Ray, Deborah S.

Adaptive Technologies for the Visually Impaired: The Role of Technical Communicators

This column examines emerging technologies of interest to technical communicators to help them identify those that are worthy of further investigation. It is intended neither as an endorsement of any technology or product, nor as a recommendation to purchase.

E-Mail, Acronyms, and Alphabet Soup

Emoticons have become pretty complex, now including ones like :-# [lips are sealed], :-& [tongue tied], or :-'' [pursing lips].

Relieving Computer-Induced Headaches

A thorough discussion of why some users get headaches when working at the computer.

Annotated Cover Letter: Using Block Style Format

An annotated sample cover letter for applying for a tech comm position.

Adaptive Technologies for the Visually Impaired: The Role of Technical Communicators

Try your ordinary web browsing and e-mail with an translucent piece of plastic draped over your monitor, with your monitor partially obstructed, or with your monitor turned off. With each of these changes, you’ll have a significantly different experience. For example, if you have plastic draped over your monitor, you’ll likely have a hard time reading words, interpreting graphics, or distinguishing colors. If your monitor is partially obstructed, you’ll likely have a difficult time navigating pages, reading columnar formats, or associating graphics with text. And, of course, if your monitor is off, you’ll have an entirely different set of challenges in accessing and using information. Each scenario offers a different view of the information onscreen, poses different challenges, and, most important, each is significantly different from unimpaired viewing.

Good, Fast, Cheap: Translation Memory Systems Offer the Potential for All Three

For technical communicators exploring translation services, a relatively new technology can help provide consistency among translated documents, make the translation process more efficient, and make translation projects cost effective. Translation memory systems assist human translators by following along as a document is translated, creating a database of translated material and terminology, and allowing translators to access previously translated material easily. Using this technology, translators can translate, save, and reuse material, making the resulting translations highly consistent and the overall process more efficient and cost effective than working without this technology. In this exploratory article, we explain the evolution toward translation memory systems, discuss why and when they're particularly useful for helping translate technical documentation, and offer guidelines for determining whether translation memory systems are appropriate for your translation needs.

Knowing When to Upgrade Software

Software upgrades generally do two things: Offer you new or improved features, and fix bugs present in existing versions. Whether you upgrade will depend on your need for the new or improved features, depend on whether you experience problems because of software bugs, and, of course, depend on your budget.

Extending Your Tech Writing Skills: Pitching a Newspaper Column Idea

Before pitching a column idea to your local newspaper editor, take time to examine whether becoming a columnist is right for you. In taking on a newspaper column, you not only take on a long-term commitment, but you also establish a responsibility to people in your own community. So, to begin, you might read Extending Your Tech Writing Skills: Becoming a Columnist, which identifies considerations for becoming a columnist. If you decide that becoming a columnist does suit your interests and goals, then the following tips and ideas can help you land a column with your local newspaper. As you'll see, examining and refining the topic, overcoming the competition, using a creative approach, and following up appropriately can help.

Freelance Article Writing: Tips for Establishing and Maintaining Good Relationships with Magazine Editors

While writing attention-grabbing, informative queries--a much-covered topic in the freelance writing arena--is important in landing assignments, don't overlook one important aspect that can help you continue landing assignments time after time: Establishing and maintaining good relationships with the editors you work with. This article offers advice, how-to and why-to information, and techniques to apply throughout the publishing process that can help you build good relationships with magazine editors. Although the following sections provide specific details and steps, the message is simple: A little understanding, consideration, and effort go a long way.

Tips for Attending Conferences

First, determine what you want to gain from the conference. Are you looking to gain new knowledge in specific topic areas? Are you looking to gain as much new information as possible? Are you primarily attending to network with new people? Are you looking to find a new job or investigate relevant services? Maybe some or all of these reasons? Determine what your goals are.

Developing an Annotated Portfolio

Maybe you don't have a project that's all your own. Or, maybe you don't have many completed projects to show a prospective employer. But, you do have skills in planning documents, compiling and organizing information, writing, editing, and designing...right? Put those skills to use and create an annotated portfolio of your work that includes excerpts of what you have done, demonstrates your capabilities to develop documents, and makes potential employers look twice. But wait. How can you create a portfolio without actual portfolio pieces? You can, by examining what you have done, examining what skills you've contributed, gathering reader/boss/coworker comments, and developing a cohesive document.

How Many Geeks Does It Take?

A dog-ate-my-homework computer failure from the Ray computer logs.