100 Rejected Summit Proposals

by Tom Johnson on Aug 24, 2010
categories: technical-writing

The call for STC Summit proposals is now open. Below are 100 Summit proposals that were rejected in the past. They may be helpful as you prepare your own submission.

1. 100 Mistakes I Made During My First Hour as a Technical Writer
2. Technical Writer Versus Technical Communicator Versus Technical Who Are We? Who ARE We?
3. Robohelp Versus Flare: The Final Showdown, This Time the Matter Will Be Settled Physically
4. Pronoun Linguistical Analysis of Button Labels on Financial Graphic User Interfaces of Romanian Currency Banking Applications
5. Is Technical Writing Boring? Yes, No, Yes, No
6. The Jackson Pollock Inspiration Behind the STC.org Home Page
7. How to Start Petty Grammar Disputes Without [Deeply] Annoying Those Around You
8. Ping Pong Techniques So You Can Play Like a Developer
9. Best off-Line Practices for Tech Comm Influencers, Including Party Etiquette, Techniques for Waving, and Superficial Conversation Starters
10. Choosing the Right Twitter Picture: Twitter Pictures for All Occasions!
11. Let Bylaws Be Bylaws: The Fascinating History of New York's Bylaw Practices, Origins, and Future, Including an Inside Look At the Seedy Underbelly of Bylaw Formation 62.3.5.1
12. Technical Writing With Your Pet: Incentivizing Animals to Help Out With Usability Testing
13. Twifficiency, Twindexing, and Twusability: Tweqniques for Twelite Twechnical Twriters
14. How to Break Out of Technical Writing and into What You Love -- Even If It Pays Nothing
15. Ninja Techniques for Observing [Killing] Users
16. NINJA!
17. Tech Writer as Janitor, and Other Depressing Metaphors to Keep in Mind Throughout the Day
18. Using Sarcasm “Effectively” in the "Work" "Place"
19. Tomato Throwing Session (for no particular reason)
20. Un-Leadership Day
21. Strategies for Solace: Managing All the Alone Time in a Happy Way
22. Flopping, Bouncing, Cradling: A Study of Hyperbole and Metaphor Used By Application System Engineers (PhD Dissertation)
23. "Sharepoint Can Do that" -- Mantras Technical Writers Need to Master in a Microsoft Shop
24. Everything I Needed to Know About Tech Writing I Learned in the Hallways of Second Grade (not really)
25. Fishing and Technical Communication: a History of Nots
26. Learning to Love Demoralization
27. An Interface Is Like a Crappy Student Essay: Helps for Teachers Transitioning into Tech Writing
28. Publishing On the Fly -- Literally
29. Dr. Pepper Versus Root Beer, Let the Forces Rally
30. Completely-Impossible-But-Fun-to-Explore Hypothetical Ethical Scenarios in the Tech Comm Workplace
31. The Art of Art, and Other Illustrative Techniques
32. Technical Writing and Mythological Deities: How Zeus Reclaimed the UI From the Underworld of Hades
33. Moving Up and Down: Technical Writers Who Are No Longer Technical Writers (Some Are Unemployed and Living in Trailers, Others Are Rich and Living in Soho)
34. Fulfilling Your Wasted Literary Talent Through Microtweeting
35. Bringing Back the Use of "Which": An Anti-Movement Against Restrictive Clauses
36. Declente, Post-Pluperfect Tenses, and Hyperbolic Supposition: All the Grammar Rules You Should Know But Actually Have No Clue About
37. If You Give a Technical Writer a Cookie ... and Other Slippery Slopes
38. Technical Writing Horror Stories for Children
39. The End Is Near: A Manual for the Upcoming Apocalypse, Complete With Notes, Tips, and Cautions
40. It's Never too Late to Change Your Name, Join a Motorcycle Gang, Or Learn to Play the Vuvuzela -- Special Session By Kathyrn Burton
41. Three Way Blind Round-Tripping From Robohelp to Twitter to Facebook and Back Again
42. Sharepointize This!
43. View Source: An Unexpected Peek Behind the Technology that Powers Airport X-Ray Machines
44. Restructuring the IT Totem Pole with New Totems
45. Patience Is a Virtue for the Weak, Aggressive Attitudes Get Results: Tips and Tricks and Really Mean Phrases to Get What You Need/Want
46. Red Rover, Red Rover: Team Building Techniques for Athletic Technical Communicators
47. Pedagogical Discourse in Canonical Contexts: A Heuristic Investigation into the Academic Rhetorical Linguistic Meaninglessness to Distract or Impress
48. If I were a ________________: Tech Writer Spinoffs on Fiddler On the Roof (includes dance and song)
