Category Archives: Profession
Extreme Judging
For a day of intense technical communication, comes the event of the year – STC Carolina Chapter Competition Judging. Last year, the chapter did a great job of taking a long drawn-out process of providing feedback on competition entries – … Continue reading
Content Stratification
Ever-Broadening Content Horizons In her recent blog post ‘Content strategy – a revolution?’, Betty Tew is just touching the tip of the iceberg (or, whatever the equivalent in a cloud metaphor would be). I like how she refers to “the … Continue reading
Designing is Getting Touchy
Introduction Last Thursday, I joined other local TriUPA members and listened to Josh Clark‘s webinar titled “Buttons are a Hack”. He ostensibly was trying to get us to do more with gestures and less with traditional windows controls, menus, and … Continue reading
Profession Realignment
Today I’m comparing the list of program tracks at the STC Summit for 2011 and 2012. Notice the difference in names of tracks. Maybe that’s telling us something about the profession. Here are last year’s tracks (“Before”): Usability and Accessibility … Continue reading
Technical Writing: The Secret Profession
Years ago, when I was getting started as a technical writer I did some ghost writing – an article here and there for engineers and sales people who needed placement in industry publications and didn’t have the time to write … Continue reading
Profession in Search of a Metaphor
The challenge for technical communication is the same one that business schools face – there is no underlying discipline that already exists in the academy on which to build it. Engineers have physics, but engineering is not physics. Doctors have … Continue reading
Interviews, Tests, and Technical Writers
There has been discussion of late about tests to give to technical writers during job interviews and it’s time for me to weigh in on this topic. But before I express my point of view, let’s see what other knowledgeable … Continue reading
Surveying Online Surveys
This past month I took a few web-based surveys related to technical communication and information architecture. Each was relatively short, taking less than 20 minutes to complete, and each offered some insight into our profession. I don’t know if surveys … Continue reading
How Social Can We Go?
Sometimes I am late to the party. For you those of you who are like me in that respect, I offer an introduction to some online social networking groups related to our profession. My apologies to those who for whom … Continue reading
Top 10 Disruptions (NOT Trends)
The recent technological advances are not “emerging”, and they are not a “tectonic shift”. If we are going to use biological or geological metaphors, then they are “exploding”; they are “an earthquake”; they are disruptive and they are forcing a … Continue reading
Disruption is the New Trend
The webcast on Scriptorium, Trends in Technical Communication, 2011 by Sarah O’Keefe of Scriptorium and Nicky Bleiel of ComponentOne is a great discussion starter. They were all over the place with ideas about what’s happening in the workplace. Here is … Continue reading
Top 5 Reasons to Avoid a Tech Comm Conference
Warning: There is some ranting in this post that may sound like STC bashing. I intend it solely as constructive criticism and fodder for brainstorming sessions for the benefit of the profession and of STC. Once again, Tom Johnson fulfills … Continue reading
Spring Cleaning
Although it is a little early to talk about Spring, its not too early to talk about cleaning, as in cleaning out the old stuff and making room for new stuff or just making room for its own sake. You … Continue reading
Dim Sum and Then Some
The STC Carolina Chapter did a great job of hosting the Best of Show judging at their most recent chapter meeting this past week. It was held in a restaurant called Dim Sum House and all fourteen of us judges … Continue reading
Ideas for Future Blog Posts
I have several ideas swirling but none are complete enough to write a decent blog post on their own with thorough enough treatment, so I offer an abbreviated mention of these ideas with the hope that in the next little … Continue reading
Valuing the Total Technical Writer
Michael Harvey offers a good starting point for talking about marketable skills and business value in our profession. His latest article Timeless Skills for Technical Writers suggests that writing (or communicating) is our crucial skill. He starts with some good … Continue reading
