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 (275 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.
Website with work samples: https://rrchapman.us/about/portfolio-of-robert-chapman/
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rrchapman/
Work experience since 2000
Hitachi Vantara, Santa Clara, California
Dates: December 2017 to December 2020
Worksite: Telecommute
Group: Converged Solutions Engineering and Technical Publications
Job Title: Technical Editor (Senior Technical Writer)
Accomplishments: Publish technical papers describing converged solution implementation and server documentation using Adobe FrameMaker, DITA, and Adobe Acrobat. 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, Microsoft SharePoint, Atlassian Jira, Adobe FrameMaker 2019. Oxygen XML Author 20.0, SDL Tridion Docs (version control), TechSmith SnagIt. Followed internal style guides with guidance from Microsoft Manual of Style and AP Stylebook.
netPolarity, Campbell, California
Dates: April 2011 to December 2017
Worksite: Telecommute
Client: Hitachi Vantara, Solution and Cloud Engineering
Job Title: Technical Editor
Accomplishments: Publish technical papers describing the implementation of solutions using products from Hitachi and partners using Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat, and Adobe FrameMaker.
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.
AT&T Mobility, Redmond, Washington, office
Dates: November 2010 to December 2010
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.
Volt Technical Resources, Kirkland, Washington
Dates: July 2010 to October 2010
Worksite: Microsoft, Bellevue, Washington
Client: Microsoft Dynamics CRM UE team
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.
Agile project management used when approaching delivery date.
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.
Creative Circle, Seattle, Washington
Dates: May 2010 to July 2010
Worksite: Telecommute
Client: iSoftStone in Kirkland, Washington
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.
COMSYS, Inc., Bellevue, Washington
Dates: April 2010 to May 2010
Worksite: Telecommute
Client: Microsoft
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.
COMSYS, Inc., Bellevue, Washington
Dates: February 2010 to March 2010
Worksite: Telecommute
Client: Microsoft
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.
Aquent, Seattle, Washington
Date: January 2010
Worksite: Microsoft, Redmond, Washington
Client: Microsoft Windows Server UA Team
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.
Robert Half Technology, Seattle, Washington
Dates: November 2008 to December 2008
Worksite: Casey Family Programs, Seattle, Washington
Client: Casey Family Programs
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.
COMSYS, Inc., Bellevue, Washington
Dates: August 2008 to September 2008
Worksite: Washington Mutual Tower, Seattle, Washington
Client: Washington Mutual
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.
AT&T Mobility (Cingular Wireless, LLC)
Dates: January 2008 to July 2008
Worksite: Bothell, Washington
Group: Business customer accounts
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.
MediaPro, Bothell, Washington
Dates: February 2007 to December 2007
Worksite: Verizon Wireless, Bellevue, Washington
Client: Verizon Wireless Training
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.
This required storyboarding and scripting videos.
Tools: 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.
Intrepid Learning Solutions
Dates: March 2005 to January 2007
Worksite: Seattle, Washington
Job Title: Technical Writer
Accomplishments: Create web-based training, including text, storyboards, graphics, HTML, and cascading style sheets mostly for use at Boeing. Some work done for Microsoft.
This required storyboarding and scripting videos.
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.
Physicians Micro Systems Incorporated
Dates: October 2004 to March 2005
Worksite: 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.
Iron Mountain Incorporated
Dates: March 2000 to May 2004
Worksite: Iron Mountain Off-Site Data Protection, Renton, Washington
Group: Training and software development
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
+1 (206) 963-5260
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.
Atlassian
Atlassian and Jira are trademarks of Atlassian Pty Ltd.
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.
