by Kevin Cuddihy on 3 April 2012
The writing practices we learned in school are not the only way to write, and they may not be the best way for most people. Learn how your writing style and your personality interact, with Andrea Wenger and the live Web seminar Playing to Your Strengths: Personality and Writing Style, on Wednesday, 4 April from 1:00-2:00 PM EDT (GMT-4).
We are most effective when we write according to our natural style. This webinar focuses on the role personality plays in determining our preferred writing style. It explores the strengths and natural blind spots of each facet of personality. The presentation also offers strategies for improving our work by using our nonpreferred style.
by Kevin Cuddihy on 2 April 2012
The STC Board of Directors recently sent a letter to Representative Bruce L. Braley of the United States Congress, author of the proposed Plain Regulations Act of 2012 (HR 3786), thanking him for the introduction of the Act and expressing the support of the Society for Technical Communication.
Per the Act itself, “The purpose of this Act is to improve the effectiveness and accountability of Federal agencies to the public by promoting clear regulations that are easier for the Government to implement and for the public to comply with.” The National Small Business Association has described how this bill would promote economic growth, competitiveness, and job creation.
See the STC website for more information on how you can join STC in supporting the Plain Regulations Act. We’ve posted sample letters for you to send to Rep. Braley and your own representative.
by Kevin Cuddihy on 2 April 2012
Do you suspect that there are latent instructional talents untapped in your soul? Then sign up for You Are an Instructional Designer, presented by Keith Hopper on Tuesday, 3 April, from 9:00-10:00 PM EDT (GMT-4).
As a technical communicator, you may be closer to that career move toward instructional design than you thought. Why can’t well-designed information work for instruction? What knowledge and skills do you already have that you can build on to develop instruction? What are you missing? Where would you begin? Are there real needs and opportunities? Must you return to school? This webinar may open the door to an exciting career option.
by Kevin Cuddihy on 1 April 2012
The Society for Technical Communication announced today a new endeavor to encourage companies and corporations to create technical communication that rhymes. “Rhyming makes everything so much easier to remember,” enthused one Board member. “What’s the first technical communication most of us learn? ‘Lefty-loosey, righty-tighty.’ It rhymes and we remember it!”
Calling the program “Rhyming to Remember,” STC released the following comment on the subject:
Tech comm should be there to help
Folks know what’s right to do
So we should make it easier
To remember what is true
When we were young we learned so much
By reading Dr. Seuss
So rhyme when you communicate
There’s really no excuse
For people learn so easily
And retain it so much longer
Just rhyme your words for a good way
To make your tech comm stronger!
To participate in this program or share your thoughts, visit the new Rhyming to Remember section of the STC website.
by Kevin Cuddihy on 30 March 2012
Looking for a 25-point Web usability checklist? The blog usereffect has you covered.
Val Swisher of Content rules comments on the recent Intercom article by Jack Molisani and Scott Abel, “Tech Comm 2.0: Reinventing Our Relevance in the 2000s,” to discuss what technical communicators can do to stay a step ahead of the competition.
BrainTraffic presents a basic introduction to metadata and taxonomies.
Working in Agile? BrainsLink warns you to avoid these top 10 Agile traps.
Members with small businesses, this one’s for you. The Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act cleared Congress on its way to the president’s desk. This act allows small business to use the Internet for small investments, and makes going public more attractive.
And finally, Smart Boy Designs talks about the movie The Hunger Games and how it demonstrates what product excitement can do.
by Kevin Cuddihy on 29 March 2012
She’s an actor, writer, columnist, and outlaw.
Pam Sherman, also known as “The Suburban Outlaw,” will bring her irreverent and energetic take on leadership and success as keynote presenter for the annual Spectrum 2012 conference. The event, “Knowledge, Expertise, Leadership: Influence Change in Your Organization,” is hosted by the Rochester Chapter of STC, in partnership with Rochester Institute of Technology, and takes place 22–24 April.
Sherman’s address opens the event at 6:30 PM EDT (GMT-4) on 22 April in RIT’s Golisano Hall auditorium. A reception follows immediately afterward. Workshops take place from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM on 23 April in Louise M. Slaughter Hall. Information about registration and fees for member, nonmember, and student participants is available on the chapter’s website, http://www.stc-rochester.org/.
The event is open to managers, information architects, instructional designers, technical writers and editors, technical marketing communicators, Web designers, graphic artists, and students. Spectrum 2012 offers a variety of educational sessions in four tracks: management methodologies, workplace skills, professional development, and tools and technologies. There will be a separate vendor track for product demonstrations and education. Attendees can also visit exhibits by leading technical communication industry vendors and enjoy a luncheon to honor winners of the Chapter Technical Publications Competition Awards.
