STC Houston Celebrates Tech Comm Excellence with Mardi Gras Flair 03/13/2012
Posted by stephdono in 1.add a comment
The mood was right for a wonderful Fat Tuesday celebration for STC Houston and its annual competition award winners on Februrary 21, 2012. From the King Cake and festive décor to the impressive award winners on display, the night proved to be a memorable for all in attendance.
The year’s 2012 STC Houston Competition award winners included:
Best of Show and Distinguished Winner - U.S. Geological Survey submitted the two-part entry, "Partners in Restoration/Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act Report to Congress"
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Best of Show – Award of Distinguished
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Partners in Restoration/Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection
and Restoration Act Report to Congress – U.S. Geological Survey
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Awards of Distinguished
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Applications Capabilities Suite – Weatherford International, Ltd.
Sand Screen Selector – Weatherford International, Ltd.
W Magazine – Weatherford International, Ltd.
Chevron celebrates their award of Excellence for their publication, The Clear Leader. Shown with President Jowell Lydon and Competition Manager Stephanie Donovan.
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Awards of Excellence
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Amphibian Monitoring in the Atchafalaya Basin – U.S. Geological Survey
Compact Cross-Dipole Sonic – Weatherford International, Ltd.
Create a Report Tutorial Series – Casey O’Callaghan, Shane Tanner, Dannette Bettison
Fiserv Ad Hoc Guides – Terry Lambert
Fracology – Weatherford International, Ltd.
IT4U Self-Service Solutions – Deborah Long/Apache Corporation Information Technology
Optimum Upper-Completion System – Weatherford International, Ltd.
Rotating Control Devices – Weatherford International, Ltd.
The Clear Leader, Second Quarter 2011 Magazine – Chevron
Water-Level Altitudes 2010 and Water-Level Changes in the Chicot, Evangeline, and Jasper Aquifers and Compaction 1973–2009
in the Chicot and Evangeline Aquifers, Houston-Galveston Region, Texas -
U.S. Geological Survey
Weatherford’s Managed Pressure Drilling Service – Weatherford International, Ltd.
Who could these masked Mardi Gras bandits be? Competition Manager Stephanie Donovan, STC President Jowell Lydon, and Immediate-Past President Alyssa Fox get festive for the showcase.
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Awards of Merit
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EarthModel FT Tutorial – Mary Elaine Lora, Corinne Danielli, MaryBeth Wegner
HP ProLiant SL390s G7 1U Half Width Server User Guide – Alan Olsen
Integrated Subsurface Engineering Services – Weatherford International, Ltd.
Pat Wright, of Weatherford International, poses with President Jowell Lydon and one of the many awards her organization raked in this year.
Microflux Control System – Weatherford International, Ltd.
NetIQ AppManager Version 8.0 Autorun – Angela Stagg
Prior to awards announcements, the crowd enjoyed Mardi Gras themed food and a motivational talk from area speaker Rasheed Hooda.
Winners for their EarthModel FT Tutorial, MaryBeth Wegner, Mary Elaine Lora, and Corinne Danielli receive their award from President Lydon.
Competition Manager Stephanie Donovan extends a big thanks to Julia Land for the wonderful banquet decorations and food, our top-notch volunteer judges for devoting their time, Judging Manager Jessica Dickerson for coordinating judges, President Jowell Lydon and Immediate Past President Alyssa Fox for helpful advice, and Daniel Maddux for the night’s photography.
Check out more pictures from the STC Houston Awards Showcase!
Five Guaranteed Ways to CYA Before You Fire Your Boss 02/06/2012
Posted by jwlydon in 2012 issues, Chapter Meetings, Events.add a comment
By Rasheed Hooda, DTM
*****
This follow-on article from our guest speaker for the upcoming Awards Showcase offers some practical advice on just how you can set about firing your boss. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? Well, read on and see what steps you can take to take greater control of your career.
*****
So I did a little survey. I asked my fiends and followers at Facebook and Twitter this question: “If you’re not happy at your job, what is stopping you from terminating your boss?”
