The Skills that Technical Communicators Need: An Investigation of Technical Communication Graduates, Managers, and Curricula    

This study examines the skills that recent technical communication graduates and managers believe technical communication students need before entering business and industry as new technical communicators. Through questionnaires and interviews with recent graduates and managers of technical communication departments as well as an analysis of the participating schools' curricula, this study suggests areas where technical communication may need more preparation, including business operations, project management, problem-solving skills, and scientific and technical knowledge. Further research is needed at local, state, and national levels to analyze technical communication undergraduate curricula along with responses from recent graduates of technical communication programs and managers of technical communication programs. Only through continued research can we ensure that future technical communicators receive an education that eases their transition into the world of business and industry.

Whiteside, Aimee L. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2004). Articles>Education>TC>Workplace

A Slippery Slope: Using Value Analysis to Resolve Ethical Conflicts in Technical Communication  

Increasingly, technical communicators are confronting ethical issues in the workplace. Conflicts arise that appear to defy black-and-white solutions. To render every verdict as 'gray,' however, begs the question. Clear direction in the face of thorny ethical dilemmas requires objective value analysis, to logically reduce such dilemmas to clearly defined value conflicts. Once these conflicts are understood, the proper ethical path can more readily be discerned. This paper addresses the need for specific, real-world ethical guidelines for technical communicators. It also explores the possibility of developing a value analysis model to establish such guidelines. A typical model is applied to four representative ethical conflicts.

Voss, Daniel W. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>TC>Ethics>Assessment

So You Want to Teach Technical Communication?  

Institutions of higher education often hire technical and business communicators on a part-time basis to teach professional and technical writing courses. This workshop prepares practitioners for teaching positions by offering practice planning syllabi for courses, developing and critiquing writing assignments, examining student writing and criticizing its strengths and weaknesses, testing and discussing strategies for handling the paper flow and effective time management, and consulting with two experienced professors who are also researchers in the field. Participants will work in small groups to examine real papers, real syllabi, and real problems.

Philbin, Alice I. and Michael L. Keene. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Education>TC

Review: The Social Formation of Technical Communication Studies    

As a species of rhetoric and composition, technical communication studies is wrestling with issues of identity, professionalization, and status that help to define an academic discipline. Recent scholarly work has debated the research methods that might be productive for an applied field in a postmodern age, the theoretical and pedagogical connections between composition and technical communication in an electronic age, and the tensions between training and education in a global age that requires new models of work.

Selber, Stuart A. CCC (1998). Articles>Reviews>TC

The Society's First Members  

In this article, two original members of the Association of Technical Writers and Editors (TWE), a parent organization of the Society for Technical Communication, discuss how the profession and the Society have changed since TWE's inception.

Rutkowski, Ed. Intercom (2002). Articles>TC>History

Software Testing  

If you area technical writer who writes software documentation, chances are you have been informally involved in testing the software that you are documenting. In larger organizations, entire divisions are devoted to thoroughly testing software before it is released. In smaller organizations, this position could be informal or nonexistent. In this workshop, you will learn a basic methodology for testing software that you can use as a starting point for a new or expanded career.

Chiricosta, Tracey C., Charles D. Fisher Jr. and Tom Witherspoon. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>TC>Programming>Collaboration

Some Assembly Required: The Latourian Collective and the Banal Work of Technical and Professional Communication    

In this article, the author uses the critical vocabulary developed by Bruno Latour in his recent work Politics of Nature to offer an alternative way for technical and professional communicators to approach and articulate their work. Using the Discovery Channel's Mythbusters to explore Latour's vocabulary, the author argues that positioning technical and professional communication as more than transmitting and translating, but instead as the collecting of articulated propositions about the common world in service of the common good, thoroughly grounds its practice in rhetorical theory. Such a positioning also ascribes value to technical and professional communication without reinscribing the false dichotomy between science and politics.

Rivers, Nathaniel A. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2008). Articles>TC>Business Communication>Theory

"Something in Motion and Something to Eat Attract The Crowd": Cooking With Science at the 1893 World's Fair    

Studying past examples of successful technical communication may offer insight into strategies that worked with technologies and audiences in an earlier time. This article examines the texts documenting a controversy before and during the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. Ellen Swallow Richards, chemist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Bertha Honore Palmer, president of the Fair's Board of Lady Managers, had distinctly different visions of how cooking technology should be presented. Palmer invited Richards to create a Model Kitchen in the Woman's Building, but Richards wanted to avoid gendering the new knowledge of nutrition and she fought to control her exhibit. The multimedia Richards used in her resulting Rumford Kitchen exhibit reminds us that sometimes an entertaining but familiar atmosphere might be the best way to introduce threatening new knowledge and technology, particularly to our increasingly international and intergenerational audiences.

Lippincott, Gail. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2003). Articles>TC>History>Rhetoric

Spread the Word

As technical writers, multimedia artists, editors, Web designers, graphic designers, translators and others who make technical information easily understandable, we are often at a loss to explain what it is we do in our job as technical communicators. We need to provide information to the Des Moines business community through fliers, news articles, and our newsletter. We want to promote recognition of our members who receive awards from their employers for projects well done

Atchison, Beth. STC Central Iowa (2001). Articles>TC>Marketing

Staking a Claim: Positioning Technical Communication in Knowledge Management

If knowledge management is an appropriate framework for technical communication, how should technical communicators define their roles in knowledge management systems? Perhaps more importantly, how do technical communicators want others in their organizations to perceive them?

