Karen Coker

Hello, All. Welcome to my summary page!

I am a science/research writer and editor and a statistician as well. With my writing and editing, I do not have to become an expert in all scientific fields if I am writing for a client. I do, however, need to gain the knowledge required to use terms correctly and write logically. Thus I use research documentation to extract relevant information to include in the report at the appropriate level of detail; at other times I use the documentation to audit other writers’ reports. So developing knowledge of the scientific subect matter to a fair degree is a regular part of my work. Of course, if I write for my own research project, I learn it thoroughly.

For much of my career, I have also performed statistical analysis using SAS programming. I applied a variety of techniques in clinical trials, investigator-initiated clinical research, public policy and programs, and maternal and child health. The analyses included descriptive statistics, data summary displays, pairwise comparisons, logistic regression, analysis of variance, and analysis of covariance, to name a few. I also applied my skills in the planning of research projects and protocols by calculating sample sizes.

The writing and editing I do benefit from the background I have in statistics, research designs, and protocols. In addition, strong skills in grammar, composition, and formatting are essential. The formatting that I currently apply requires great detail and mastery of desktop publishing and other software.

I also have experience in programming word processing macros (Word/VBA-based) in my current work. In past job positions, I performed statistics and wrote statistical programs (SAS) in a variety of fields such as public administration, maternal and child health, clinical research, and clinical trials. I also have developed research protocols and taught and mentored others in research project planning.

The teaching and mentoring included social science students in a master’s program and also clinical researchers and residents at a medical center. In both of these settings, I guided people in research design, data analysis plans (including sample size estimates), and requirements for research safety and ethics.

Thank you for visiting!