The number one response? “I am concerned about meeting my financial obligations.”
So I asked, “What will you do if you were fired tomorrow?” Their answers fell in one of these two possible scenarios.
“I’d be up s*** creek without a paddle with a hole in my boat.”
OR
“I’ll just have to find a way to deal with it one way or another.”
What blows my mind is that the same people who choose the second answer do not see it as a strategy to deal with their concerns about how to pay their bills if they were to Mind Their Own businesses. If you are in the first group, I would suggest that you get that hole fixed in your boat, just in case. I’m just saying. But if you are in the second group here are five ideas in the category of *one way or another.*
1. Establish a CYA account.
If you were fired tomorrow, how long can you survive till you have to settle for whatever you can get or be on the streets? Is that something you are comfortable with? If not, now is the time to get started or increase your contributions so you can cover your asset in case you get fired. Better yet, you can fire your boss and become a self bosser.
I established what I called a “Feel Good Account.” Actually, I had a savings account with bare the minimum in it. What I did was I renamed it Feel Good Account on my online statements, and started depositing $25 every week without failure, and now I really feel good every time I see how much I have set aside and how it is growing every week.
The key is to pay your self first.
2. Re-do your budget, or establish one if you don’t have one.
If you are like most people, living from paycheck to paycheck – or hand to mouth, as my brother preferss to call it – you probably don’t have any idea where your money is going. If you are in this boat, don’t feel bad. You’re not the only one.
One of the first things I did was to look at our family budget, because when we set the budget, it had room for monthly savings of around $400 barring any unexpected expenses. It turned out that we had no savings and we were constantly struggling to make ends meet. A re-evaluation showed that there were certain expenses we had not taken into consideration when making the budget, but more importantly, we realized that we were foolishly spending money just because it was available on things like junk food, DVD rentals and eating out.
Be brutally honest with yourself and see where the leaks are and how you can plug them. Set priorities. Do you want to go on living as you are or do you want to have a better life?
If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep on getting what you’ve always got. – A.L. Williams
3. Add another profit center
You can take a second part time job to feed your CYA account or you can start Minding Your Own Business on a part time basis. When starting a part time (ad)venture, make cash flow your main goal rather than going for your dream business, unless, of course, you can have cash flow from your dream business as you start out part time. The whole idea in the beginning is to put yourself in the position where firing your boss will not cause undue pressure on your financial situation.
4. Invest in yourself
There is a big difference between the way an employee and an entrepreneur thinks. An employee thinks in terms of making money and trades his time for it. An entrepreneur thinks in terms of making a difference: Making a difference for himself, his family and his community and as result making a difference in the world.
An employee thinks in terms of a paycheck, and an entrepreneur thinks in terms of profit. An employee may think of creating Multiple Streams of Income, but an entrepreneur thinks of creating Multiple Profit Centers.
In order to understand this subtle difference you need to invest in yourself in terms of education and personal growth. By education, I don’t mean formal education, because the goal of the formal education is to create employees, not entrepreneurs. I mean you need to attend seminars and take classes on entrepreneurship that are designed and run by successful entrepreneurs, not by theoretical educators.
Between savings, added income and re-evaluating and eliminating unnecessary expenses, you should be able invest in yourself and feel comfortable enough to go on your own.
5. Find or create a network of like-minded people
Firing your boss and minding your own business can be a scary proposition. And sometimes it can be a very lonely one too. You need to build a community of like-minded people.
You can build the community from scratch, or you can join one that already exists. Twitter and Facebook are good places online to find people you can relate to.
In the “real” world, the world of bricks and mortar, you can search for a Meetup group in your area that caters to entrepreneurs. Go to networking events organized by the Chamber of Commerce, or other trade associations.
How to Fire Your Boss 01/18/2012
Posted by jwlydon in 1, 2012 issues, Chapter Meetings, Competition News, Events, Featured Article, News.add a comment
By Rasheed Hooda, DTM
*****
This article by the guest speaker at our upcoming Awards Showcase offers helpful insight into why it’s important to stop thinking like an employee and start thinking like an entrepreneur.
