Technical Documentation

As a technical communicator, I work with subject-matter experts to efficiently and clearly explain complex subjects to technical and non-technical audiences. That’s one of my strong skills, as noted by judges evaluating the HNS DSS Satellite Receiver Owner’s Guide for The Society for Technical Communication’s (STC) Technical Communications Competition (Technical Art category):

“Extremely well designed for such a technical topic. Clear and easy to read throughout.”
—Judge 1

“This is an excellent manual. Clarity in the written procedures and clarity at the paragraph level underscores the coherence required in writing procedures with sentences that develop clear logical patterns using a cookbook, or step-by-step syntax.

“Moreover, procedures are written to emphasize action and develop from a balanced set of elements. There is no verbose, unspecified detail, or non-imperative word usage. Clarity (a key to this genre of written text) is appropriate and accurate.”
—Judge 2

Audiences are more likely to read documents containing well-thought-out and engaging illustrations because they convey information quickly. STC judges reviewing the Claircom Air Terminal Installation, Operation, and Maintenance Manual (Technical Publication category) made similar observations:

“Excellent manual with beautifully detailed graphics. Troubleshooting section is helpful and clearly written. Flowchart format is effective.”
—Judge 1

“Solid manual. Well organized and well written. Seems to do the job for the installer. Good use of illustrations.”
—Judge 2

“Very good illustrations—easy to read and understand.”
—Judge 3

I write manuals and quick start guides that are compliant to IEEE-ISO 82079-1:2019, ANSI Z535.1-2017, and ANSI Z535.6-2011 (R2017).

Tools used for writing (including template and style sheet development) are Adobe FrameMaker, Adobe InDesign, Affinity Publisher, QuarkXpress, and Microsoft Word. For line-art illustration, I use Affinity Designer and Adobe Illustrator. For all other types of artwork, I use Affinity Photo and Adobe Photoshop. I am most comfortable working on Apple Macintosh computers, but also use virtual machines running Microsoft Windows 10 to run applications that are not available for macOS (Adobe FrameMaker, for example).

Expert at writing and illustrating:

• Getting Started & Quick Start Guides
• Installation Guides
• Software Reference Guides
• User Guides