From the Doc Side : professional development

Twitter - Can it Make You a Better Technical Writer?

Steve Pham — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:19:00 GMT

Copyblogger's Jennifer Blanchard thinks so and I completely agree. According to the post "How Twitter Makes You A Better Writer", Twitter helps writers in three ways:

Twitter forces you to be concise.
Twitter forces you to exercise your vocabulary.
Twitter forces you to improve your editing skills.

Being fairly new to Twitter, I find myself constantly editing my tweets (the Twitter word for posts) to fit the 140 character limit. Because of this limit, you do have to be careful about what and how you choose to write your messages.

How does Twitter force you to be concise?
There is no getting around being brief. You write more than 140 characters, your message doesn't get sent. You learn fast, capture the gist of what you want to say, and quickly send it out.

Why do you need to exercise your vocabulary?
If you only have 140 characters and have to be concise, you want to choose the most effective words to get your message across without using ones you don't. So you start thinking about ways to say what you want with creative word choice and not extra sentences. Each word matters. When each word matters you think about them a lot more.

What's editing have to do with anything?
Because of being concise and evaluating each word choice, you often have to re-read your messages quite frequently to evaluate whether it's what you meant to say. But, you don't have all day to edit a tweet. Twitter forces you to write better in shorter amounts of time because a medium like this is all about being timely. The posts need to be fast yet good. You can't compromise quality just because it's a microblog. And, you want to send out good content that relfects well on the rest of your content and your skills. Editing well and quickly is of essence.

So how does this help technical writers?
Well a good portion of help authoring is to deliver information as effectively and efficiently as possible so users can get back to the task they were trying to accomplish. Technical information isn't prose or poetry. No one wants to read a book on how to turn on the computer. A tool like Twitter can make you aware of how important each word choice is but it can also teach you to get your message across sooner. As well, I find it encourages creativity in being effective. Creativity is always an important tool in staying relevant in technical communication as well as learn how to meet your users' needs with less space and words. People want help with their problem now and then to move on. Twitter is great then for teaching technical writers to focus on one problem or message and quickly move onto the next task. What do you think? Do you agree? Or, do you think tools and mediums like Twitter are ruining the English language?

How can we produce effective yet efficient user assistance content?

Lindsey Robbins — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:25:00 GMT

One of my esteemed co-workers shared this awesome article with me last week and now I want to share it with other writers of user assistance content in the field. If you haven’t read it yet, Mike Hughes’ article Straight Talk: Surviving Tough Times as a User Assistance Writer is a great read and quite thought-provoking. When I can squeeze in some time, I really want to thoroughly read it and make some notes about his main article points. There is a lot to digest in his post.

It came at a great time for me as I’m learning our team’s updated writing style. I’m learning how we’re tackling one of the article’s main points, how do you keep improving your user assistance content to meet audience needs while also being efficient with your resources and time?

Hope you enjoy the article!

Society for Technical Communication Summit 2008 Reviews

Lindsey Robbins — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:25:00 GMT

Thought I'd give the rest of my reviews for the STC 2008 Summit now instead of putting it off for another day. I've already given a review on the Trends in User Research panel and discussed my session on Writing as an Asynchronous Conversation. If you'd like to hear more about what I learned in these sessions, leave a comment about which one and I'll write up a separate post detailing what I learned.

Getting Real-World Feedback on Your Information: A Case Study by Kori Bevis, IBM
The only negative about this presentation was the overwhelming hotness of this room which caused everyone to be sleepy. Otherwise, it was full of useful information especially as we consider how to involve more users in our documentation usability projects. Kori did a great job explaining how they implemented a client council in evaluating their new information repository web application.

XML the Easy Way: Moving Your Unstructured Content (Word / FrameMaker) to DITA by Todd Aldous
Wanted to see a presentation on Asessing Accessibility of Websites for Users with Disabilities but the session was canceled because of the sporadic internet connectivity. Totally bummed. Showed up in this session a few minutes late and quickly realized that moving unstructured content is easy if you build a bunch of custom plug-ins for FrameMaker. One of only two sessions I regretted going to at the conference.