Sherman leads programs around the world for Fortune 500 companies, law firms, and advertising agencies about improving leadership, business development, customer service, and communications. In addition, she provides individual and team coaching to executives and other business leaders on storytelling and presentation skills.
She is, however, best known as The Suburban Outlaw, and her column can be read weekly in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle and monthly in Gannett’s Rochester Magazine where she also contributes feature articles.
For additional questions about the conference or to register, contact spectrum@stc-rochester.org.
by Kevin Cuddihy on 26 March 2012
Topic-based authoring is the next new thing in technical communication. It lets you create and reuse content, reduces project schedules, and improves your workflow. If you are looking to move to a structured writing environment such as DITA, it’s the first set of steps towards that goal.
But how to get started? What’s a topic? What to do with your legacy content? How exactly do you plan this new way of developing content? How long will it take to see reduced project schedules? What skills do you need to make this move? And how will this help your users?
For the answers to these questions and more, join Sharon Burton for the certificate course Topic-Based Authoring, consisting of six sessions on Tuesdays between 3 April and 8 May, from 10:30 AM-Noon EDT (GMT-4). You’ll end the course fully armed to make this move as painlessly as possible in your workplace, armed with best practices regardless of the tools you use.
Each week includes at least an hour lecture and as well as assignments and readings to do in your own time that support the lecture for that week. Sharon will use activities and hands-on exercises to help you apply the guidelines and ideas presented.
by Kevin Cuddihy on 22 March 2012
If it’s Thursday, it must be time for more recognition! Yes, that’s right—it’s Recognition Thursday! In past weeks we highlighted the new class of Fellows and Associate Fellows, the Ken Rainey Award, and the Jay R. Gould Award. Today we focus on the Frank R. Smith Award.
Each year, the editor of Technical Communication appoints a judging committee to select the outstanding article from the previous year’s issues. Judges base their decisions on article content and form. The award honors the memory of Frank R. Smith, during whose 18-year tenure as editor Technical Communication became established as the flagship publication of STC and the profession. This year’s judging team for the Frank R. Smith competition consisted of Charlie Kostelnick, Tatiana Batova, and Kit Brown-Hoekstra.
The judges are pleased to announced that the Frank R. Smith Outstanding Article Award goes to Henk Pander Maat and Leo Lentz for their article “Using Sorting Data to Evaluate Text Structure: An Evidence-based Proposal for Restructuring Patient Information Leaflets” in the August 2011 issue of Technical Communication. The introduction for the honored article states, “This article focuses on the design of patient information leaflets, and the role that card-sorting research may play in designing an optimal structure for such leaflets. The article demonstrates the use of an open and a closed card-sorting technique. The results show that the template for patient information leaflets prescribed by the European Union does not optimally serve the users.”
The judges wrote:
The Pander Maat and Lentz article is an exemplary piece of research that addresses several important questions about genre conventions, reader expectations, and research methodology. It is well written, demonstrates thorough analysis, and uses statistical methods to prove significance. It illustrates how quantitative research methods can be applied to important communication problems, challenges regulations in favor of user-centered design, and is immediately useful to practitioners.
In addition, the judges also named a Distinguished Article for the year. That honor goes to Luc Desnoyers for “Toward a Taxonomy of Visuals in Science Communication” in the May 2011 issue. The judges wrote:
The Desnoyers article is ground-breaking work that addresses a key issue in visual communication that has not received much attention: classifying the wide array of disparate graphical forms used in many different scientific and technical disciplines.The article is well written, provides a broad scholarly perspective on the subject, and proposes an ingenious and comprehensive taxonomy that will enhance our understanding of visuals.
Congratulations to all the honorees.
by Kevin Cuddihy on 22 March 2012
If you’ve been in technical communication for a few years, you may be ready to move on to the next rung in your career ladder. Maybe your employer wants you to evolve your position. Or perhaps you’d like a bit of a refresher on some of the more intermediate skills in technical communication. For any of these and more, the STC certificate course TechComm 201 can help!
TechComm 201 is a six-course class taking place every Monday from 26 March through 30 April, from 10:30 AM-Noon EDT (GMT-4), and is led by Leah Guren, who also teaches TechComm 101. The 201-level course is a more advanced course that moves beyond the basic theory in 101. The focus is on soft skills, such as estimating and managing technical communication projects and working with SMEs; and technical skills, such as advanced editing, professional tool concepts, and Help Authoring concepts. Class topics include:
- Project Planning and Management
- Tool Usage
- Style Guides
- Global Issues
- Online Help
- Advanced Editing
Visit the TechComm 201 page for more information, cost, and to register. The course starts Monday, but there are still slots available. Sign up today and get ready to take the next step in your tech comm career!
