Better Living through Chemistry… and Communication
by Karen Rokich
Joe Martin worked for nineteen years as an industrial chemist specialized in organic mass spectrometry. Working in two Fortune 500 companies, he earned the titles of Research Specialist and Senior Chemist. He had only one problem… he enjoyed writing about scientific work more than actually doing it,. So he returned to graduate school in the early 90s to study professional writing and editing.
During and after graduate school, Joe served two years as scientific editorial consultant for the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and several of its affiliates. He worked on grant applications ranging from several thousand dollars up to $5 million, and manuscripts for publication in prestigious medical journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine and Nature. He also served for two years as Editor-in-Chief of Bloodline, a periodical that deals with bleeding disorders. Bloodline targets the Greater Cincinnati patient community as well as medical professionals nationwide.
Since 1997, he has served Greater Cincinnati businesses and individuals with promotional literature such as websites, brochures, newsletters, flyers, newspaper ads, and campaign literature. He has also written and illustrated employee handbooks, instructional manuals, and protocols. He is a long-time member of the Society for Technical Communication.
In 1998, he joined the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Cincinnati’s main campus. Advancing from the rank of Instructor to Assistant Professor in 2002, he taught senior-level courses focusing on business and promotional writing, technical and scientific writing, and desktop publishing with document design and web development. Freshly re-appointed in 2005 for another three-year term, he desired more real-world project work and decided to leave academe to return to full-time consulting. In October of 2005, he opened Pro-Writers Plus, Ltd. in Lebanon, Ohio.