6 October, 1998

To whom it may concern

Regarding Caroline Rose
editor, writer, project manager

Hiring Manager,

I first met Caroline when I was working as manager of engineering documentation for the Printing and Systems Division (PSD) of Adobe Systems, Inc. I was referred to Caroline by another technical-writing contractor working for me at the time, who emailed me, "You said you were looking for more good technical writers. I just heard Caroline Rose left Apple. Call her. She's the best that there is."

Impressed by the bravura of that recommendation, I called Caroline, interviewed her, and, recognizing her talents, hired her for the first project I could tempt her with. During my time at Adobe, I had the pleasure to work with Caroline on a number of contract jobs in a variety of capacities over the course of about a year. Each experience again proved the truthfulness of the first recommendation. She helped us create our first full technical style guide; reviewed and revised drafts; and then project-managed, edited, and wrote for a new technical reference manual which was under my stewardship, the PostScript Language Reference Manual, Third Edition. I came to recognize her expertise in:

• technical editing: Caroline edits content, not just style. She spots problems in logic — from high-level organizational issues to low-level semantic flaws — and can rework material to illuminate information, thus improving readability. Beyond her skill in reworking content, her eye for stylistic issues was as good as I have ever seen.
• technical writing: Caroline grasps technical concepts and specifics quickly and documents them in a clear, user-friendly way. Her editorial expertise made her writing impeccably clear. On a more technical level, though, I was impressed by the way she communicated with and was accepted by all our engineers, including even the most senior and accomplished ones. I regularly saw how they interacted with her as a peer and how they applauded her attention to technical subtleties.
• technical-writing project manager: Caroline has the best skills monitoring writing-project progress that I've seen. When we worked on the PostScript Language Reference Manual, Third Edition, she managed another writer as well as a technical illustrator effectively, meanwhile working as an editor and writer for the project herself. She tracked progress and delays, was always able to account for the status, and made thoughtful projections for future work. The project was huge and rife with unknowns: it was an immense challenge. Caroline controlled it and afforded me the information I needed to manage the project effectively.

I could go on and on. Caroline's skills are far-ranging and more than I can do justice to here. Though I am no longer at Adobe (having moved to Colorado), I would be happy to talk with you about the skills Caroline brings to a project and how they might benefit your work. Please don't hesitate to call me at my new employer, TeamShare, Inc.: 719.599.4444 x204.

Sholom K. Surges