Content Strategy Workshops: Interview with Rahel Bailie

May 25th, 2012 | Posted in blog | 1 Comment »

This year Rahel Bailie and Scott Abel are putting on a new event called Content Strategy Workshops. It’s a two-day event, held October 9-10 in Portland, Oregon that follows the Lavacon Conference (held October 7-9, same hotel). I helped work on the website a bit, and I wanted to highlight this new event through an interview with Rahel.  Tell me about the new Content Strategy Workshop conference … more »

When Wikis Succeed and Fail — Collaboration Alternatives

May 23rd, 2012 | Posted in blog | 22 Comments »

I am currently at the STC Summit in Chicago. One of the reasons I love the STC Summit so much is that it feels like home. I know so many people at this conference, and it’s great to chat with them. People like Sarah Maddox, Ellis Pratt, Janet Swisher, Arnold Burian, Matt Pierce, Todd Deluca, Mark Lewis, Kirsty Taylor, Joe Gollner, Gina Wadley, Kai Weber, … more »

Confab 2012: Thoughts and Reactions

May 19th, 2012 | Posted in blog | 6 Comments »

I recently attended Confab in Minneapolis. I was one of about 5 technical writers among the 650 attendees, which is why I found it surprising to hear Kristina Halverson say, We can learn a lot from tech comm. Let me repeat that. We can learn a lot from tech comm. I felt pleased to hear this shout-out to my profession, and then tried to unpack exactly … more »

15 Tips for a Successful Conference Experience

May 18th, 2012 | Posted in blog | 10 Comments »

The STC Summit takes place in a few days. If you monitor the #stc12 twitter stream, you can feel the excitement of the conference attendees. I’ve been to at least a dozen conferences over the last seven years or so, and I’ve accumulated a few tips that have helped make my conference experience better. Here are my top 15 tips for a successful conference experience. … more »

How Character Drives Story — Book Review of Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder

May 14th, 2012 | Posted in blog | 4 Comments »

Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder, published in 2011, is a story about a pharmaceutical researcher’s attempt to make sense of her lost colleague, presumably dead in the Amazon, while wrestling with a domineering academic professor who refuses to communicate updates about her research. The book begins at a slow pace but, as Janet Maslin notes in her New York Times review, the story catches fire … more »

Q&A: What should my major be for a career in technical writing?

May 12th, 2012 | Posted in blog | 11 Comments »

I received the following question from a reader: I’m a 20 year old college student and I just finished up my first year at a local community college and I was wondering what my major should be if I want to become a technical writer when I eventually graduate. Right now my counselors have me majoring in General Science (b/c my dream job would be … more »

Trying New Things, Changing Interests

May 9th, 2012 | Posted in blog | 5 Comments »

It’s interesting how new things sometimes sneak up on us. I’m 36 years old, which means I’m past my exploratory twenties. It fascinates me how I’ll be perfectly content in one way of life and then suddenly find another. My wife, Shannon, seems to follow the same path as well at times. About six months ago, she discovered yoga. Shannon has never been so fully … more »

Book Review: Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson

May 8th, 2012 | Posted in blog | 5 Comments »

Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson, is a fantasy trilogy that takes you into a world where the characters can “burn” metals inside their bodies to give rise to certain powers, such as increased strength, the ability to push and pull other metals, an enhancement of the senses, or the most potent of all, the ability to see several seconds into the future (critical for fighting). Mistings … more »

Stuck in a system

May 7th, 2012 | Posted in blog | 20 Comments »

I’ve been reading Sarah Maddox’s new book, Confluence, Tech Comm, Chocolate, and have been impressed. I enjoy the energy and speed in Sarah’s writing. If you’ve read her blog before, her book has the same tone. This is not a book review, because I’m not yet finished with the book. But it doesn’t take too many pages to come to some realizations worth noting. My … more »

Asking questions is more important than finding answers — why?

April 27th, 2012 | Posted in blog | 11 Comments »

This week, as I was riding my bike to work and listening to Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time: The Eye of the World (a classic fantasy/adventure book), one of the characters — was it Bayle Domon, the pirate? for the life of me, I can’t remember, nor can I find it, but he says something like this to Rand, one of the protagonists: Sometimes … more »

Differences between blogs and wikis, and why you might need both

April 19th, 2012 | Posted in blog | 19 Comments »

At work I have often grumbled about the fact that we have both a blog and a wiki, and that content shared between them sometimes seems redundant and unnecessary. However, I have since come to realize how well blogs and wikis fit together. I think it makes sense to have both — at least in my authoring scenario. In short, wikis are suited for information … more »

Leveraging the wisdom of the 80/20 rule: Focusing on content that matters

April 17th, 2012 | Posted in blog | 12 Comments »

The 80/20 rule, or Pareto’s Principle, states that 80 percent of the effects come from 20 percent of the causes. Applied to help authoring, this could mean that from 100 help topics you write, about 20 of the topics will be viewed 80 percent of the time. Designers recognize the applicability of the 80/20 rule on design. Heat maps show that people only focus on … more »

A Love Affair with Grapefruit

April 15th, 2012 | Posted in blog | 23 Comments »

I admit that I am developing a love affair with grapefruit. Don’t get me wrong — I love many types of fruit. But there’s something particularly special about the grapefruit, particularly ruby red grapefruit. Looking at the following image, can anyone really blame me? I’m not sure if I can even pinpoint exactly why I like grapefruit so much. First of all, it’s a fruit … more »

Guest Post: Why I Love Wikis

April 14th, 2012 | Posted in blog | 9 Comments »

The following is a guest post by Neal Kaplan, a technical writer at Zuora, Inc. Another post about wikis? Why not! Wikis are great! Just to set the stage, I’ve been a technical writer for a while now, working for software companies in Silicon Valley. (In fact, I often forget that there are technical writers who don’t document software.) I’ve worked at large companies, where … more »

Finally Biking to Work

April 11th, 2012 | Posted in blog | 16 Comments »

A couple of years ago, I wanted to try biking to work and made an initial trial with a hybrid cruiser bike that ended up consuming way too much time (about 2 hrs each way). I gave up on the idea, and then winter came and no one bikes to work during winter in Utah. A few months ago, however, I went to Florida to … more »

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