Rhetoric? With all the emphasis on rhetoric, I started to wonder if I was missing something in my day-to-day activities in the workplace. Once when I was in college my dad sent me Aristotle’s Rhetoric, and during a lazy holiday break I read it. In Aristotle’s sense of the term, rhetoric is the art of persuasion. But not so much political tactics or other underhanded techniques. It’s knowing the right way to communicate for the audience and situation.

When academics teach writing and communication, they like to emphasize rhetoric. But the term rhetoric is never formally used in the workplace. In fact, some critics highlight the emphasis on rhetoric as a distinguishing factor that academics are out of step with the workplace. In Editing at School vs. at the Workplace, Don Bush writes,

I would urge professors to pry open a window in their ivory towers and take a good look at practical technical writing and editing. Most of the jobs in industry are in keyboarding. And today there are fewer and fewer of them. “Technical communication” is going online, where the keyboarding is done by the programmers—who, if they have a college degree, have it in engineering or computer science, not in rhetoric. (Feb 2007 Intercom)

Strangely, Bush scorns the relevance of rhetoric while simultaneously emphasizing “keyboarding,” whatever that is. Keyboarding seems to be writing and editing, I guess. At any rate, Bush clearly attacks the importance of rhetoric in the workplace.

Thomas Barker is the head of the PhD program at Texas Tech. I wanted to better understand Dr. Barker’s use of the term rhetoric, so I wrote to him asking why they chose to use an antiquated term that is almost entirely absent in the workplace.

Dr. Barker replied,

The term rhetoric is meant to evoke the tradition of theory and analysis that underlies academic approaches to communication.  As such, it has lots of explanatory power when someone is trying to say why one design works and another doesn’t.  Besides, isn’t it the academic’s job to articulate the human and humanistic aspects of a discipline. I would think that workplace practitioners would be encouraged to know that their work has ties with a prestigious tradition that goes back to Aristotle.  We do teach the skills you mention, so it’s not like our graduates just learn rhetorical theory.  But we do it within the context of rhetorical effectiveness with users of technology. (The Academic Conversation)

In other words, the foundation of technical communication is the practice of rhetoric. This rhetorical foundation connects the field of technical communication to a humanistic discipline as old as Aristotle.

Dr. Barker also pointed me to a January Intercom 2010 article he wrote called Rhetoric and Technical Communication. In the article, Dr. Barker explains,

Technical communicators think in terms of message, what we convey to administrators, users, customers, employees, and the public. But what if we pause, step back, and think in terms of the reader’s experience with our text? Doing this—thinking about the reader’s experience—is thinking rhetorically. Good writers do it naturally. Put simply, rhetoric means message in context.  (Intercom January 2010)

In other words, when you start thinking about the reader’s experience of your message, that’s rhetoric. Considering how the reader will experience your message, and then delivering the message in a way that maximizes the experience you want the reader to have, is practicing rhetoric.

Rhetoric versus writing

In the university setting, it makes perfect sense to use the term rhetoric, since tech comm departments frequently have to justify their existence and relevance. Any time you can ground your department’s purpose with a tradition as old as Aristotle, you have some validity.

Although rhetoric may be the right term in an academic setting, it’s an awkward term in the workplace. The term rhetoric in context of the workplace fails “to evoke the tradition of theory and analysis” and “articulate the human and humanistic aspects of a discipline.” Instead, if you explain that your role of a technical writer involves rhetoric, most people will think you’re in marketing or will simply not understand what you mean.

Instead of rhetoric, the workplace uses other terms, such as user experience, information design, user analysis, engagement, and learning theory, to mean much the same thing. The truth is, regardless of the antiquated nature of the term rhetoric, we professionals would be much better off thinking more about it. To think about rhetoric is to consider your reader’s experience of your help content.

Rhetoric is as broad as there are disciplines, and applies to everything from accessibility to reggae music. But in the context of technical communication, there’s a specific situation. You’re trying to help someone learn a complicated software application or hardware setup. It’s a situation of learning. The reader experience you’re trying to create is one of understanding and confidence, of knowledge and proficiency.

The reader’s experience should be at the forefront of our minds from the beginning of a project. Instead of designing for encyclopedic reference, we should consider how people learn, and integrate learning behavior into the organization, shape, and delivery of help material. We’re not creating “documentation.” We’re creating “communication.” And successful communication is grounded in rhetoric.

In short, a consideration of rhetoric would revamp how we deliver help material. It would make us more inclined to deliver screencasts instead of long help files. With rhetoric on our minds, we would be designing easy-to-read quick reference guides instead of 300 page PDF manuals. We would be drawing visual illustrations of concepts instead of writing out endless strings of words that fail to connect with users. eLearning and learning theory would be integral in the way we organize and think about content.

I’m not sure what this rhetorical component should be called in the workplace. For the most part, when people speak of “training” or “user experience,” this is what they mean. Training helps put the information you create into a learning context so that users can actually understand and implement the information.

