About Karen Millard
After more than ten years as a technical writer, copywriter, and freelance journalist, I have recently chosen to specialize in technical communications--in other words, writing to teach, inform or explain rather than, specifically, to promote or to sell. I have also added document and content development workshops to my service line.
I use my own 6-step Document Development Process when developing and marking up content for publishing to print or electronic media. I teach others how to use the same systematic, and intuitive, process to create more effective documents--regardless of length--when writing in, and for, business.
I am particularly interested in using topic-based authoring, especially the xml-based Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA), and single-source technologies to help organizations reduce document development and maintenance costs, standardize the quality and content of published materials, create shorter, less stressful development cycles and, most important, help them make the information they publish more attractive and more accessible to all of their target audiences.
Research Interests
- Content and knowledge management strategies for small and medium-sized organizations or departments
- Information architecture, specifically, how publishers and trainers can use emerging technologies to adapt the development, selection and presentation of information to the motivations, needs and learning styles of individual members of their target audience
- Agile/Scrum project management techniques, particularly in combination with topic-based authoring (DITA) and the development of single-source content
My Approach to Writing & Content Development
As a former student of modern languages (French, German and Russian), I have a deep appreciation for syntax, diction, and vocabulary, and for the myriad ways native speakers of a language can play with the "rules" to develop a style uniquely their own. My portfolio is eclectic and diverse because I take a linguist's approach to every piece I write, and to every document I produce.
