The following is a guest post by Steve Jong, chair of the STC Certification Commission. What does the certification program involve? First, for an introduction to the subject, I recommend the Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_certification. Our Certified Professional Technical Communicator™ (CPTC) credential provides assurance to employers and the public that the certified practitioner possesses the knowledge, skill, and ability expected of a competent technical communicator to meet the demands … more »

I’m giving an STC webinar this week on designing quick reference guides. Here are the details: Designing Quick Reference Guides Date: Wednesday, 25 January | 1:00–2:00 PM EST (GMT-5) Condensing a manual into an attractive quick reference guide requires a poet’s precision with language, but it also requires you to exercise skill with visual design and page layout. These short guides blend marketing with instruction, … more »

Here are my slides from the STC webinar I presented on organizing content (findability). The official title of the webinar was “Organizing Content: Breaking Out of Topic-Based Hierarchies.”  I added detailed notes for each slide. This should make the presentation understandable even without the audio recording. You can download the presentation in two formats: PDF format PowerPoint format Feb 19, 2012 update:You can listen to the … more »

I recently interviewed Alan Houser, candidate for STC vice president, in a podcast about his perspectives and plans for the STC. Both Alan and Vici Koster-Lenhardt are running for this position. I asked each of them the following five questions: What’s one of the greatest challenge STC members face right now. Any solutions? What would you like to see differently in the STC?

In this podcast, I talk with Victoria Koster-Lenhardt, candidate for STC vice president, about her perspectives and plans for the STC. Both Alan and Victoria Koster-Lenhardt are running for STC vice president. I asked Victoria following five questions: What’s one of the greatest challenge STC members face right now. Any solutions? What would you like to see differently in the STC?

Last week we recorded an Intermountain-STC chapter event, “Educational Programs and Workplace Practices,” held in Layton, Utah. The event included a panel of academics from local technical communication programs in Utah. We had six programs represented: BYU Provo, Westminster College, Utah Valley University, University of Utah, Utah State University, and Weber Utah State University.

One of the advantages of belonging to the Society for Technical Communication (STC) is having access to the rich information sources on technical communication. These sources include Intercom, the Technical Communication Journal, past proceedings from conferences, the Notebook blog, and more. Unfortunately, there isn’t a single search that allows you to comprehensively search all of these sources at once. I this screencast, I show you … more »

Last month I gave a webinar on WordPress to the STC CIC SIG, which is the Independent Contracting and Consulting Special Interest Group of the Society for Technical Communication. I recorded the webinar and am allowed now to make it available for free on my site. The recording plays my voice only, and the whole webinar lasts about 75 minutes. You can view the recording … more »

I’m giving a webinar on WordPress tomorrow, July 13, at 1:00 to 2:30 pm EDT. The webinar is organized through the STC Consulting and Independent Contracting Special Interest Group (CIC SIG). Here’s the description: Blogging is no longer a phenomenon. It is a way of life; another layer of communication to understand and utilize. An effective blog site can be critical to establishing a successful … more »

Our Intermountain STC chapter recently did something different for our meetings. Instead of the monthly meeting that takes place at an always-distant location in the evening, we held a half-day event on a Friday afternoon with three presentations in a row focused on a theme. Surprisingly, it worked quite well. We had probably double the number of people who normally attend our evening meetings. I’m … more »

Recently a reader wrote me asking for advice on changing careers into technical writing. I asked for some colleagues to respond. Bill Albing, an information architect in North Carolina, and Alyssa Fox, a technical communications manager in Texas, responded to the question. With permission from Bill, Alyssa, and “Cedric” (the name I’ve given the reader), I posted the conversation here.

Last week I attended the STC Summit in Dallas, as did about 700+ other people. Overall I thought the conference was as good as it has been for the last several years. Others said the conference was even better than past years. There’s a lot that is definitely working well with these conferences. Below are five things I felt went well at the STC Summit … more »

In this video interview, I ask Saul Carliner to give practical tips for handling some of the toughest situations that technical communication managers face, including firing, metrics, frank conversations with underperforming employees, and more. Saul gave a two-day workshop at the STC Summit for technical communication managers.

In this video, I asked Char James-Tanny and Bill Swallow to comment on the controversy over free versus pay-per-content models online, especially as it applies to STC content with the Body of Knowledge, Special Interest Groups (SIGs), and other information products.

In this videocast, I talk with Neil Perlin at hyperword.com about the trend toward mobile outputs for help and other information deliverables. Neil had just given a demonstration of a mobile output from Flare, and he mentioned to me that mobile was a direction he wants to specialize in. We recorded this video in the Expo hall at the STC Summit in Dallas.