Ciarán O Faolain

Ciarán Ó Faoláin Herengracht- BK Amsterdam The Netherlands E-mail:-Phone: - SENSE-online Citizenship: Irish WORK EXPERIENCE Founder and Director September 2013 to present www.textabulous.com Textabulous is all about excellence in writing, editing, and translation from Dutch to English (registered sworn translator) and French to English. For writing, that includes technical documentation, help procedures, long- and short-form marketing copy, press releases, and communications. Technical writing and editing: I have drafted and edited technical documentation for organisations such as: • • • • • • HCL, for Novartis/Sandoz (one year, to January 2024): one of two Technical Writers/Editors on the last year of a multi-year programme that set up and launched the IT infrastructure for Sandoz as an independent spin-off of Novartis. I edited, and on request drafted portions of, a range of technical documents, from architecture handbooks to configuration and design specifications, as well as SOPs and WIs, for projects such as Data Protection, WAF & Load Balancer, Virtualisation, Monitoring & VDI, and Storage. ASML, the world's largest maker of the most advanced photolithography machines, which produce computer chips (one year, till December 2017): Technical Writer, working with competency and field engineers on documentation updates that were required further to service calls by engineers to sites in China, South Korea, and the United States ITS Global at KPMG International (five contracts, straddling 2015 to 2021, for a total of just under three years)—Technical Writer and Editor on a range of projects, including: • One Platform (OP) Security, Country Hosting, OP Continuous Delivery, and Platform-Wide Security and Guardrails. • For the Network of the Future (NOTF) project, I reviewed the final contract documentation for adherence to KPMG style and overall formal consistency. • Edited runbooks and other step-by-step procedures • Produced from scratch a Quick Guide to Producing Clear, High-Quality Documentation • Drafted and edited internal communications and messaging to member firms • Edited KPMGI’s adaptations of Office365 documentation on Teams, Skype, and Windows Virtual Desktop The National Bank of Belgium (six months, to January 2023): sole Technical Writer on a major disaster-recovery programme subject to audit. I edited disaster-recovery plans, continuity plans, and tabletop-exercise plans, and updated and refined templates. Public Cloud Platforms, the largest IT department at ABN AMRO Bank (six months through June 2024): Technical Writer and Editor, responsible for: • Advising the department on the reorganisation, streamlining, and quality control of its documentation (in Azure DevOps, Azure Wiki, Confluence, Teams, and SharePoint) • Helping each team in the department to professionalise the production and maintenance of its documentation deliverables • Driving the changes required once they have been approved by senior management • Overhauling existing technical-writing guidance and consolidating the current patchwork of pages into a single, authoritative style guide Technical writing and editing in the medical-device space: • BAAT Medical (two months), and Elekta (one year) to the end of 2016: drafted and edited ISO 13485 submissions Ciarán Ó Faoláin • CV November 2024 Sakura Finetek Europe (one year to May 2022): sole Technical Writer and Editor on a year-long project that certified all of the company’s devices under the European Union In Vitro Diagnostics Regulation This work also built on experience I had at IBM and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in particular: • • IBM Atlanta -) and EMEA (several assignments, straddling 1999—2002): • Wrote the IBM Knowledge Factory Style Guide, on which I trained staff in both Atlanta and Paris • For IBM La Hulpe, worked on a range of assignments, including for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO): I edited more than 800 pages of documentation on WIPONET, a VPN that IBM had built for WIPO Member States The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (December 2002 to October 2007): Senior Editor (P-4 on the UN scale)—see below under representative employment Representative previous employment Writer and Communications Coordinator October 2008 to August 2010 (freelance); August 2010 to August 2013 (A3 staff contract) European Patent Office (EPO), The Hague Ran the communications and information-management activities of the IT Roadmap, a multi-year change programme. Senior Editor (editing and content management) March to October 2008 European Space Agency, Noordwijk, the Netherlands Overhauled the Human Resources intranet site for all ESA locations in the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Spain. Freelance writer, editor, and translator March 2009 to August 2010 Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands Carried out a range of assignments, writing, editing, and translating course descriptions and various marketing and promotional materials for an English-language audience. Translator February and March 2008 Translated Strijd om de rivieren by Alex Heezik as Battle over the Rivers. Both language versions were published by the Dutch Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management. Technical Writer, Editor November 2007 to March 2008 Shell Telecommunications Organisation, Leidschendam, the Netherlands Updated and revised in-house documentation standards and a full set of documentation templates, and wrote and edited system documentation, user guides, and technical procedures. Senior Editor (P-4 on the United Nations scale; staff position) December 2002 to October 2007 Technical Secretariat of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) The Hague, the Netherlands 2 Ciarán Ó Faoláin CV November 2024 Responsibilities: • Edited under my own revision, or revised, all major official-series documents in English issued by the Technical Secretariat • Edited press releases, as requested • Established and revised editorial standards for the Secretariat (including the new OPCW Editorial Manual, an overview of which I presented to staff from all divisions) • Provided training to staff as required, on OPCW style and usage, and on the do’s and don’ts of drafting Technical Writer – October 1999 to August 2002 (overlapping with IBM) Agilisys (now Infor) Rijswijk, the Netherlands Wrote online documentation, including installation manuals and help procedures, and designed and wrote courseware for the company’s supply-chain-management software packages. Senior Editor, Project Editor October 1999 to November 2002 IBM Knowledge Factory, La Hulpe, Belgium Edited courseware and documentation for a wide range of projects, both in-house and for IBM customers, including: • As Editor on a project for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), finalised 800 pages of courseware and documentation on WIPONET, a virtual private network developed by IBM for WIPO Member States • Provided training to project writers on the do’s and don’ts of drafting as well as on the Knowledge Factory Style Guide (on which see the next position) Editor, Senior Editor January 1998 to October 1999 IBM Knowledge Factory, Atlanta, Georgia, United States Edited documentation for a range of in-house and client projects, such as courses on SQL; overhauled the Knowledge Factory Style Guide, bringing it into line with the IBM Style Guide. University Instructor (Brittain Fellow) August 1995 to December 1997 Georgia Institute of Technology, Department of Literature, Communication, and Culture Designed and taught courses in technical writing, cultural studies, literature, and public speaking. University Instructor September 1992 to May 1994 College of Arts and Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York Taught beginning and intermediate French; designed and taught introductory writing courses in Comparative Literature. 3 Ciarán Ó Faoláin EDUCATION Degrees Master of Arts in Comparative Literature (French, German, and Russian Literature), 1995 Cornell University Graduate School, Ithaca, New York, United States CV November 2024 CLICK TO VIEW Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude and with distinction in all subjects, 1990 GPA: 3.95/4.0 Comparative Literature and French Literature (double major) Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences Honours and fellowships Merrill Presidential Scholar, Cornell University, 1990 "Merrill Presidential Scholars are graduating Cornell seniors who have demonstrated outstanding scholastic achievement, strong leadership ability, and the potential for contributing to society. [They] rank among the top one percent of the class in their respective schools and colleges.” CLICK TO VIEW A. D. White Graduate Fellowship (full funding for five years, with no teaching responsibilities for the first three), 1990 – 1995 Mellon Foundation Fellowship, 1995 and 1996 (two awards) Graduate Record Examinations, 1990 Language: 790/800—99th percentile (US) Analytical: 760/800—96th percentile (US) LANGUAGES English: Native Dutch: Fluent French: Fluent German: Common European Framework of Reference level C1 (as at August 2010); now rusty. Russian: Three years’ undergraduate study, GPA 4.3 (A+), now really rusty. PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATIONS AND MEMBERSHIP Certifications PRINCE2 Foundation Examination, April 2011 PRINCE2 Registered Practitioner, June 2011 Managing Successful Programmes Foundation Examination, April 2010 Membership in professional organisations Society of English Native-Speaking Editors, SENSE-online 4 Ciarán Ó Faoláin CV November 2024 Books I have