*****
Are you sick and tired of your non-fulfilling job?
Don’t you sometimes feel like telling your boss “Take this job and shove it?”
Well you can. I have done it on several occasions. Not in those exact words, but rather tactfully, and often after giving them several warnings.
A paradigm Shift
The first step to firing your boss is a Paradigm shift. You need to see your boss for who he is: Someone who is using your services.
He needs you because you have something to offer that no one else can.
What? You say that it’s not true? Well, then you’re screwed. If what you have to offer to the world, and your boss, is dime a dozen, then you’re stuck. But, fortunately, that is not the case.
You see, you are a one of kind human being, and no one else can be you. So if you add your personality and your attitude to the set of skills that you offer, then you are already offering your boss more than anyone else, provided your attitude is a positive and helping one. If you help your boss make more money, then he would be a fool to let you go, and if he is a fool, then you can let him go and work for someone else. Someone who would appreciate what you have to offer.
Easier said than done, you might say, given the current economic conditions. But the opposite is really true.
Hang with me here. If the economy is really tough, wouldn’t it make sense for the companies to hire the best employees? Employees who are worth more than everyone else? The ones who are a notch above the rest? And if you are one of those, wouldn’t the companies be looking for someone like you?
Like I said, the first step is a Paradigm Shift.
You need to stop seeing yourself as an employee and start seeing yourself as an independent contractor, someone who is renting out his services to the company that you work for, and you need to stop seeing your employers as your boss and start seeing them as your customer. If your customer is happy with what you have to offer, he will keep using your services and reward you accordingly.
The more you make yourself worth, the more you can charge for your services. Of course, your customer may not be interested in, or have any use for the extras that you are offering. In that case, you can find another customer who can use the services you have to offer and charge them accordingly.
That, my friend, is how you fire your boss. It’s that simple.
Of course, if you see your employer as your customer and yourself as an independent contractor, then it would be foolish for you to rely on only one customer. But that is a whole another article.
Congratulations, you have just become a member of the Joyfully Jobless Tribe, as Barbara Winter, the author of How to Make a Living without a Job, would call you.
Rasheed Hooda is an artist, entrepreneur, and an award-winning public speaker who is living the life of his dreams and teaching others how to do the same.
Improve Your Technical Writing…Study Engineering Writing. 11/16/2011
Posted by kbluth in Education, Technical Writing.add a comment
by Mark Armstrong
Technical communicators can benefit greatly by following the advances made in engineering-writing education.
Imagine that you are the new kid on the technical writing block: the new employee, the recent graduate, the contract employee, or the transfer from another division. You have just received your first writing assignment.
Where is the best place to start?
Consider the writing of Rosemary Gates. According to her, it might be best to start by studying the documents and interviewing the co-workers for unspoken expectations within your new workplace. Naturally, you should then proceed with a review of your audience and then the subject of your writing (that is, the engine, software, or other product you were employed to document). To assume that there is no unspoken, workplace-specific standard might significantly damage your ability to communicate in that organization or industry.
Recent studies in engineering-writing education (like those of Rosemary Gates, Julia Williams, and others) focus on four main themes to consider in technical communication, all of which may positively affect your skills in effectively delivering the topic.
1. Consider the Manual’s Interdisciplinary Audiences
Our communications cannot be limited to only objectively describe our product or unilaterally provide one procedure that meets the needs of the intended audience. Rather, we must also consider other issues like the safety needs of the audience, the needs of the project’s stakeholder, compliance with the company style guide, and the schedule from the manufacturing department.
2. Know that Writing is Integral to Engineering
A second engineering-writing theory that technical communicators can turn to their benefit tells us that just about every step of an engineering task involves some form of writing. While some technical writers may see this as a tacit form of job insurance, the greater value in this theory may be in the way it uncovers sources of information for the technical communicator.
