Biography, MPB Technical Communication

My career has had three phases:

1970s, civil engineering. This period was an interesting time to be designing roads and drainage schemes because computer-aided design was getting established. In my view, engineering projects provide an excellent foundation for all types of work: you get into the habit of designing something before building it. I soon found that this approach made it easier to develop software.
1980s, software development. For the developers of software for commercial applications, there seemed to be firm boundaries: analysts analysed and programmers programmed. It was different for the developers of software for engineering applications: we did both the analysis and the programming. And the testing, and the documentation, and the training. In the 80s, engineering software evolved from batch jobs into interactive graphics and I evolved into a technical communicator.
1990 onwards, technical communication. I've spent a lot of time increasing my knowledge of the two traditional tasks of technical communication: namely, creating documents and presenting training courses. Learning about technical communication certainly has variety: there are topics that have evolved slowly over five hundred years, such as typography and page design; and there are topics that seem to change by the week, such as the methods for creating screen documents.

Typical projects:

business documents. For a wide range of subjects, I have prepared software guides, specifications, policies and procedures, product brochures, and website pages. The subjects include digital ground modelling for civil engineering design, process control for steel manufacturing, seismology for the oil and gas industry, and building-control systems. For most projects, I designed and wrote the required documents; for some projects, I edited an existing document. For descriptions of some of my projects, see Projects.
magazines. I have contributed articles to various magazines. The subjects include travel, working horses, woodworking, and training guide dogs for the blind.
journals. I took a leading role in the redesign of my professional institute's journal. more...
I have also contributed some articles: a profile of an award winner, book reviews on website design and colour harmony, a feature on using digital photographs, and a case study of a software documentation project.
books. I have co-edited and typeset a book on technical communication. more...

I have prepared and presented the following training courses:

technical communication: courses on typography, using diagrams, and making presentations
photography: courses on basic techniques and advanced techniques
civil engineering: courses on digital ground modelling, more...
computing: courses for system managers, operators, programmers, and users

I was an associate lecturer with the Open University for the following courses:

Engineering the future. This level-1 course provides an introduction to engineering. It covers historical development, design, legislation, manufacturing, and future developments.
Information and communication technologies. This level-2 course looks at how people use information and how they interact with the technology. It covers mobile telephony, the internet, network management, security, and speech recognition.

Typical projects:

magazines and books. I have contributed photographs to various magazines and books. Often, my photographs illustrate my own articles.
exhibitions. I have presented exhibitions of my photographs on the following subjects: Iceland, Venice, and Greece. I also presented Travelling Eye, an exhibition of travel photography at the Nikon Gallery in Kingston.

I have attained: