In the ongoing discussions about content strategy, one recurring idea keeps emerging: strategy versus tactics. The key differentiator between content strategy and technical writing is strategy. The content strategist develops a strategy; the technical writer carries out tactics to fulfill the strategy. The general develops the battle strategy, the troops carry out the necessary maneuvers to realize that strategy. Which is more valuable: strategy or tactics? … more »

Sarah O’Keefe’s guest post — The Role of the Gatekeeper is Changing — on Peg Mulligan’s blog is interesting. Sarah writes, The Internet is removing the traditional gatekeepers for content. This may seem obvious, but its implications in my life have been profound. I majored in English and then earned an MFA in creative writing. After graduating, I gathered up my best essays and sent … more »

Welcome to the new project you’ll be documenting: Project Swordfish. Project Swordfish is an application used by the FBI to train agents in virtual simulations of undercover operations. With Swordfish, users can be super agents and regular agents. The super agents can configure the permissions of the regular agents with 20 different permission settings. This means the relevant help topics for any agent can vary … more »

In this video, I interview Saul Carliner about a post he wrote on his blog describing the “do-it-yourself” philosophy and whether this philosophy is something technical communicators should embrace or fear.

Epiphany: Cross Pollination Ultimately, what my colleagues had to say did have merit. There is a point that, in playing too many roles, you spread yourself too thin. You compromise your specialization and expertise as you step into unfamiliar territory. There is a limit to the number of roles you can play, and perhaps I had stepped over that limit. But I believe I also … more »

Crisis Point: Problems with Multiple Roles As my attempt to fill the wiki role failed, I started to realize how busy I had become wearing all of these hats. It seemed that I was always logging bugs, answering phone calls or responding to emails, or attending this and that meeting, championing for a redesign of a page, or coordinating with projects. The core help I … more »

The Yearning: Career Trajectory Although my chief interest in life is writing, more literary writing than technical writing, not surprisingly I wanted something more from my career. I wanted my career to be fulfilling and worthwhile. At this time, I had been blogging for a couple of years and had recorded dozens of podcasts. I had talked to professionals in the field who had said … more »

A Poignant Realization The other week at work we had a first-ever community developers conference. People from all over the state and even the nation came to the conference to participate in the community software projects. As facilitators for the volunteers, my colleague and I were asked to lead a tech writing “deep dive” for the participants who would be working as technical writers. We … more »

I’ll be in Atlanta next weekend giving a talk (the keynote, actually) at the STC Atlanta Currents conference. You can read more details about the conference here. My presentation is titled “From Overlooked to Center Stage.” Here’s the description: The rate of online information continues to increase dramatically. Both professionals and amateurs in every field are publishing content on blogs, forums, websites, intranets, podcasts, and … more »

Yesterday while driving I listened to a “Stuff You Should Know” podcast on transorbital lobotomies. Popular in the 1950s, the transorbital lobotomy was a procedure Walter Freeman performed by inserting an ice pick on the inside of your eyelid up into your frontal cortex to destroy the white matter tissue that was believed to cause extreme mood swings, schizophrenia, anxiety, maniacal behavior, or some other … more »

Download in iPod format Jim from Iowa writes: I was doing some career research involving technical writing and stumbled upon your website.  I had a question about that sort of thing, and you seem like a good person to ask. To be frank, I have two main interests–writing and technology.  I love to read and write, but I also love engineering, working with computers, etc.  So, I guess … more »

Although some feel the name of your tech writing department doesn’t matter a whole lot (for example, TexasWriter says “Find out what people now call it. Ask what they mean by it. If it’s accurate, use it. You aren’t marketing, don’t make it up”), actually your department’s name does have an impact on the role you’re expected to play. For example, our current department’s name … more »