Philip Swain Scheps

Dallas, TX USA
Contact

Professional Experience

Here I was thinking I was the only writer who had a 'special flair' and who was willing to 'dig deeper' and 'keep the reader coming back for more' - but it turns out all 800 writers listed here have those same talents. I have experience in a variety of media and formats: I wrote a technology book that I'm 60-70% certain my mother purchased, although she changes the subject whenever I ask. I've done travel writing, ghost writing, newspaper articles; and I've written and illustrated enough corporate white papers, one-pagers, marketing slicks, success stories, and technical documentation to clog even the best shredder. I gravitate toward the following topics: technology, business, travel, history, military affairs, and gambling. (My ideal assignment would therefore be about a craps-playing general from the Napoleon's Grande Armee' who just invested in an Internet startup headquartered in an exotic foreign locale.)

Expertise

Content Editor (online)
9 Years
Writer
13 Years
Technical Writer
13 Years

Specialty

Business (general)
13 Years
Travel
6 Years
Technology
13 Years

Industries


Magazine - Local/Regional magazines
5 Years
Marketing (firm) - Fortune 1000 corp. clients
7 Years
Book Publishing Consumer
2 Years

Total Media Industry Experience

13 Years

Corporate Client List (# assignments last 2 yrs)

Please contact me for details (10+)

Other Work History

I'm actually a fulltime IT project manager with a part-time freelance writing habit. I'm obsessive about good writing and editing and I take my assignments very seriously. I am always looking for a new juicy assignment. (And by 'juicy', I mean, the checks don't bounce.)

Technical Skills

Web Design Technical Project Management Business Process Modelling

Computer Skills

MS Office applications Desktop Publishing: Adobe Acrobat, Framemaker, Pagemaker, MS Publisher Graphics Software Packages: Paintshop Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator Robohelp Web Content Tools: MS Frontpage, Adobe GoLive, DreamWeaver Programming Languages: Visual Basic , VB.NET, ANSI C/ Visual C++, C#, ASP.NET Project planning & visualization software: MS Project, Sharepoint, Visio Database/Reporting: MS SQL Server 7.0, MS Access, Crystal Reports 10, Brio, Oracle PL/SQL UML, Use Case and Work Flow Analysis Project Management Methodologies: RUP, Agile (Feature Driven) Enterprise Networking Design

Showcase

General

I contributed the chapter on Horse Racing for this book, written by my friend and mentor Kevin Blackwood. I did a 'funny edit' on seven or eight other chapters as well in an attempt to add some of the typical For-Dummies groan-inducing humor to the prose. The only bummer? My name is mis-spelled in the acknowledgements.
I wrote the chapter on Southern Nevada for the first edition of this book, whose full title is actually "Fodor's Essential USA: Spectacular Cities, Natural Wonders, and Great American Road Trips"....whew!
Wrote/Edited/Updated the following chapters in the annual Fodor's Las Vegas travel guidebook: The LV Experience (2008, 2009 editions); How To Gamble (2007, 2008, 2009); Side Trips (2008); Bachelor Party Planning - Anchor Piece (2007, 2008)
I spent the better part of 2007 writing this technology book; it came out in early 2008. 'Business Intelligence' is a term-of-art in the IT field that roughly translates to the insights companies can glean from their transactional data. Fascinating stuff.
This is an article I wrote for a military history magazine.