Dorothy Winsor, in her article Engineering Writing/Writing Engineering, demonstrates that knowledge within engineering is necessarily communication-centric. By stepping through the processes that a specific engineer follows while creating a report for an engineering society, she points out how the engineer at the center of her study generated his initial reports primarily by reviewing handwritten comments made on computer-generated texts that were handed out and discussed in design meetings attended by multiple engineers. She goes on to point out that all of the stages of the development of the finished report (from the computer-generated portion of the handouts to the Progress Reports that the engineer cited to the comments on his draft copy) involved writing.
In this light, technical writers can benefit from the communication by getting included in the engineers’ conversation.
3. Know that Engineers Use Graphics to Communicate
A third engineering-writing theory focuses on the fact that engineers use graphics when forming ideas and communicating knowledge. Through this theory, knowledgeable technical communicators can both fashion documents for engineers and retrieve information from engineers. Also, writers using this theory can encourage engineers to use various graphics when trying to communicate a concept. For example, a writer might encourage an engineer to sketch a device or to look at a photo when trying to remember details.
This theory comes out of the ethnographic study of David Hutto, Graphics and Invention in Engineering Writing. Through this study, Dr. Hutto found that graphics played a part in engineers’ composition of documents even when graphics were not a part of the final product.
4. Know that Genre Theory is Being Implemented Successfully in Engineering Writing Curriculum
The last engineering-writing theory focuses on forms of discipline-specific writing styles within engineering. Genre theory considers the accepted style within a discourse community when determining how those trying to communicate with that community should proceed. For example, although it is standard practice for most technical writers to create procedures in active voice, engineering lab reports primarily emphasize the action taking place and, therefore, are completed in passive voice. Similarly, the heading structure required for specific types of reports which are commonly used in certain disciplines are crucial to the discourse communities receiving those reports.
If technical writers consider the influence of genre and study the discourse community within our audiences, those writers will benefit through building credibility between themselves and the audience and by crafting a succinct message. By speaking the language of the audience, technical communicators will naturally communicate better with the audience. Additionally, technical writers that follow the conventions of the discourse will communicate more directly with the audience than those who avoid or ignore the discourse conventions.
Why should technical communicators look at studies on engineering writing when considering ways to improve technical communication?
1. Technical Writers and Engineers Often Share the Same Workplace
If we adopt the perspective of Mick Harney, technical writers do not just work with engineers, but are part of an engineering discipline. By applying the definition of an information systems engineer to technical writers, Harney determined that technical writing is a discipline of engineering because technical writers use “specification, design, construction, testing, bringing into service, maintenance, and enhancement, together with quality assurance” when creating technical documents just as systems engineers would when creating and delivering an information system.
2. Technical Communicators and Engineers Share a Common Focus on Technology
Technical writers and engineers share a common focus on technology. Both groups work with some form of technology daily, must mentally manipulate concepts of that technology, and translate the concepts for transmission to the outside world. In light of this common focus, technical writers and engineers may often experience the same problems (or different within an overarching concern). So, for a technical writer to investigate engineering writing may be a means for that writer to recognize and address problems experienced with the technology.
3. Technical Communication and Engineering in America Sprung from the Engineering Education Curricula of the Early 20th Century
During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, the complexity of the new technologies that drove the Industrial Revolution powered several other events; technical writing was one of these. John Hagge’s Early Engineering Writing Textbooks and the Anthropological Complexity of Disciplinary Discourse points to T. A. Rickard’s A Guide to Technical Writing, published in 1908, as the first textbook in engineering writing. Within this book, the one concept common to today’s technical communicator (Rickard’s advice to “remember the reader”) did little to make that textbook useful to today’s engineer or technical communicator. Of Hagge’s sample of 20 textbooks written before 1935, all focused on the formalities of engineering language (even going so far as to suggest specific words and phrases) and usually gave examples of types of communications to be written by engineers.
As a result of the standardizations implicit with World War II, things have changed in both engineering writing and technical communication since the beginning.
- Increased innovation with the creation of computers
- Communication explosion caused by the Internet.
