

Freelance Writer:

  • Features for CitySearch, The Triangle (online local events listings, features, and business sites for general audience); contributing editor for the CyberCity section. (Writing sample)
  • Web design and basic Java Script articles for Eye-On-Objects, published by Hatteras Software, Inc. and sponsored by IBM for VisualBasic users. (Site closed. For paper copies of these articles, please see me.)

Freelance Macro Developer for NetWorks, an internet service provider company in Raleigh, North Carolina. Created WordPerfect macros for proprietary downloading over the Internet. The macros create legal forms and prompt users to complete the blanks.

August 1995 to September 1996

Course Developer for BSG (formerly Imonics, Inc.), Cary, North Carolina (through Butler).
Created courses for parts of the company's medical collections software; wrote a trainers' database users manual. (Recommendation from project director; writing sample)

December 1990 to August 1995

Technical Writer for a4 HealthSystems (formerly Management Systems Associates, Inc.), in Raleigh, North Carolina (a hospital information systems company).
Created user manuals and online help for the company's hospital financial and personal computer applications.(Quotes from employee reviews; writing sample)

June 1989 to November 1990

Trainer and Support Person for Creative Computing by Penn-Dragon Studios in Cary, North Carolina (computer consulting and custom software company).
Responsible for end-user software training, training materials, custom software manuals, company newsletter, and software support.

September 1986 to April 1988

Reporter for The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, West Virginia (a Gannett Co. daily newspaper).
Responsible for general assignment and articles concerning Wayne County's commission, courts, school board, town governments, features, etc. (Recommendation from editor; writing samples)

March 1985 through August 1986

News Editor for The Lincoln Journal in Hamlin, West Virginia (a locally owned weekly newspaper).
Responsible for news budgeting, assigning and gathering; page layout and paste-up; photography, line art, and anything else that needed to be done. (Writing samples)

Before 1985

Reporter and photographer for The Bluefield Daily Telegraph in Bluefield, West Virginia (Recommendation from editor); horseback trail guide at Pipestem State Park in Pipestem, West Virginia; file clerk at the Mercer County Health Center in Bluefield, West Virginia; fast-food cook at the Princeton Youth Center in Princeton, West Virginia; law office receptionist; kennel assistant and dog groomer; veterinarian assistant.


Education

Certificate in Technical Writing from Durham Technical Community College, Durham, North Carolina (February 1990)

Bachelors of Arts, Journalism (news-editorial), from W. Page Pitt School of Journalism, Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia (August 1984) (Letter of recommendation)


Professional Awards

West Virginia Press Association: 1985 competition (while editor of The Lincoln Journal), first place, Best Single Issue; first place, Reporting of Local Governmental Affairs; second place, General Excellence; second place, In-depth or Investigative Reporting; second place, Best Columnist

Society of Professional Journalists/Sigma Delta Chi: 1985 second place, three-part series and column on student parents at Marshall University, printed in the university student newspaper, The Parthenon.


Et cetera

Tutor for the Orange County Literacy Council; serve on the speakers' board.

Member of the North Carolina Writers Network; the North Carolina Playwrights Alliance; the ArtsCenter Playwrights Roundtable; tammug (Triangle Area Macromedia Users' Group)


Tools

Software and operating system experience includes (but is not limited to):

    • Adobe Acrobat (document formatting application)
    • Adobe Illustrator (illustration application)
    • Adobe InDesign (desktop publishing)
    • Adobe Photoshop (illustration application)
    • CorelDraw (illustration application)
    • Dreamweaver (Macromedia html editor)
    • dHTML (dynamic Web page coding)
    • Fireworks (Macromedia Web illustration application)
    • Flash (Macromedia Web streaming content editor)
    • ForeHelp (online help editor)
    • FrameMaker (old Adobe desktop publishing application)
    • Help Magician (online help editor)
    • HTML (Web page coding)
    • JavaScript (Web page scripting)
    • Lotus 1-2-3 (old spreadsheet program)
    • Microsoft DOS (old disk operating system)
    • Microsoft Outlook (collaboration/ e-mail system)
    • Microsoft Excel (spreadsheet application)
    • Microsoft Windows (personal computer graphical user interface and operating system)
    • Microsoft Word (word processor)
    • Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox (web browsers)
    • PageMaker (Adobe desktop publishing application)
    • PeopleSoft (human resources software)
    • Solaris (Sun Systems)
    • Unix (operating system)
    • WebMaster (Corel Web design and creation suite)
    • WordPerfect (Corel word processor)

Applications for which I've written reference guides, online helps, and other end-user documentation range from off-the-shelf packages (desktop publishing, word processing, spreadsheets, illustrators) to mainframe patient tracking and accounting applications to a network modeling system.




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