Robert Chapman is a technical communicator living in Everett, Washington. He is available for a variety of editing and writing work.
Contact him at mail@rrchapman.us or +1 (206) 963-5260.
Download Résumé of Robert Chapman, Technical Communicator in PDF format (265 kB).
Work samples are on Portfolio of Robert Chapman. Additional samples are on Robert Chapman’s LinkedIn page.
In our culture–I exaggerate only slightly–those who know cannot write, and those who can write do not know.
—Norman Podhoretz, “In Defense of Editing,” October 1965 issue of Harper’s Magazine
Summary
I have done a variety of technical communication tasks for over 30 years: editor, writer, and web-based training developer. This work has been in computer hardware and software, aerospace, and cellular telephone industries. My products have included technical white papers, training, marketing materials and communications, on-line help, user interface text, and software documentation.
I have always been the person you come to when you need change. There will be ideas from my experience. There will be proposals on what I think is needed. I will follow through on what is asked, even if not popular.
Work Experience since 2000
December 2017 to December 2020
Hitachi Vantara, Santa Clara, California (Converged Solutions Engineering and Technical Publications)
Worksite: Telecommute
Job Title: Technical Editor (Senior Technical Writer in HR system)
Accomplishments: Publish technical papers describing converged solution implementation. Translated engineering to English. Enforced branding and marketing requirements. Reworked content to meet standards.
Collaborate remotely with writers and stakeholders located internationally. Coordinate with Marketing Communications and other internal teams.
Tools: Microsoft Office 360, Adobe FrameMaker 2019. Oxygen XML Author 20.0, SDL Tridion Docs, TechSmith SnagIt. Followed internal style guides with guidance from Microsoft Manual of Style and AP Stylebook.
April 2011 to December 2017
netPolarity, Campbell, California (Hitachi Vantara, Solution and Cloud Engineering)
Worksite: Telecommute
Job Title: Technical Editor
Accomplishments: Publish technical papers describing the implementation of solutions using products from Hitachi and partners.
Work remote with writers located internationally. Prepare documents for localization. Coordinate with Marketing Communications and other internal teams.
Awarded the “Wa” Spirit Award (for harmony, trust, respect) with one other employee for work eliminating a serious publishing backlog when I started. Given the Superhero award contributions to internal social networking website.
Tools: Microsoft Office 2010, Adobe FrameMaker 10 and 11. TechSmith SnagIt. Internal style guides also using Microsoft Manual of Style, AP Stylebook, and Yahoo Style Guide.
November 2010 to December 2010
AT&T Mobility, Redmond, Washington, office
Worksite: Telecommute as a 1099 contractor
Job Title: Editor and Copywriter
Accomplishments: Because of the quality of my work on the AT&T Mobility developer web site (see Creative Circle, below), called to edit and write copy for the AT&T 2011 Developer Summit. Praised for team communication, quick turnaround, attitude, and general product quality.
Tools: Microsoft Office 2010. Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications and AP Stylebook.
July 2010 to October 2010
Volt Technical Resources, Kirkland, Washington (Microsoft Dynamics CRM UE team)
Worksite: Microsoft, Bellevue, Washington
Job Title: Technical Editor II
Accomplishments: Edit user assistance material, including system help, special interest articles, and SDK articles for Microsoft Dynamics CRM version 5.
Saved significant expense without cutting quality by quickly editing content for one localization handoff from 50,000 words to 33,000 words.
Tools: Author-it 5.4, DxStudio 2007, Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft Product Studio 2.10. Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications and internal style guides.
May 2010 to July 2010
Creative Circle, Seattle, Washington (iSoftStone in Kirkland, Washington)
Worksite: Telecommute
Job Title: Technical Editor
Accomplishments: Edit documentation for a mobile device developer audience for AT&T Mobility.
Quickly rescued and saved project timelines while meeting AT&T quality standards.
Tools: Microsoft Office 2007. Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications and internal style guides.
April 2010 to May 2010
COMSYS, Inc., Bellevue, Washington
Worksite: Telecommute
Job Title: Editor
Accomplishments: Edit documents for Microsoft Services Offerings. Primary edit was for LCA (Legal) standards, although included all aspects of copyediting. Material included sales and technical material in various formats (documents, spreadsheets, presentations). While COMSYS was a vendor to Microsoft, I was not a “v-dash” contractor (vendor).
Tools: Microsoft Office 2007. Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications and internal style guides.
February 2010 to March 2010
COMSYS, Inc., Bellevue, Washington
Worksite: Telecommute
Job Title: Editor
Accomplishments: Edited documents as part of a team for Microsoft Services Offerings. Same as April 2010 to May 2010.
Tools: Microsoft Office 2007. Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications and internal style guides.
