Experienced Technical Writer and Illustrator
Resume:
Barth Richards
Aurora, IL 60504
*************@*******.***
www.linkedin.com/in/barthrichards
Technical Writer and Illustrator
I am an accomplished and successful writer and illustrator who has broad experience with a variety of firms, including Fortune 500 corporations, a contract house, and an entrepreneurial company. I have written and illustrated descriptive and procedural documents for a wide range of audiences with various levels of knowledge, from highly-trained technical personnel to average consumers. I have a track record of excellence in developing documentation for a variety of products and a reputation for adapting to new technologies, processes, and procedures.
Accomplishments
Greatly increased the number of illustrations in installation manuals at Emerson Network Power, improving usability.
Pioneered what became an organization-wide practice in Bell Laboratories’ Technical Publications Department by being the first writer in the department to prepare a document for electronic media publication.
Improved the quality of Tellabs documentation, saved time in producing and updating illustrations, and allowed for electronic layout of documents instead of manual paste-up by being one of their first Technical Writers to create online illustrations rather than relying on hardcopy graphics from the art department.
Experience
Emerson Network Power
Warrenville, Illinois
Senior Technical Writer
2002 to 2008
Planned, researched, wrote, illustrated, and formatted field installation manuals for Outside Plant (OSP) equipment.
Wrote and illustrated an average of twelve new installation documents each year and updated many others.
"Set the standard" for the company's installation documentation according to one Product Manager.
Reduced the number of customer questions for technical support by providing clearer documentation according to one Product Manager.
Praised on many occasions by Product Managers for greater productivity and quality than predecessors.
Consistently rated as "exceeds expectations" by supervisor.
Negotiated schedules, obtained source information, and conducted document reviews with Product Managers and Engineers.
Alcatel-Lucent
Naperville, Illinois
Information Developer (Technical Writer)
1997 to 2002
Formerly Lucent Technologies. Planned, researched, wrote, illustrated, and formatted end-user documents. Wrote both descriptive and procedural documentation. Analyzed customer needs and edited, rewrote, and redesigned existing documents to meet those needs. Often wrote about difficult subject matter.
Worked on numerous types of documents, often several hundred pages in length. Earned a reputation for being able to handle any project.
Wrote and illustrated on-line help screens for a Graphical User Interface (GUI). Improved the consistency of all help screens and saved time and effort for all team members by developing material that could easily be reused by other writers.
Produced two different versions of a document from the same set of source files, saving time and effort and maintaining consistency between the two versions.
Wrote and illustrated documents that combined descriptive and procedural information. Team leader said he was impressed with one such document's quality, given the difficulty of the subject matter and the chaotic state of the product's development.
Praised by successor for project organization and for keeping detailed records. Successor told her supervisor that if it were not for this, she would not have been able to continue the project.
Butler Service Group
Montvale, New Jersey
Technical Writer
1987 to 1997
Contracted to AT&T Bell Laboratories, Naperville, Illinois. Planned, researched, wrote, illustrated, and formatted end-user documents.
Wrote software documentation for digital telephone switching equipment and specifications documents for a U.S. Government project.
Wrote and illustrated a consumer product manual that was praised by the Product Manager, who had been unsatisfied with his previous experience with another documentation organization. He said that this time the documentation had been "the smoothest part of the process."
Tellabs
Naperville, Illinois
Technical Writer
1985 to 1987
Wrote and illustrated new documentation and improved the quality of existing documentation. Praised by supervisor for productivity and for determination and ability to learn about the products documented.
Other Experience
Recently has written educational materials and has done some freelance work.
Education
College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Digital Prepress Certificate (anticipated completion in 2010)
Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin
Bachelor of Arts in English
Skills
Microsoft Office, Microsoft Publisher, Adobe FrameMaker, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Adobe PageMaker, QuarkXPress, Arbortext SGML Editor, CorelDraw, Corel Photo-Paint, Information Mapping, UNIX, Troff, Nroff, Xcip, PIC graphics language.
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