Objective
A position as a mid-level to senior-level technical writer.
Qualifications
- Twelve years of experience in technical writing and four years of experience in technical editing.
- Edit own work for correct English, grammar, punctuation, structure, and organization.
- Communicate technical information in active voice by using simple, clear, non-technical language and by incorporating visual elements when appropriate.
- Write concisely to eliminate unnecessary explanations and irrelevant information.
- Gain product knowledge from hands-on use, researching existing documentation, analyzing bug reports and customer feedback, or training.
- Interview business users, developers, project managers, and other subject matter experts to collect, interpret, and validate technical information.
- Ensure technical accuracy and completeness of documentation by testing and validating procedures.
- Protect the interests of my employer by ensuring compliance with legal and copyright laws.
- Adhere to corporate branding guidelines and writing style guidelines, particularly the Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications (MSTP) and the Chicago Manual of Style.
- Coordinate multiple assignments and meet or exceed project deadlines.
- Learn software, tools, and processes quickly.
Experience
Wachovia FirstPlace IT, Charlotte, NC (May 2007 - August 2008)
Senior Technical Writer – Contract position at Wachovia Bank (now Wells Fargo Bank)
- Wrote or co-wrote business requirements documents, functional design documents, release notes, and procedural documents for a Basel II compliant risk information management environment. Maintained documentation in Microsoft SharePoint.
- Interviewed business users to gather and validate business requirements.
- Reviewed work of other authors and provided constructive feedback about structure and content.
- Helped redefine project templates and project deliverables. Developed templates with style definitions and boilerplate text for project deliverables by using Microsoft Word.
- Provided input to the development of a traceability matrix. Performed user acceptance testing of and wrote bug reports about the traceability matrix during its development.
- Transcribed meeting conversations from recordings and scribed Joint Application Development (JAD) sessions.
ettain group, Charlotte, NC (February 2007 - May 2007)
Technical Writer – Contract position at Mergent, Inc.
- Co-wrote and edited technical documentation describing an existing front-end application for entering dividends information and a business requirements document for the new dividends information system.
- Interviewed business users and subject matter experts to gather business requirements and business rules and to validate the business requirements and business rules.
- Drafted use cases, test scripts, and other technical documentation.
- Wrote a user interface guidelines document.
EasySoft Solutions, Charlotte, NC (January 2007 - February 2007)
Technical Writer – Contract position at R.R. Donnelley Financial
- Rewrote and edited a user guide for ProspectusBuilder, a web-based content management and publishing program, by using Adobe FrameMaker.
- Met with support personnel to identify focus areas for product training and incorporated this information into the user guide for ProspectusBuilder.
- Alerted the program manager that the use of a third-party logo in a product and the use of third-party screen shots in documentation without giving proper credit to the owner was an infringement of copyrighted material.
- Created a style guide by using Microsoft HTML Help Workshop.
Wachovia FirstPlace IT, Charlotte, NC (February 2006 - November 2006)
Technical Writer – Contract position at Wachovia Bank (now Wells Fargo Bank)
- Compiled, rewrote, and edited technical documentation describing the architecture of an enterprise case management system based on Chordiant 5 Foundation Server.
- Interviewed information architects and designers to collect, interpret, and validate technical information.
- Administered the team's SharePoint site and created a site map because of its complexity.
- Entered business requirements and test scripts in HP Mercury TestDirector.
Microsoft Corporation, Charlotte, NC (February 1994 - January 2006)
Quality Assurance (QA) Specialist (March 2002 - January 2006)
- Administered the technical accuracy QA program.
- Evaluated content for errors in English usage, grammar, organization, structure, punctuation, and content information, and then provided feedback to the content developers and management.
- Improved the technical writing of content developers; and, within two months, the fail rate for rejected articles decreased by 7%.
- Defined the structure and organization of the in-product help file for Visual KB 2.5, an internal search tool for support engineers, and wrote all the content for it in Microsoft DocStudio.
- Wrote knowledge base articles for a variety of Microsoft applications, including but not limited to Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Windows, and Microsoft Small Business Accounting.
- Used an XML-based knowledge management system based on Corel XMetal.
- Learned how to write for machine translation of content.
- Worked with cross-site and off-shore technical writing resources. Worked with cross-site and matrixed teams on projects that aimed to improve the usability of Knowledge Base articles and to establish editorial and writing policies and procedures.
- Presented project metrics and status updates at weekly, monthly, and/or quarterly business reviews.
Content Editor (April 2000 - March 2002)
- Performed developmental editing, substantive editing, copyediting, and proofreading.
- Recommended revisions or changes in structure, scope, format, or content.
- Provided constructive writing feedback to authors.
- Wrote, edited, and maintained knowledge base articles, whitepapers, FAQs, Tips and Tricks documents, and technical content for the Microsoft product support web sites.
- Co-wrote a Word 2000 mail merge help file by using Microsoft HTML Help Workshop.
- Published downloadable executable files in the Microsoft Download Library (MSDL). Ensured that downloadable executable files were virus free and contained the appropriate end user license agreements.
