My editorial skills have been mainly web-based, although I had some editorial duties whilst working on The Student newspaper.

As a Web Developer and, formerly, Publications Officer, I manage my time successfully in order to methodically work through my daily workload and prioritise tasks as appropriate. I am used to working to, and meeting, tight deadlines and can work on my own as well as in a team environment.

I have acquired extensive communication skills, both oral and written, including:

• preparing and giving presentations on school reports to other divisions in the Scottish Executive.
• writing articles, book reviews and conducting interviews for various publications including The Scotsman, The Student and NM News.
• acting as MSP in a live testing of the Scottish Parliament before it opened.

I have some experience in group leadership as deputy supervisor at the Computer Repair Centre in Glenrothes.

I have developed considerable interpersonal skills through both my academic and working life and enjoy mixing with others. I regularly have contact with a wide variety of individuals and organisations.

WRITING SKILLS
University of Edinburgh 1994 - 1997
MA (Hons) English and Scottish Literature (2:1)
As well as contributions as a freelance journalist, I have also had several pieces of creative writing published in various magazines, including an anthology of new Scottish writers.

IT SKILLS
As well as my formal training I have developed authoring skills in HTML, XML, VB and Javascript.

I have designed various web sites using Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Photoshop and Flash amongst other software applications.

University of St Andrews 1997 - 1998
Postgraduate Certificate of Vocational Training in IT Application based training including Web Design and Desk Top Publishing. Also covered Systems and Relational Databases including SQL.

Fife College 1998
Web Designer
Designing web sites for commercial companies - work placement as part of Postgraduate course. Originally responsible for designing the Short Breaks site , which has subsequently been updated.

I am also a registered tutor for Edinburgh Community Education and teach evening classes in Computers For The Apprehensive.

In my spare time I enjoy socialising, keeping up with the world of comedy, and music - I have played guitar in a string of staggeringly unsuccesful groups.