Guidelines for Effective Captivate Movies by David S. Locke, Wordsmith
Since we're now using Adobe Captivate to create our video tutorials, I thought it would be good to see what other people in the field had to say about what makes a good captivate movie. The foundation of his message was good but thought some of his time estimates might be exaggerated. I definitely think when you first start creating short videos you can spend a lot of time editing, but after you create a few and set a style you spend less time on the details and more on the content. His core issues of context and control, content, communication, focus, and synchronization were spot on. If more people are interested, I'm sure I could co-write a post with Nikki on what we think are important guidelines for video tutorials and screencasts.

So, You Can Write. But Can you Think? by Dawn Maxson, Dell and Deborah Doyle, Sun Microsystems
I really try to be a nice person so let me just say that this session was a complete waste of time. Nothing valuable learned. Would expound but I'd rather not talk badly about a presentation on a blog. I'm sure they had excellent intentions for this presentation. Better luck next time ladies.

Stop Wasting Time: Ten Things You Can Do to Make Yourself More Efficient by Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler
Scott really is one of those people best seen live, in person. Funny, on the edge, and willing to call anyone out on any topic. This was a fun presentation full of some great tips, resources, and websites. My favorite of the 10 tips were #7 - tag and share, #4 mashups, and #3 project management tools. You can see his full presentation on slideshare.net, although as I said above, he really is worth the price of admission.

Mining Web 2.0 Content for Enterprise Gold by Michael Priestley, IBM
Do I wish I were as genius as Michael? Yes, yes I do. Michael did a nice job of talking about the relevance of web 2.0 and DITA and making a case for open standard support for web 2.0. I especially appreciated his discussion on how it's getting easier to get content in but harder to get content out because information becomes silo'd, redundant, and harder to reuse. My favorite thing he said in the whole presentation centered on separating the content from the application of which I am a strong advocate. No matter what application you end up using, your content needs to be solid. In this case, advocating more standards for web 2.0 would enable us to create more flexible, powerful content. Definitely had a lot to think about after his presentation and not the least was how I could someday be as super smart as Michael.

Agile Technical Documentation by Jean-Luc Mazet, Hewlett-Packard
Probably my favorite presentation at the conference. Great balance of humor and bursting full of useful information about the hot topic in software development - agile! He did a great job with overview for those newer to this style of content development and yet also gave advice on things to avoid. For example, as technical writers getting away from "owning" pieces of documentation. The team owns the document and together you write content. When you reuse, content becomes stronger. The most encouraging part of the talk was about how writing in agile really empowers writers and when someone struggles, agile enables coaching until improvement happens. I like that idea much better than the sink or swim method. Jean-Luc wrote a great conference paper summarizing his responses. You can find it on the stc.org website.

Engaging Diverse Audiences using Screencasts, Wikis, and Blogs by Gail Chappell and Cindy Church, Sun Microsystems
Theme of this session? Lots of great examples. Because the project Gail and Cindy worked on for Sun Microsystems was under open source, we were able to visually see examples of every part of their project. I particularly liked the information on the screencasts and blogs because those are both things we are doing and will need to evaluate effectiveness soon. Plus, it's nice to hear other companies discussing their integrated approach to help authoring. It's not all about silos of information and user guides. I like thinking about all the ways content can mix and mash and output in different formats depending upon clients needs. And, I heart examples but I think I already mentioned that above. :-)

Secret Social Session (S3) on new Social Media & Networking by Robert Armstrong
An unofficial, underground STC session was published last minute on twitter and a message board and had a pretty good turnout. It was nice to see my other conference twitterers and have some fun talking about the tools. While what we do is not about the tools, it's still fun to learn and hear about what might be coming next. And, I liked the whole underground movement of the social networking at the conference.