- Helped set writing and editorial standards and policies.
Content Developer (May 1999 - April 2000)
- Wrote knowledge base articles, technical whitepapers, and procedural and conceptual documents for the Microsoft product support web site.
- Wrote self-help troubleshooters by using Microsoft Bayesian Networks.
- Researched technical and functional specifications, usability tests, bug databases, and customer and support feedback to develop technical documents.
Content Business Manager (September 1998 - May 1999)
- Managed content readiness and continuous improvement plans.
- Consulted with internal groups to acquire new content about new product features.
- Researched technical and functional specifications to identify new content.
- Analyzed customer and support feedback to identify new content deliverables and to improve unsatisfactory content.
- Had average customer satisfaction ratings 10% higher than my peers in desktop applications products.
- Negotiated writing resources and time commitments from service delivery to support writing needs for the release of Microsoft Office 2000.
- Wrote knowledge base articles, technical whitepapers, and content for Microsoft product support web sites.
Content Editor (October 1996 - September 1998)
- Performed developmental editing, substantive editing, copyediting, and proofreading.
- Recommended revisions or changes in structure, scope, format, or content.
- Provided constructive writing feedback to authors.
- Wrote, edited, and maintained knowledge base articles, whitepapers, FAQs, and other technical content for the Microsoft product support web sites.
- Published downloadable executable files in the Microsoft Download Library (MSDL). Ensured that downloadable executable files were virus free and contained the appropriate end user license agreements.
- Helped set writing and editorial standards and policies.
Support Professional (February 1994 - October 1996)
- Resolved technical support issues in an efficient and timely manner with a high degree of technical expertise and customer satisfaction.
- Wrote and tech-reviewed hundreds of Microsoft Knowledge Base articles.
- Wrote original articles and training materials for Microsoft Internet Assistant for Word.
- Rewrote and reformatted Microsoft FrontPage content for the Microsoft Knowledge Base after Microsoft acquired Vermeer.
Rhö Company, Redmond, WA (May 1993 - February 1994)
Support Professional – Contract position at Microsoft Corporation, Charlotte, NC
- Resolved technical support issues in an efficient and timely manner with a high degree of technical expertise and customer satisfaction.
Manpower Temporary Services, Charlotte, NC (January 1991- May 1993)
Manager, Vendor Secretarial Program – Contract position at IBM Corporation
- Supervised about 25 contracted vendor personnel.
- Wrote training materials for IBM BookMaster, an SGML application, and other IBM specific applications. Taught vendors how to use these applications. IBM management decided to use my BookMaster training as a foundation for their training material.
- Presented weekly status updates to IBM management.
Community Service
Montgomery Co., PA Genealogy Web Site (November 2007 - present)
Site Coordinator for the http://montgomery.pa-roots.com/ Web site
- Maintained a genealogy web site that contains about 500 pages.
- Solicited and published contributions from the user community.
- Used OCR software to produce editable text documents.
- Captured and edited images; converted documents from various formats into HTML.
Berks Co., PA Genealogy Web (PAGenWeb) site (November 2004 - present)
Site Coordinator for the http://berks.pa-roots.com/ web site
- Maintained a genealogy web site that contains about 2500 pages.
- Solicited and published contributions from the user community.
- Used OCR software to produce editable text documents.
- Captured and edited images; converted documents from various formats into HTML.
Skills
- Software: Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Visual SourceSafe, Microsoft DocStudio, Microsoft Digital Image Suite Editor, CorelDraw!, Microsoft Visio, Microsoft HTML Help Workshop, Microsoft FrontPage, Macromedia HomeSite, AceHTML, Corel XMetal, IBM BookMaster, IBM Generalized Markup Language (GML), Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, Adobe FrameMaker, HP Mercury TestDirector, HP Mercury Quality Center, OmniPage Professional, HP Precisionscan Pro, FTP utilities, SQL, XML, CSS, and hand coding HTML and SGML.
- Other: Writing bug reports; user acceptance testing; knowledge of the software development lifecycle (SDLC); software installation, configuration, and troubleshooting; hardware installation, configuration, and troubleshooting.
Awards/Memberships
- Shared Success Award for Exceeding Expectations (2008)
- Member, Microsoft Alumni Network (2006-2008)
- Member, Society for Technical Communication (2004-2005)
- Merit Award, Society for Technical Communication Online Communication Competition, D.C. Chapter, (2001)
- Excellence in Teamwork award, FrontPage support (1Q96)
- Excellence in Teamwork award, 24x7 support (4Q95)
- Eagle Award (Jan-Mar 1995)
- Guiding Principles Award for Collaborating with Cross-Site Peers (1995)
- Nominated for Excellence in Office Business Unit Award (1994)
- Guiding Principles Award for Honoring Commitments (1994)
- Office Business Unit Honor Roll (Jan-Mar 1994)
- Microsoft Certified Professional in Windows and Word for Windows (1994)
Education
The College of Wooster, Wooster, OH, Bachelor of Arts in Sociology