Technical Editor

Dr. John Tait

Based in Harrow, Middlesex, UK (NW London). mailto:*********@*****.***.

http://www.johntait.org

Expert technical editor with experience in regulated industry and standards

Employment

Technical Editor December 2006 present . Network Rail, The Quadrant, Elder Gate, Milton

Keynes. MK9 1EN.

• Wrote company's standards drafting rules (in 2007 and again in 2011) with emphasis on simple

modular topics to aid compliance and audit. Led the drafting committees.

• Edit Network Rail Company Standards (engineering regulations, legal frameworks and process

design)

• Coach Subject Matter Experts, authors and Working Groups. Gain consensus between Sub-

ject Matter Experts at Working Groups. Support production sta

• Manage and incorporate comments at stakeholder review stage

• Manage documents with content management system (Documentum )

• Use IBM DOORS for our requirements traceability, BowTieXP for risk management. Write

and maintain user guides for these

• Write and deliver training material (for standards and supporting documents) and process

maps

Technical Editor July 2000 December 2006. British Standards Institution (BSI), 389 Chiswick

High Road, London. W4 4AL.

• Edited British Standards, specialising in materials and test methods

• Managed authors, panels and committee meetings. Coached them to reach consensus (Coach-

ing certi cate awarded October 2004)

• Edited drafts for language, structure, consistency and conformity to house style. Worked

closely with publishing sta and the Drawing O ce

• Trained new team members

• Promoted to Content Developer in October 2002

Patent Analyst April 1999 June 2000. Derwent Information (now Thomson Reuters),

12 Great Queen Street, London. WC2B 5DF.

• Applied metadata codes to chemical patent abstracts to allow searching by index

• Assessed novel aspects of inventions

• Clari ed and simpli ed the technical content for non-specialists

PhD through Postgraduate Training Partnership (PTP) October 1995 February 1999.

British Textile Technology Group (BTTG), Shirley House, The Towers, Wilmslow Road,

Didsbury, Manchester. M20 6GH.

• Wrote a 200-page thesis, independently researched and referenced. Awarded PhD April 1999

by University of Leeds

• Planned and carried out experiments. Developed new ultraviolet-light-sensitive surface coat-

ings based on renewable natural oils

• Published in Surface Coatings International journal, 2000

• Wrote and presented quarterly reports for industrial partners

• Obtained transferable skills at business courses (project management, business awareness,

presentation skills)

• Set up, collated articles for, and edited a magazine for PTP associates

Skills and education

Computer skills XML structured authoring (DITA) including specialising attributes for profiling, Linux (Ubuntu, etc.), oXygen XML Author, content management and revision control (Documen-

tum CMS), Git distributed revision control (example), LYX and LaTeX document preparation,

BiBTEX bibliographic database, IBM DOORS for requirements traceability, Emacs /Org-mode for

project management, Inkscape, Word, Visio, EPUB, command line

Business Leadership Postgraduate Award. University of Warwick, Warwick Business School. March

2011 - March 2012. Awarded August 2012

City and Guilds (9282) Teaching Basic Skills (Literacy) Awarded 2002.

MSc in Colour Science October 1994 September 1995. Heriot-Watt University, Netherdale,

Galashiels. TD1 3EY.

• Polymer technology; dyes and pigments (including physical properties and synthesis); colour

physics; chemical engineering and toxicology. Produced and characterised poly(propylene)

fibre incorporating ultramarine pigment in six-month project sponsored by Holliday Pigments

BSc (Hons) in Chemistry with Polymers and Advanced Materials (2:1) October 1990

June 1994. Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. EH11 4AS.

• Chemistry (organic, inorganic and physical); polymer technology; advanced materials; computer programming; physics; surface analysis; chemical engineering. Project results published

in Polymer journal, 1995

Secondary education September 1984 June 1990. Alness Academy, Alness. IV17 0UY.

• Won Sixth-year Computing prize

• Higher Computing A Higher English A Higher Chemistry B Higher Physics C Higher

Biology B Higher Maths C

Voluntary work

Duty Manager August 2000 March 2002. Oxfam, West Hampstead, London. NW6 1LG and

November 1995 March 1999. Oxfam, Didsbury, Manchester. M20 2DR.

• Calculated weekly accounts and reported directly to Area O ce

• Opened and closed shop, cashed up

• Managed and trained volunteers

Literacy Assistant Teacher Autumn 2001 Summer 2002. City and Islington College,

6 - 38 Holloway Road, London. N7 8JL.

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