Somehow in all the practice of technical communication, we’ve forgotten the foundation of it. It’s no wonder why most users despise help. It’s because the help authors despise and neglect them.

Blog Sponsors

• Webworks ePublisher
• Scriptorium
• Help Generator help authoring software
• Southern Polytechnic: Information Design and Communication
• Simplified English
• MindTouch
• Madcap Software
• Dr.Explain
• Adobe Technical Communication Suite
• Congree

Blog Sponsors

• Webworks ePublisher
• Scriptorium
• Help Generator help authoring software
• Southern Polytechnic: Information Design and Communication
• Simplified English
• MindTouch
• Madcap Software
• Dr.Explain
• Adobe Technical Communication Suite
• Congree

What if, instead of writing a page of release notes for the next version of your software, you created a cool video set to jazz like this?

Blog Sponsors

• Webworks ePublisher
• Scriptorium
• Help Generator help authoring software
• Southern Polytechnic: Information Design and Communication
• Simplified English
• MindTouch
• Madcap Software
• Dr.Explain
• Adobe Technical Communication Suite
• Congree

Blog Sponsors

• Webworks ePublisher
• Scriptorium
• Help Generator help authoring software
• Southern Polytechnic: Information Design and Communication
• Simplified English
• MindTouch
• Madcap Software
• Dr.Explain
• Adobe Technical Communication Suite
• Congree

I am so glad that I found your blog. I truly need an advice. Initially I got accepted as computer science and business major, however I did not see myself stimulated by it.

So I changed to International Relations and Development studies, something I always wanted to study.

But now, I am faced with few job prospects. Even though I left to work as a reporter in the UAE. I love writing. But it is quite a competitive, still market and I wanted to go back to Canada, one year in the UAE was way too much for me.

Now I want to pursue technical writing as a career. I am motivated, since I am a hybrid between science and arts, and it will enhance my pay.

But I want to be trained as a technical writer, I have about 4 computer science credits, I know rudimentary computer science concepts, though  C ++ is something I can vaguely recall.

I really need your advice on this.

Are there any internships for technical writing positions? What can I do? And what are the computer software programs I need to know?

And I am a fellow blogger as well.

My best regards

Jara, thanks for writing. It’s good that you have skills in both computers and writing. That combination  provides a great foundation for a career in technical writing. You don’t have to be a computer programmer to land a job as a technical writer, unless you plan to write documentation for programmers. However, any programming knowledge comes in handy.

To get training in technical writing, you have several options:

• Land an entry-level job in technical writing and learn the skills you need on the job.
• Earn a degree in technical writing somewhere
• Serve as an intern for a tech pubs department
• Create a portfolio of technical publications samples on your own

Any of these options can work well to move you forward into a career of technical writing. I took the first route: on-the-job-training. I’d been a writing instructor at a university, then a copywriter, and I wanted to move into technical writing. I landed a job as a technical writer at a financial company, and learned their style guide and methods. It was an excellent way to gain experience in technical writing.

Many companies want to hire candidates who already have experience in technical writing. It can seem like a Catch-22: you need experience in technical writing before you can get a job in technical writing; but the only way to get experience in technical writing is to have a job as a technical writer.

Actually, the Catch-22 situation is somewhat of a myth, one that many can’t see past. You most likely learned to write before you landed a job as a reporter. And how did you learn to write? Did the skills come only from on-the-job training? No. Most likely you wrote in your own spare time, developed writing skills, and then submitted some impressive writing samples to an employer, who hired you.

Technical writing can be the same way. If you want to learn technical writing, do technical writing. If you need a project, I recommend writing documentation for WordPress. (If you’re interested in that, I’ll give you more specific suggestions on areas that need better documentation.) Documenting WordPress may not interest you, but there are a hundred other applications you can write help for. Open source apps are the ripest.

As you tackle an actual project, you’ll be faced with stylistic questions. You’ll have to decide how to approach it, the language and format. I recommend that you open a sample how-to guide from some application you’re familiar with (even Microsoft Word), and try to imitate the style. Number the steps. Include screenshots where the steps are confusing. Chunk the material into tasks. See my post on the complexity of simplicity for some standard techniques.

You’ll also need a mentor, someone who can review your content and give you feedback. Here’s where the STC comes in. The Society for Technical Communication (STC) most likely has a chapter in your area. Go to the next local STC meeting or contact the local president. Ask for a mentor to provide feedback on your technical documentation.

In a thriving chapter, many people will be more than willing to volunteer. Take your mentor’s advice and shape your samples into professional-looking work. If you can produce several samples of help material for different projects, that alone may convince a hiring manager that you have experience in technical writing.

One thing I haven’t mentioned is tools. This is where it gets a bit controversial, but I’ll tell you what I use. I author almost everything in Madcap Flare. Using Flare, I generate both webhelp and a Word output, which becomes a printed PDF manual. I mainly use SnagIt to capture screenshots, although sometimes advanced tweaking requires me to use Photoshop. If I plan to make video tutorials, I use Camtasia Studio. Learning at least Flare and SnagIt will take you a long way.

