Robert Wahl

*** ****** ****** **** **********, PA 15228

H: 412-***-**** M: 412-***-**** email: acvoof@r.postjobfree.com

Professional technical writer with experience documenting medical information systems, retail applications, transit and rail control, power analysis and billing, heavy machinery maintenance, nuclear power, and banking industries. Reliable contributor to the development of documentation standards, policies, and procedures. Expertise in all aspects of DITA XML, single-sourcing, reuse, flexible output, collaboration, and work-flow technologies. Significant experience writing design review documentation; user, operations, maintenance, and reference manuals; IETMs and online help systems; training presentations, training/student guides, lesson plans, and testing materials.

Technology and Professional Expertise

Windows/Linux

MS Office

MS Word and Word Macros

Visual Basic for Applications

FrameMaker

Doc-to-Help

RoboHelp

WebWorks

HTML

JavaScript

DocBook XML

Information Mapping

Minimalism

Quality Control

Oxygen XML Editor

DITA XML

XMeTaL

ArborText

PTC Windchill CMS

PTC Windchill Stylesheets

Vasont CMS

Professional Experience

JoyGlobal/Joy Mining Machinery-Franklin, PA, November 2010 to January 2016.

Responsible for maintenance and operations documentation for Joy continuous miners (CMs).

Independently monitored engineering progress on new CM machines via SAP to plan for coincident completion of manuals.

Researched new CMs using sales orders; BOMs; mechanical, hydraulic, and electrical schematics; software requirements specifications (via Caliber); and subject matter experts.

Maintained contact with international partners to resolve technical, regulatory, and translation issues concerning documentation for international customers.

Wrote up to thirty 500- to 800-page maintenance manuals per month using FrameMaker or DITA (XMeTaL, ArborText, and Oxygen editors; both Vasont and PCT CMS environments), selecting matching material from existing manuals where possible and writing new material where necessary.

Wrote software to extract significant technical details from 30-page (typical) sales orders and match new machines with generic manuals from a 120-manual generic manual library.

Wrote additional routines to look for useful patterns in sales orders that would suggest new generic manuals.

Contributed actively to the company’s conversion from FrameMaker to DITA, including researching grammar checking software and serving as stylesheet editor for the PCT CMS.

Ansaldo (Union Switch & Signal)-Pittsburgh, PA, November 2000 to November 2010.

Wrote, edited, and updated design review documentation for assigned projects.

Wrote user, operations, and maintenance documentation from Engineering drawings, software requirements specifications, lab systems, and subject matter experts.

Wrote online IETMs, online help systems, and 3rd-party electronic service manual catalogs where required.

Set up extensive customer training programs including hiring trainers, designing training program content, writing training guides, PowerPoint presentations, and tests, and organized the transportation of training materials to the customer site.

Set up an electronic collaboration system for developing documentation standards.

I-squared (TechWrite)-Pittsburgh, PA, November 1992 to November 2000. Worked at a wide variety of technical writing projects on a contract basis including one or more projects at the following companies:

Guidance Technology – User/reference documentation for object-oriented software language.

Westinghouse – Design review documentation for nuclear power plants.

Cutler-Hammer – User/reference/online help documentation for power monitoring applications.

Great American Bank - Financial data processing center procedure manual.

Golf Digest - Online help system for retail store software.

ChemADVISOR – User/reference/online help documentation for MSDS software.

Bionetics (Ketron)-Malvern, PA, April 1991 to August 1992.

English Quality Control Editor and Technical Editor in a high-volume Japanese-to-English technical translation operation.

Edited translated computer documentation for accuracy, grammar, punctuation, and readability.

Wrote software programs to extract and store quality statistics from edited manuscripts for the quality program (Crosby Method). This included over 3000 grammar and standards checking rules for detecting errors and some additional routines for generating graphics to show progress over time in numerous categories.

Designed, coordinated, and conducted training of technical translators and technical editors.

Conducted remedial counseling for technical editors.

Set up a BBS to encourage collaboration among translators and technical editors.

Shared Medical Systems -Malvern, PA, March 1987 to April 1991.

Clinical, financial, and data processing user/reference documentation for large hospital information systems and physician's office system.

Formal Education

B.S degree in Journalism and Mass Communication, Iowa State University, May 1986.

Certificate of Professional Studies, Computer Science/ Applied, Ursinus College, May 1991.

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