Technical Writing, Editing, Documentation, User Experience, Cognitive Ergonomics, Creative Nonfiction
Language Arts, Literacy, Risk Management, Usability, Cognitive Science, Media Ecology
As an undergraduate, Christopher received a bachelor's degree at the University of Minnesota, where he focused on language arts and literacy with a double major in English and Spanish studies.
In graduate school, Christopher earned a master's degree in Scientific & Technical Communication. His research focused on cognitive ergonomics, or applying findings and methods from cognitive science to better understand learning processes and reading practices of people as they use different media and technologies.
With nearly a decade of experience in technical writing, Christopher has used his subject-matter expertise in usability to enhance business documentation, including professional procedures and user guides in both print and online formats. One misunderstanding about technical writing is that it is difficult-to-read communication. Christopher's philosophy is the opposite: he strives to break down complex information and relate it through easy-to-read media for someone who's not necessarily an expert.
Since 2011, Christopher has written educational material for college students who have asked for clear summaries of technical books and science articles. Having picked up this skill during graduate school, he occasionally writes readable synopses of books, articles, or general topics in cognitive science and media studies. Some of his past work includes writing a series of articles in linguistics.
In the field of technology, Christopher's work focuses primarily on user experience. Christopher has worked with both usability and quality-assurance teams to collect and compile empirical data, write research reports, and provide recommendations to improve business tools and technologies, especially software applications and websites. In addition to writing procedures, his past work also includes analyzing quality controls and putting together usability reports.
In the blogosphere, Christopher enjoys writing creative nonfiction. His online writing is typically educational in nature and purpose. In the past, he collaborated to write science articles for educational blogs and sites. At present, he authors an educational blog (Mindful Media Musing), which looks at the relationship between mind and media from scientific, artistic, and philosophical perspectives.
As a technical writer, Christopher writes educational articles and technical pieces on demand. For Christopher, however, educational and technical writing does not mean complicated articles about obscure information. Instead, it means making difficult information accessible and readable to a wide audience. In short, his goal is to write user-friendly articles for non-experts.