If you know the specific job you want, you can inquire about their toolset. Maybe they’re die-hard RoboHelp users. If so, learn RoboHelp. Maybe they do everything in Microsoft Word. Fine, master styles and templates in Word. Perhaps they’ve moved to DITA. In that case, get to know an XML editor and the DITA Open Toolkit. Or maybe it’s a Framemaker shop. So dig into that.

Some employers require you to know their tool before they’ll consider you. Realize that “knowing” a tool has gradations of interpretation. With some tools, I can say that I “know” them, although I only know them as a novice. With other tools, I’m an expert. There are gradations of ability for every tool, so even if you only figure out Flare enough to create a basic online help file, you can still say that you “know Flare.”

It’s a bit ridiculous for an employer to expect each candidate to have an expert level of knowledge in every tool (e.g., AuthorIt, RoboHelp, Doc to Help, Flare, DITA, Framemaker, Word, Captivate, Camtasia, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and others). It’s more important that you’re able to learn the tools the company wants you to use. You’d think this characteristic would be a given, but many technical writers get unnerved if forced to learn a new tool.

Readers, if you have advice to add, please do so in the comments below.

For more information on technical writing careers, see this post by John Hewitt on the Technical Writing FAQ.

WordPress Training

WordPress Training Course
Date: Saturday, July 19
Time: 9 am to noon MST
Cost: $99

If you’re interested in WordPress training, I’m holding a course this Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon MST over the web. Click the WordPress Training button on my navigation bar for details about what’s covered and the cost.

Speaking of WordPress, here’s a great post from Mashable about 20 must-have compatible plugins for WordPress 2.5.

I especially recommend the NextGen Gallery plugin. If you have a lot of photos to post, and you want to group the photos into various galleries, and the galleries into albums, and you want to manage the title and caption text in an easy way, this plugin is amazing. It adds a ton of image functionality to your WordPress installation. For an example of what it can do, view the Gallery and Featured Project page of this site. You can also integrate photo effects like the SimpleViewer from airtightinteractive.com. This is just one example of how WordPress can go far and beyond Blogger and other platforms.

Of course, you may be content with Blogger, Typepad, LiveJournal, etc., and if so, that’s fine. But if you’re frustrated with your site’s limitations and lack of features, the inability to customize it, or you just want to try something new, it’s time to experiment with a self-hosted WordPress blog. This three-hour course can help get you up and running.

Date: Wednesday, April 30
Time: 7:30 – 9:30 p.m. CST
Location: Web
Cost: $99
Course Size: Limited to 15 participants

For the full course description, see WordPress for Beginners Course.

April 20, 2008 Update: If you’re interested in the WordPress training, see the course announcement about the 2-hour session I’m giving on April 26.

I’m planning to offer some WordPress training, and I’d like to know if you’re interested. By WordPress I mean the self-hosted WordPress blogs that you create with WordPress software from WordPress.org, not the freely hosted blogs at WordPress.com.

WordPress is software that can be so easy a first-grader can publish posts (see Avery’s blog here). At the opposite end, you can be a PHP enthusiast, such as Alex King, creating plugins that extend WordPress’s functionality. Or a theme designer creating cool-looking themes. Or you can sidestep the blogging features altogether and just use WordPress as a mini content management system or website, such as what Scott Deloach did with Clickstart. (By the way, did you also know that the New York Times and Business Week were both created by WordPress?)

I’m a technical writer, but my extensive involvement in blogging and podcasting has branded me as someone knowledgeable about these two areas. That’s fine, because I absolutely love WordPress. It’s the only software I’m truly passionate about. I can spend my Friday nights tinkering around in the code, adjusting my theme (by the way, I’m getting tired of my theme and want a new one), adding more plugins (I wonder what’s new that I can incorporate … ), and trying to figure out how to make my podcasts more web 2.0-ish (see thoughts in previous post).

In the next couple of weeks, I’ll announce official training that I’m offering for WordPress. It won’t be free, but it will be worth it. The training will probably involve several sessions that move from beginner to advanced, focusing on different aspects of WordPress. I’ll explain the basics, such as how to install WordPress, activate Akismet, what all the options and tabs mean (by the way, WordPress 2.5 is coming soon and everything will be different on the admin side). Then I’ll move into essential plugins and how to integrate them. I’ll also recommend attractive themes and explain how to adjust the designs using the stylesheet. Finally, I’ll explain different PHP tags and parameters and how you can dynamically alter the content of your blog, as well as create category templates to completely customize the look and feel of your site.

I’m not a WordPress developer, but I am comfortable with WordPress. If you’ve been thinking of moving away from Blogger (don’t worry, WordPress will easily import all your content), or if you’re tired of other blog software you’ve been using, think about moving to WordPress. You’ll save yourself hours and hours of time by going through my course. Additionally, if you’re already using WordPress but want to become more expert, this course will help you move from novice to geek in an efficient way.

To gauge interest in the course, can you respond to this short survey?

Take the survey

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