Smith, Sara. Orange Journal, The (2005). Articles>Knowledge Management>TC

Standards: A Strategic Business Issue

Are you overlooking a strategic business issue? You may be, if you are not involved in the development of standards that may impact your business.

Printing Impressions (2007). Articles>TC>Standards

Starting a Chapter-Level Special Interest Group  

STC's special interest groups (SIGs) provide a way for STC members to share their interest in particular areas of technical communication. Society SIGs at the international level may have hundreds of members, and many publish a newsletter, host an electronic newsgroup, and sponsor events and sessions at STC's annual conferences. Chapter SIGs usually have fewer members, but, because their members live in the same area, they can meet regularly and address members'local needs.

Taylor, Cheri W. Tieline (2000). Articles>TC>Community Building

Starting a User Group

I was having a hard time coming up with a program that would provide tangible member benefits and be easy to maintain at low (or no) cost. I finally found what I was looking for when a friend told me about a book review he was writing for O’Reilly, a technical publisher. When I asked how he got hooked up with O’Reilly, he filled me in on their user group program.

Wigser, Sarah. Tieline (2005). Articles>TC>Community Building

The State of Research in Technical Communication    

There have been many attempts to assess the state of research in our field. This article is our attempt to both (1) synthesize recent analyses, opinions, and conclusions concerning the status of technical communication research and (2) propose an action plan aimed at redirecting our field's agenda for its research. We explore these questions: What are the recent research trends in our field? What is and is not promising about our recent approaches to research? Where do we need to go next? What are the critical components for a new agenda for our research?

Blakeslee, Ann M. and Rachel Spilka. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>Research>TC

Staying on Top of Technology  

Staying on top of new technology is a challenge for many information design and development groups. We in the InfoDesign group in DuPont met that challenge by holding monthly 'Technology Topics' sessions to try to address that need. Each Tech Topics session is a meeting dedicated to exploring one or two currently relevant, technology-related topics.

Hansen, Lauren Y. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>TC>Technology

STC Quality PIC Progression  

This progression is sponsored by the STC Quality Professional Interest Committee. Each subgroup within the Quality PIC is sponsoring a discussion table, with additional topics of special interest to technical communicators. These topics have been selected based on their timeliness and practical value to practicing technical communicators.

Fisher, Lori H., Donald S., Lenk, Jr, Ted Dennison, David Robbins, Richard D. Colvin, Connie 'C.J.' Bibus and Ralph E. Robinson. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>TC>Quality>Professionalism

STC Recognition Helps Build Community

The best benefit of my STC membership and leadership volunteerism is that the STC name recognition helped me get the jobs I wanted.

Byron, Barrie. MetroVoice (2003). Articles>TC>Community Building>STC

Review: STC Technical Communication Summit, Usability Track

The best part of my experience at the STC Summit was meeting people who, like me, are craving information on the trends of which we are such a large part--such as Web 2.0, user-centered design, and new software tools. For the most part, I got the information I craved. As a technical writer who is professionally heading deep into usability and user interface (UI) design, I actually went to the conference for the usability certificate program.

Marlett, Stacia. UXmatters (2007). Articles>Reviews>TC>Usability

STC Transformation Project: Focus on Communities

I’m talking with you today because I was part of a three-person team that took the lead on thinking about communities for the STC Transformation Project. The two other members of that team were Fred Sampson and Whitney Quesenbery. Fred, Whitney, and I based our work on the goals and principles that the STC Board established for the Transformation Project. As we worked on the concepts for communities, we thought about how to apply these principles to meet the goals.

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny'. STC East Bay (2004). Articles>TC>Community Building>STC

STC-U: Supporting Members through Education

How does an STC chapter address such a wide scope of skills and interests? The answer for us is an educational program called STC-U.

Nelsen, Kymm. Tieline (2003). Articles>Education>TC

STC's Evolving Conference  

This article discusses the impact of STC's annual conference on the professional development of technical communicators.

Rutkowski, Ed. Intercom (2001). Articles>TC>History>STC

STC's Independent Contractor/Temp Agency Employee Survey  

The results of STC's 2001 survey of technical communicators in the United States and Canada who call themselves independent contractors or temp agency employees include information on compensation, work habits, and job satisfaction.

Intercom (2002). Articles>TC

STC's International Membership From 1979 to 1991  

This study examined changes in STC's overall and international membership between 1979 and 1991. Though the USA and Canada consistently comprised about 97% of the membership, significant changes occurred within the international membership. The Pacific Rim Countries experienced the greatest growth, with their membership increasing about twenty fold over the twelve year period, as compared to a five times increase in the overall international membership, and a three times increase in the entire membership. The disparity of the growth rates resulted in Japan replacing Israel as the residence for most international members, with Australia in second place.

Coolidge, Joy. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>TC>International>STC

STC@50: STC Members Share Their Stories  

In commemoration of STC's 50th anniversary, several Society members share anecdotes about their experiences in STC and the technical communication profession.

Babcock, Elizabeth. Intercom (2003). Articles>TC>History>STC