translated or copy-edited Translations from French The Three Regional Human Rights Courts in Context: Justice That Cannot Be Taken for Granted by Laurence Burgorgue-Larsen, Professeur de droit public à l'Ecole de droit de la Sorbonne (Paris 1) Oxford University Press, March 2024 “It is a beautiful rendition: the English closely reflects the intention of the original, even as it renders its necessarily specialised discourse in an idiom appropriate to its new audiences. For his rigorous efforts and his dedication to the task at hand during our work together, I would like to extend to Ciarán my sincerest and most heartfelt thanks.” – Laurence Burgorgue-Larsen Paris, December 2022 Brutalism in Belgium,- Prisme Editions, October 2024 Text in French and English “Brutalism in Belgium highlights the main Brutalist buildings in Belgium, which were constructed between 1950 and 1980. These buildings are at a watershed moment: they are being threatened with demolition, are being transformed, or are simply being abandoned. The book lists 60 buildings—in Brussels, Liège, Namur, Antwerp, Ghent, Louvain-la-Neuve, Leuven, Turnhout, Charleroi, Mons, Hasselt, Dilbeek, Harelbeke, and Oostende—whose fate is now hanging in the balance.” – From the introduction 5 Ciarán Ó Faoláin CV November 2024 Spaces of Communication: Introduction to Semio-Pragmatics by Roger Odin Commissioned by Presses Universitaires de Grenoble Forthcoming from Amsterdam University Press, 2021 “I appreciate the fact that [Ciarán]…asks me and himself questions, and that he has presented the translation in two modes: a facingpage version and the English on its own. That helps a lot.” - Correspondence from the author to the publisher Translations from Dutch Dangerous Drugs: the Self-Presentation of the Merchant-Poet Jan Six van Chandelier (1620 – 1695) by Ronny Spaans Amsterdam University Press, 2020 “I am most grateful to the translator of this book, Ciarán Ó Faoláin, not only for producing a fine translation, but also for the many helpful comments and suggestions for improvement he offered along the way.” - From the acknowledgements Political Science and the Changing Face of Dutch Politics [Published with the title to the right here] Edited volume Amsterdam University Press, 2017 “Politics is about conflict, struggle, decision-making, power and influence. But not every conflict and not every situation in which power is exercised is widely regarded as politics. A football coach who decides to leave a player on the bench because he has given him a bit of lip, is exerting power, and there is conflict here, too.” - From the translated introduction Retail Marketing by Frank Quix Noordhoff, 2020 “Frank is really pleased with your translation." - Correspondence from the author’s office 6 Ciarán Ó Faoláin CV November 2024 Battle over the Rivers: Two Hundred Years of River Policy in the Netherlands by Alex Heezik Dutch Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, 2008 RoboWok A novel by Bas van Kesteren (“Alex T. Harper”) Forthcoming in 2023 “Ciarán has transformed my initial effort in Dutch into a really fine read in English. The text is replete with idiomatic expressions and turns of phrase that give it a really natural feel. I also really liked Ciarán's way of working: he was really invested in the text, even to the point of coming up with suggestions here and there on one and another detail in the storyline or on dialog between the characters. I can’t recommend Ciarán highly enough, and should I ever get around to writing another book, I will be getting in touch with him right away.” - The author Books I have copy-edited Benjamin and Adorno on Art and Criticism by Thijs Lijster Amsterdam University Press, 2017 “I thank my publisher, Amsterdam University Press, for the meticulous reviewing and editing process.” - From the acknowledgements 7 Ciarán Ó Faoláin CV November 2024 Gum Arabic: The Golden Tears of the Acacia Tree by Dorrit van Dalen Leiden University Press and University of Chicago Press, 2019 “I want to say a final thank you…I am especially grateful for your saving me from humbug and lack of concentration. Other editors could have done the technical thing, but your advice was really what I wanted and very much appreciated again.” “I do owe you so much. Did you see Kaori O’Connor’s comment, that the book is ‘very well written’?” - Correspondence from the author The Internet of Women: Accelerating Cultural Change Edited volume River Publishers, 2016 "The Internet of Women provides genuine, serious examples from over 30 countries." - From a review by Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigslist Authenticity? Observations and Artistic Strategies in the PostDigital Age Edited volume Valiz Press, 2017 “The book is out, and we are very happy with it. Also thanks to you!” - Correspondence from one of the editors 8