Still, a common history between engineering writing and technical communication points toward common traits within our current situation.
4. Engineering Writing Brings a New Perspective to Technical Communication Research and Practice
Because the research of engineering-writing academics often centers on aspects of communication that are viewed from an engineering mindset, these engineering-writing articles often can provide a technical communicator with insight regarding issues in technical communication, such as:
- Studies on ways engineers use graphics in reports might illuminate ways and types of graphics that technical communicators might use graphics in reports.
- Review of such an article on engineering might improve your interviewing skills by providing ways to allow engineers to illustrate the input you need to receive from them.
- Research on discourse communities within engineering might provide insight on the jargon that can creep into our technical communications.
- Research on genre analysis of engineering writing might reveal audiences that that most technical communicators have not considered.
Today’s technical communicators already have a number of tools available to improve their technical writing tasks: audience analysis, usability research, readability formulas, precepts of persuasion derived from many rhetoricians, research of many technical-writing researchers.
Now, we should also consider adding to our toolbox the resources provided by engineering-writing educators.
Want to learn more? Check out these resources!
Gates, Rosemary. “An Academic and Industrial Collaboration on Course Design.” Journal of Business and Technical Communication 3, no. 2 (1989): 78-87, accessed March 24, 2011, http://jbt.sagepub.com/content/3/2/78
Broadhead, Glenn. “Addressing Multiple Goals for Engineering Writing.” Language and Learning across the Disciplines 3 no. 2 (1999): 19-43, accessed March 22, 2011, http://wac.colostate.edu/llad/v3n2/v3n2.pdf
Williams, Julia. “Transformations in Technical Communication Pedagogy: Engineering, Writing, and the ABET Engineering Criteria 2000.” Technical Communication Quarterly 10, no. 2 (2001): 149-167, accessed March 8, 2011, http://pdfserve.informaworld.com.ezproxy.uhd.edu/786728_750430294_785834207.pdf
Winsor, Dorothy. “Engineering Writing/Writing Engineering.” College Composition and Communication 41, no. 1 (1990): 58-70, accessed March 8, 2011, http://www.jstor.org/stable/357883
Leydens, Jon. “Novice and Insider Perspectives on Academic and Workplace Writing: Toward a Continuum of Rhetorical Awareness.” IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 51, no. 3 (2008): 242-263, accessed March 23, 2011, http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=4322502&isnumber=4322491
Hutto, David. “Graphics and Invention in Engineering Writing.” Technical Communication 54, no. 1 (2007): 88-98, accessed March 7, 2011, http://sophclinic.pbworks.com/f/hutto-tc-graphics-2007.pdf,
Walker, Kristin. “Using Genre Theory to Teach Students Engineering Lab Report Writing: A Collaborative Approach.” IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 42, no. 1 (1999): 12-19, accessed March 8, 2011, http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=749363&isnumber=16189
Haney, Mick. “Is Technical Writing an Engineering Discipline?” IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 43, no. 2 (2000): 210-212, accessed April 23, 2011, http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=843649&isnumber=18302
Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Outlook Handbook. Technical Writers. (2008): accessed March 8, 2011, http://www.bls.gov/oco/pdf/ocos319.pdf
Do You Mind? I’m Having A Private Conversation With My Phone 10/21/2011
Posted by kbluth in 1, News, Tech Update.add a comment
by John Varriale
The new Apple iPhone 4S recently made its debut. It’s faster, takes clearer pictures, is offered by three major carriers and can be used overseas. However, what has most tongues wagging is a voice recognition feature called Siri. This is not dictation. It’s an interactive experience. Siri knows your schedule better than you do. It’s a virtual assistant and can handle tasks from simple to more complex.
Many phones have voice recognition technology, but Apple takes this to the next level with the iPhone 4S. Siri is seamlessly integrated into many features, increasing the ease of use and overall experience. To activate Siri, hold down the home button on the phone or the control button on your headset device.
Then get ready for the start of a beautiful friendship.
