Monica Shaw

Professional Summary

Science-savvy freelance writer who combines the research skills of a mathematician with the customer-savvy of a business professional. Turns complex information into clean, readable prose designed to educate and entertain the reader. Specializes in health, fitness, travel and food with complimentary skills in photography and a penchant for investigative journalism.

Experience

Freelance Writer and Entrepreneur - Self Employed

Freelance writer of newspaper articles, business reports, instructional material, and web content; primary author and webmaster of smarterfitter.com, a popular health and fitness blog; co-wrote and developed WritersResidence.com, an online portfolio manager for writers. I also write social media reports about major international brands for Market Sentinel.

Content Developer - (March 2005 - May 2006) - Enspire Learning

  • Lead writer of an online statistics course for Minitab Inc
  • Co-developed and facilitated a leadership training program to students at MIT’s Sloan business school and executives at Pitney Bowes
  • Served as primary author of Whole Foods Market’s first e-learning training course

Risk Modeler - (January 2007 - April 2008) - Royal Bank of Scotland

Independently researched and reported various statistical models used by the Corporate Markets Credit Risk Department; produced technical documentation and user guides to explain credit rating models to members across the business

Technical Writer - (September 2006 - November 2006) - Imparta Ltd

Designed, developed and delivered a developer's manual for Imparta's development platform for e-learning applications

Software Quality Assurance Engineer - (October 2004 - January 2005) - FTSE UK

Designed, executed and documented software tests to ensure a smooth and on-schedule transition to the “Industry Classification Benchmark System”, a merger of the Dow Jones and FTSE stock market index systems

Marketing Intern - (May 2004 - August 2004) - Uship.com

Completed independent market research projects to discover new markets that aided the ongoing profitability of the start-up company; reported results in written documents and presentations

Graduate Research Assistant - (June 2002 - August 2004) - University of Texas Mathematics Department

One of seven individuals selected for UT’s VIGRE (Vertical InteGration of Research and Education) Scholarship; used statistics to research and answer questions in computational biology, the results of which contributed to the successful completion of my Master’s Thesis

Lead Research Assistant - (May 2003 - August 2003) - University of Georgia Mathematics Department

Led a team of undergraduate researchers in a mathematical programming project to study open problems in computational geometry

Mathematics Teaching Assistant - (August 2002 - May 2004) - University of Texas Mathematics Department

Led weekly tutorials on various maths topics for undergraduates

Software QA Tester - (May 1999 - August 2001) - Wolfram Research

Performed software tests and wrote reports to explain the cause and effect of bugs I found

Teaching and Lab Assistant - (September 1998 - May 2000) - University of Illinois

Led computer-assisted tutorials for undergraduate calculus courses

Layout Assistant - (September 1997 - September 1998) - The Daily Illini

Used QuarkXPress to layout classifieds section of UIUC’s student newspaper; maintained a portion of the newspaper’s website

Publications

Why runners are on a high - (April 2008)

Published by The Daily Telegraph

Minitab Quality Trainer - (May 2006)

Published by Minitab, Inc.

Dietary Supplements and the Law - (June 2005)

Published by Whole Foods Market

A Monte Carlo Algorithm for Closed Polymer Chains - (May 2003)

Published by University of Texas at Austin

When a B[e] Supergiant Meets Two B Dwarfs - (May 1999)

Published by American Astronomical Society

Education

Computational and Applied Mathematics - (May 2003), Master of Science - University of Texas at Austin

Mathematics - (May 2001), Bachelor's of Science - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Skills

Writing

Professional writer with over 15 years experience in newspaper, online and business writing with credits including The Daily Telegraph and smarterfitter.com

Instructional Writing

Developer, writer and designer of e-learning material for various clients including Whole Foods Market, Minitab Incorporated, and MIT’s Sloan Business School

Business and Technical Writing

Primary author of technical documentation, business reports and presentations for Royal Bank of Scotland, Imparta Limited and Enspire Learning

Academic Writing

Primary researcher and author of academic thesis in computational biology; researcher and co-author of astronomy paper presented at the 194th meeting of the American Astronomical Society

Memberships

National Union of Journalists, June 2008 - Present