January 2010
Aquent, Seattle, Washington (Microsoft Windows Server UA Team)
Worksite: Microsoft, Redmond, Washington
Job Title: Technical Editor
Accomplishments: Create system help of a tool used by an IT audience. Copy edit documentation written by subject matter experts, primarily. Some content writing.
Tools: DxStudio 2007, Microsoft Word 2010, and Microsoft SharePoint. Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications and internal style guides.
November 2008 to December 2008
Robert Half Technology, Seattle, Washington (Casey Family Programs)
Worksite: Casey Family Programs, Seattle, Washington
Job Title: Technical Writer
Accomplishments: Document system tests used for in-house and commercial applications to verify basic operations after applying system patches. Create templates with instructions for performing the tests over objections of developers. Perform tests and found things the developers had missed.
Tools: Microsoft Office 2007, TechSmith SnagIt, and Microsoft SharePoint. Based style on Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications.
August 2008 to September 2008
COMSYS, Inc., Bellevue, Washington (Washington Mutual)
Worksite: Washington Mutual Tower, Seattle, Washington
Job Title: Technical Writer
Accomplishments: Write content for revised project management life cycle. Create macros for Word templates and customizations for Excel templates.
Tools: Microsoft Office, Microsoft Project, TechSmith SnagIt, and Microsoft SharePoint. AP Stylebook and Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications.
January 2008 to July 2008
AT&T Mobility (Cingular Wireless, LLC), Bothell, Washington
Job Title: Senior Copy Writer/Senior Marketing Manager (for HR purposes)
Accomplishments: Create user interface text for on-line applications. Write copy for web demonstrations, including marketing communications. Produced Adobe Flash presentations using Adobe Captivate. Edit the work of others.
Tools: Adobe Captivate, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft SharePoint, and Microsoft Office. Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications, AP Stylebook, and internal style and use guidelines.
February 2007 to December 2007
MediaPro, Bothell, Washington (Verizon Wireless)
Worksite: Verizon Wireless, Bellevue, Washington
Job Title: Instructional Designer
Accomplishments: Design and produce web-based training. Trained in both learning content management systems in use at the time at Verizon Wireless.
Tools: Used Adobe Captivate, Adobe Flash, Adobe Dreamweaver CS3, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator CS3, Adobe RoboHelp, Oracle PeopleSoft, and Microsoft Office products. Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications and internal style guides.
March 2005 to January 2007
Intrepid Learning Solutions, Seattle, Washington
Job Title: Technical Writer
Accomplishments: Create web-based training, including text, storyboards, graphics, HTML, and cascading style sheets for use at Boeing.
Tools: Adobe Captivate, Adobe Flash, Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Fireworks, Adobe RoboHelp, and Microsoft Office products. Various Boeing style manuals, Gregg manual (Boeing), and the Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications.
October 2004 to March 2005
Physicians Micro Systems Incorporated, Seattle, Washington
Job Title: Technical Writer (temporary)
Accomplishments: Produce user manuals and on-line help.
Tools: Adobe RoboHelp and Microsoft Office. Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications.
May 2004 to October 2004
Work Break
Recovering from the effects of treatment for cancer.
March 2000 to May 2004
Iron Mountain Incorporated, Boston, Massachusetts
Worksite: Iron Mountain Off-Site Data Protection, Renton, Washington
Job Title: Documentation Specialist (final title)
Accomplishments: Create manuals and help for SecureBase, SecureSync, and internal time management system. Perform occasional quality assurance work, including SQL tests mostly written by others. Repurpose existing documentation and prepared new material for call center use. Provide content for instructional designers.
Tools: Adobe RoboHelp, Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Fireworks, and Microsoft Office products. Information Mapping techniques, Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications. Limited work with Adobe FrameMaker.
Education and training
University
University of Sioux Falls, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
No degree. Graduate and undergraduate courses related to secondary education.
Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri
Bachelor of Arts (History). Also completed 75% of a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering degree. Lacking an Astronomy course to have a minor in Physics.
Training
Iron Mountain, Inc., Training, Boston, Massachusetts
Information Mapping Seminar (Class)
Caxton, Inc., Seattle, Washington
FrameMaker Advanced Course.
Seminars
WritersUA (WinWriters), Seattle, Washington
Attended three WritersUA conferences.
Contact information
US Mail
4404 Terrace Drive, Unit 6
Everett, WA 98203
Telephone
Skype
rrchapman.skype
Recommendations
http://www.linkedin.com/in/rrchapman
Trademark Information
Microsoft
Microsoft, FrontPage, Office, Publisher, Visio, SharePoint, and Windows are trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
Author-it
Author-it is a registered trademark of Author-it Software Corporation.
Adobe
Adobe, Acrobat, Captivate, FrameMaker, RoboHelp, and WebHelp are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.
TechSmith
SnagIt is a registered trademark of TechSmith Corporation.
Oracle
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.
Information Mapping
Information Mapping is the property of Information Mapping International NV.