You can use Siri to remind you to buy milk on the way home from work, play your favorite music or check the weather. If you want to schedule a meeting on your calendar, Siri can do that. Like a good personal assistant, Siri will even remind you if there is something else scheduled at that time.
I know, you’ve had a bad experience with other voice recognition applications. You have called your cable provider and found yourself repeating the same simple phrase over-and-over, even shouting in public, “Speak to a representative!” You’ve been nagged at the supermarket by the check-out machine to perform each basic step, like you are not capable of scanning a loaf of bread.
Siri understands. Really, she does. She will respond to your commands in a conversational way. If her response is not spot-on, just rephrase the question. No shouting necessary. To lighten the situation, Siri may even reply with a joke to a question you think she may not understand.
As you may have guessed, Siri works well in a hands-free environment. She will read your text messages and allow you to speak your reply. Then, she will confirm your message before sending. Or, if you’re hungry, just ask about restaurants in the area for suggestions. Feel free to ask about your stocks, set a timer, or check on traffic.
Of course, there are tasks Siri cannot yet perform. She cannot read your e-mail messages. At this time, Siri is not compatible with many common phone applications. She does not give turn-by-turn directions. Although Siri is fluent in a handful of languages, Spanish is not one of them.
Obviously, there is still room to grow.
Now, if only the supermarket check-out machine would give me a few seconds to place the item in the bag.
STC 2011-2012 Competition Call For Entries 10/06/2011
Posted by kbluth in 1, Competition News, Events.add a comment
Gear Up for Career Kudos!
As our economy continues to lag, communicators must find new ways to show corporate value and gain recognition for superior work. How wonderful is it that our very own organization of technical peers knows just how to help us boost our corporate value? From recognizing and celebrating excellence in our field, to learning through judging other’s work, to gaining valuable feedback from respected colleagues, the benefits of participating in the STC Houston 2011-2012 Competition are numerous!
The proof of those benefits is evident in the number of repeat entrants and judges that we have from year to year. All have great things to say about their experiences with the competition!
There are only two weeks until our Call for Entries ends and you lose your opportunity to participate! The time to enter is today! Review your work from the past year, and look at our various categories for the competition. (More details on competition rules and category examples are here.)
Competition categories include the following:
- Training Materials
- Informational Materials
- Promotional Materials
- User Support Materials
Entries, entry forms, and entry fees must be received by October 17, 2010 (or bring them to the October 18th program meeting!) Enter online and pay online, drop off your entry, or send it by mail. It couldn’t be easier!
Spread the word to your work peers and challenge them to enter with you! Don’t forget, top winners qualify to enter themselves in the STC Summit Awards at the international level. In an era where job stability is not always something we can take for granted, an STC award sure would look nice on your desk, wouldn’t it?
Questions?
Email us at: competitions@stc-houston.org. We can wait to see what you’ve been working on, STC Houston!
Plain Language 09/22/2011
Posted by techwrite1 in 1.add a comment
There are several definitions of plain language. The simplest is probably “a document is in plain language if the intended audience understands it easily on the first reading.”
The invited speakers were Dr. Annetta Cheek, a career employee of the U.S. government with responsibility for writing and implementing regulations, and Dr. Tom Murawski, a career educator at the U.S. Air Force Academy who has served in the government as a consultant for drafting clear regulations.
Dr. Cheek has been involved in the Plain Language movement since the early 1990s, serving as the chief plain language expert in the National Partnership for Reinventing Government and the Federal Aviation Administration, and administering the website, www.plainlanguage.gov.
Dr. Cheek spoke about the history of the plain language movement, its use in government, the status of current guidelines and recent updates on legislation. Her main message is that use of plain language in documents saves money. Some of the examples were:
In the state of Washington, rewriting instructions in plain language resulted in
o a tripling of state income tax funds collected, at a cost of one cent on the dollar.
o a decline in telephone queries to the Office of Public Records from 10% down to 1%.
o a 95% decrease in hotline calls to the Driver’s License Bureau, with three employees transferred to other duties.