49. Will It Blend? An Experiment with Thick Manuals (bring yours)
50. Deep-Fried Quick Reference Guides: Everything Reads Better Deep Fried
51. Documentation On a Shoestring -- the Ultimate Convenience for Walkers and Runners
52. Name that Persona
53. Documenting Spumoni: Exploring the Hidden World of Ice Cream's Most Challenging Flavors
54. It Was the Worst of Times, It Was the Absolute Worst of Times: Managing Last-Minute Project Manager Requests
55. Live and Learn, Die and Burn: The End of One Technical Writer's Career
56. 15 Ways to Get Around Skimpy Billing Codes and Maneuver Out-of-Scope Budget Issues Through Off-Shoring, Laundering, and Defalcation
57. Predator Versus Alien: Interacting with Project Developers
58. Incredible Stunts By Technical Writers Mostly on Drugs
59. Sitting Pretty: Your Looks Alone Won't Get You By in Tech Writing
60. Preserving Documents in Sub-Kelvin Temperatures Through the Next Ice Age
61. Christmas Lists and Stocking Stuffers for Technical Writers
62. Jeopardy: The Final Hour, Academics and Descartian Philosophers Test their Knowledge of What Is Real
63. Technical Writing in the Golden Years: The Final Countdown to the Last Manual
64. Logging into STC.org: Tips, Tricks, and Techniques for Understanding the Sign-in Process and Subsequent Home Page
65. Deconstructing Tech Comm, for No Reason Other Than We're Bored
66. Technical Writing in Hyperbaric Chambers for Those Moments When You Really Need Oxygen
67. A Panel About Panels: What You Need to Know to Lead a Good Panel Discussion (Panel Format)
68. Style Guides Across the Ages: From Chaucer to Vonnegut, the Technical Style Guides the Masters Didn't Use
69. Of Mice and Pen: A Sad Story About How One Technical Communicator Accidentally Stepped On a Mouse
70. Let Go, Live in the Moment, and Other Useless Advice for Technical Communicators
71. Making Sense of ISO 9437395-5.A-12, the New Standard for Federally Regulated Rocket Fuel Cylinder Valves
72. Paranormal Documentation and Zombie Usability
73. Project Managers in the Mist: a Mockumentary
74. Cloning 101 and Time Banishment, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Deadlines and Love the Project Plan
75. The Technical Writing Hypnotist: Subliminal Techniques for Deep Topic Investigation
76. Forming the Banana Publications Style Guide: A Contrarian Reaction to the Apple Style Guide
77. Beyond the Bleeding Gut: Innovations that Failed
78. How to Build a Robust Content Management System Using Common Tools You Probably Have Under Your Sink or in Your Garage
79. DITA: It's Magic
80. The Dirty Little Secrets of Technical Writing Everyone Wants to Know But No One Will Tell You
81. Disturbing Stories of Seemingly Undisturbed Technical Writers
82. Little Did I Know ... : Reflections on a Career in Technical Writing
83. Conquering User Hearts, Minds, and Hopes -- One Help Topic at a Time
84. Indexing for Hard-Core Word Nerds: No-Holds-Barred Techniques for Seriously Aggressive Indexers
85. Country Songs and Anarcho-Punk Music By Technical Writers
86. Love Affair With Commas: A Guide for the Sick and Twisted (Includes Both Curly and Straight Commas)
87. Prison UIs for the Criminal Mind: Implementing the Impossible Exit, Infinite Loop, and Other Recursive Workflows
88. Comma-Lamas: Comma/Lama Breeding Hybrids
89. Killer Apps for Killers
90. Don't Make Me Think Part 2: "Don't Make Me Move”
91. Semicolons Are for Sissies, Dashes Are for the Undaring, and Other Useless Punctuation
92. Adobeization Nation
93. Exclamation Marks and Humor: The Hot Sauce of Technical Writing
94. Watch-Learn-Do-Be-Become-Now-Read-Manual-Must: A New Approach to User Education
95. The Plain Movement: Plain Language, Plain Clothes, Plain Hair, Plain Names -- Loving Plain in a Plain Way
96. The Grammar Thief: Stealing the Best Grammar Out There Everyday
97. Technical Writers on a Plane: A Thriller with Intrigue, Espionage, and High Speed Documentation Action 30,000 feet in the Air
98. Documenting the Edges of Outer Space: An Unknown Manual About the Unknown Unknowns (contents still to be determined)
99. 99 Pages of a Manual on the Wall, and other Party Games Technical Writers Love
100. Documentation Strategies for the Antisocial Web

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