Editing Modular Documentation by Michelle Corbin, IBM and Yoel Strimling, Comverse
Last session ended on a good note. One reason to instantly like this session is we were talking about the content (modular documentation) and not about the tool (DITA). One surprise from the session was the number of hands that shot up at the beginning of the presentation of people whose sole job function was a technical editor. Ouch! Wonder if those people see the future coming or not? I don't know if everyone agrees with me but seems like technical communicators need more skills and flexibility in job function than one that puts you in a small box (especially if mainstream documentation goes the way of agile, then I don't see how you can make your job function only editing). Okay, off the soapbox and back to the presentation. The nice thing about the presentation was that it was well organized, provided some overview but not exhausting, and they had advice not just "we did this, then that". It's nice when people can provide best practices because it shows that they've not only done this type of work but thought through the pluses and minuses. Favorite takeaway - edit for usability not reusability. While reusability is key for technical communicator's work efficiency, that doesn't mean it's important for clients. Usability still needs a central role in evaluating technical communication.

All in all, the conference will definitely be a highlight of my 2008 work year. Thanks to Blackbaud for empowering us through training!!!

Society for Technical Communication's Annual Conference

Lindsey Robbins — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:49:00 GMT

I recently (6/2 - 6/4) attended the Society for Technical Communication's 55th Annual Conference in Philadelphia. (And yes, we have been around for at least that long trying to help users make sense of technology.)

Over the next several weeks I plan on sharing my impressions of the conference sessions, the experience, and all the new questions I have about the emerging trends in the field. To give you an idea of what is to come, I thought I'd share the sessions I attended.

Monday

Getting Real-World Feedback on Your Information: A Case Study
    - Korin Bevis, IBM
Trends in User Research
    - Karen L. Backhmann, Seascape Consulting
    - Jean Anderson, Siemens Medical Solutions
    - Whitney Quesenbery, Whitney Interactive Design
    - Ginny Redish, Redish & Associates
    - Todd Zaki Warfel, Messagefirst
XML the Easy Way: Moving Your Unstructured Content (Word / FrameMaker) to DITA
    - Todd Aldous

Tuesday

Writing as an Asynchronous Conversation
    - Ginny Redish, Redish & Associates
Guidelines for Effective Captivate Movies
    - David S. Locke, Wordsmith
So, You Can Write. But Can you Think?
- Dawn Maxson, Dell
- Deborah Doyle, Sun Microsystems
Stop Wasting Time: Ten Things You Can Do to Make Yourself More Efficient
    - Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler
Mining Web 2.0 Content for Enterprise Gold
    - Michael Priestley, IBM

Wednesday

Agile Technical Documentation
    - Jean-Luc Mazet, Hewlett-Packard
Engaging Diverse Audiences using Screencasts, Wikis, and Blogs
    - Gail Chappell, Sun Microsystems
    - Cindy Church, Sun Microsystems
Secret Social Session (S3) on new Social Media & Networking
    - Robert Armstrong
Editing Modular Documentation
    - Michelle Corbin, IBM
    - Yoel Strimling, Comverse

Overall, the conference was a great opportunity to network, learn, and think critically about how this new information can be applied to my team. Only two sessions ended up being disappointments but you can't be happy with everything, right? Either way, the future of technical communication is exciting and varied. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else than in the middle of progress.

(Liberty Bell + Cheesesteaks + Rocky) x STC = Professional Development

Lindsey Robbins — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:25:00 GMT

The countdown is on… 19 days, 23 hours, and change until I’m going to professionally develop in Philly, PA. This professional development comes in the form of my first professional conference. Each year, two tech writers from our team attend the Society for Technical Communication’s annual conference. This year there are 130 sessions scheduled on all topics in technical communication. To say I’m geeked to attend is an understatement. However, the one minor detail I need to spend some time on before I leave is which sessions to attend. Choosing is going to be very difficult.

There are several things for me to consider -

What will enhance my team’s knowledge in the field of technical communication?
Is there anything I can learn to better help our users?
What can I learn to improve my own professional future?
Which presenters are the most knowledgeable in the field?
And, which presenters will waste my time?

You know that last one is true. Despite how awesome a session’s topic sounds, it really does depend on the expert giving it. The conference is June 1st – June 4th, 2008. And, I will be posting what I learn on here.

In the meantime, any advice on all things related to conferences?

I’m guessing I definitely need to have a coffee in my hand at all times, correct?