• Cleveland Clinic redesigned its bills, and saw an increase of $1M more per month revenue.
Writing instructions in plain language also improves compliance with instructions, regulations and laws. Dr. Cheek gave these examples, among others:
• A financial services firm rewrote its guidelines on information security and saw
o a 65% increase in employee awareness of rules.
o a 76% increase in employee awareness of the impact of their actions.
o an 85% increase in customer trust.
• Payday loan firms found less borrowing and faster customer payback when customers understood the terms of the loans.
• In the U.S., HUD and FedEx increased employee understanding of their manuals from 53% to 80% after a plain language rewrite.
When asked about when federal regulations will be written in plain language, Dr. Cheek pointed out that the CFR occupies about 21 linear feet of bookshelf space, and the task would be enormous. A bill before the Senate right now, “Plain Writing Act of 2010”, HR946 PCS, explicitly excludes regulations. The bill does require Federal agencies to use plain language in all their other documents.
The newly passed healthcare law has a provision for using plain language. On page 2080, amendment to Section 1311(e), providers of health insurance in the new exchanges are required to use plain language in all their information for the public.
The use of plain language in government and business documents at this time is mainly motivated by economics – it improves the bottom line – rather than by law. A number of governmental organizations, including the SEC, are using plain language but many still are not.
Since the forum audience was made up of professional writers, the second presenter, Dr. Murawski, spoke on how actually to write plain language. He also had the attendees do some writing and editing exercises.
The afternoon session brought the presenters and organizers together for a Q&A session with the attendees. Here are some of the points made.
• If you have manuals to be translated, the fewer words, the lower cost.
• Using plain language principles to write Instructions for Use can minimize the word count.
• Plain language in IFUs can reduce the number of customer service calls.
Profile: Gary Foster 04/24/2010
Posted by techwrite1 in Member Profile.add a comment
by Marla Davis
As a representative of life skills requirements of a communicator, experiences for Gary Foster cut a wide swath throughout his life. When times were good, he thrived; and, when times were less than ideal, he rose to face the challenges.
During the difficult 1980s, he served as manager of the employment committee for STC Houston. His briefcase had “as many as 150 résumés” from all over the country crammed inside. Each resume was given his best shot at a suitable job match. “I feel like I contributed to success a couple of times,” he said modestly. In doing so, he developed a solid reputation for success with job seekers as well as potential employers.
Later, having been laid off from a company after 12 years as a proficient technical communicator, he began attending STC meetings regularly. By this time, the organization’s employment committee had gone to seed. Incoming president, George Slaughter, tapped Gary to set up an employment committee in the seed-rich, and soil-poor job market. He rolled up his sleeves and met with member Steve Cunningham, who had a hand in the daunting task of establishing early online employment features. With no figurative fertile topsoil, he began working the hardpan of the fields of Houston STC employment opportunities.
Review: Apprenticeship patterns – guide for the aspiring software craftsman 04/18/2010
Posted by techwrite1 in Book Review.add a comment
Dave H. Hoover and Adewale Oshineye
O’Reilly Books, 2010
137 pages
http://press.oreilly.com/pub/pr/2436
Review by Robert Delwood, Senior Programmer Writer
If school prepares us to enter our careers, it seems there is little to prepare us for developing those careers.
Apprenticeship Patterns: Guide for the Aspiring Software Craftsman looks into taking those first steps in a career by treating the profession as a craft. Yes, the book is titled for software engineers, but overlook that—just ignore references to software (“guide for the aspiring craftsman”). The practices are the same for technical communicators (or any craft, for that matter), and there aren’t many books like this specifically for writers. But that’s another article.
April lone writer lunch 04/06/2010
Posted by techwrite1 in Local News.add a comment
Please and Thank You Home Cooking (5806 4th St., Katy)
Long-time Houston member Melanie Flanders may join us before heading back to China.
The Lone Writers group will get a discount for this luncheon.
For more information, see http://pleaseandthankyouhomecooking.com.
