Use Body Language to Deliver Your Message  

One of your most effective means to communicate with team members may not involve words. See why senior editor Matthew Osborn believes body language can say it all.

Osborn, Matthew. TechRepublic (2003). Articles>Collaboration>Communication>Workplace

Use Heads, Subheads, and Summaries

Use standard typographic techniques and writing features that help the reader find their way through each page of your document. Titles, subtitles, bold subheads between paragraphs, and summaries help the reader find out what they would learn if they read a page or section in greater detail. Let the reader know the bottom line up front. Offer a brief introduction that lets the reader know what information is being presented.

Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Writing>Workplace

Use Lists

Lists are short lines, and easy to skim. Since they break up nicely into chunks (one chunk per list item) they work well for organizing a related group of links. For many situations, they will work better than links scattered in a paragraph that must be read in context.

Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Writing>Workplace

Using Corporate Lore to Create Boundaries in the Workplace    

In the workplace setting professionals use language to create boundaries of exclusion and inclusion, using the discourses of their professions and of specific workplace domain. Some boundaries are marked by formal tests--directed memos, posted notices, stamps that read "For Your Eyes Only." Less overt forms, and arguably more effective, are specific rhetorical devices relying on knowledge of the corporate and professional culture. People are included or excluded from such cultures by their knowledge and ability to manipulate professional fables and folklore, historical data, workplace experience narratives, and practical knowledge. These discourse practices can be used to promote solidarity and positively strengthen professional cultures, but they can also be used to obstruct communication and to create social fragmentation in the workplace. This article examines some examples of discourse practices among managers and employees in the customer service department of a large manufacturing firm, and shows how knowledge of the ways that language can both include and exclude people from cultural groups in the worksite can help professional communicators facilitate more effective and responsible communication practices in workplace settings.

Racine, Sam J. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (1999). Articles>Language>Workplace

Using Measurement to Enhance Employee Communication

The role of an employee communication professional is, at its core, fundamentally simple: We're in the business of designing and executing messaging to achieve a desired effect with a specific audience. How successful we are is driven by a number of factors, including appropriate use of media, timing and messages. By understanding these factors, we can target communication much more effectively. The key to understanding these factors effectively is simple: Ask.

Cooper, Marc. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Workplace

We Can Learn From Newspapers

Newspapers are a good model from which to learn techniques for creating skimmable documents. A newspaper provides an immense amount of information that is highly skimmable. You can pick up almost any daily newspaper and in just a few minutes find the information you want: What's new? How did your home sports team do (no matter where you are in the country)? What are this paper's biases?

Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Writing>Workplace

What Must Be Done to Ensure That College Students Communicate Well in Their Fields?      

With the turn of a new century, it seems as though everyone has gone into the forecasting business--especially stockbrokers and academics. Our own field has marked the emerging era with a wonderful essay collection, WAC for the New Millennium (ed. McLeod, et al., NCTE 2001). In the same spirit, this panel looked to the future by reflecting on best current theory/practice (guided by the stockbrokers' caution that past performance is no guarantee of future results.) To set the stage for the discussion, the moderator briefly considered the title assigned by the conference organizers: 'What Must Be Done to Ensure That College Students Communicate Well in Their Fields?'

Youra, Steven. LLAD (2002). Articles>Education>Writing>Workplace

What School Can't Teach You About Technical Communication: An Ethnographic Inquiry  

Because the workplace is a different kind of discourse community than the classroom, young professionals are unprepared for such workplace realities as the required use of a bureaucratic style, fragmented and reiterative research and review, and a lack of clear direction. Organizations should explicitly address these training needs through providing effective writing examples, writing-focused orientation, and mentoring in communications.

Malone, Elizabeth L. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Education>Mentoring>Workplace

What Workplace Stress Research is Telling Technical Communicators    

Technical communicators encounter many stresses in their professional lives. Deadlines, overly ambitious projects, and uncooperative subject matter experts can make their work exceptionally stressful. To the communicators, such stress may be so common as to seem benign, but it actually has serious consequences that range from a loss of career fulfillment to severe health problems. This article explains what stress is and how it is generated in the workplace. It also explains the health consequences of stress, and why companies often see stress as the employees’ problem, even as it eats into profits and productivity. Much research has been done on workplace stress in the last two decades, leading to many suggestions on how to reduce it. This article reviews these suggestions, which include everything from exercise programs to cognitive/behavioral training. It also considers the implications of workplace stress research for technical communicators and the communicators’ efforts to get more influence within the workplace.

Primm, Dave. Technical Communication Online (2005). Articles>Workplace

What you Can't Hear Can Hurt You: Overcoming Physical and Emotional Barriers of Hearing Impairment in the Practice of Technical Communication  

Children who fail hearing tests but who function in educational settings are assumed to have only unimportant handicaps. These children learn to live with their problems, but a significant hearing impairment diminishes the information such children receive. Help is available for children, but also for adults who have not fully recognized their handicaps. This paper describes the problems of people with moderate hearing loss, and provides information on what can be done to ameliorate their problems.

Gillen, Lori. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>Workplace>Accessibility>Audio

When ROI Isn't Enough: Making Persuasive Cases for User-Centered Design

Making the case for user-centered design (UCD) is a topic of recurring discussion for UX professionals. Much of the discussion has centered on strictly objective approaches such as cost-benefit or return-on-investment (ROI) analysis. However, recent commentary suggests proving ROI is not always enough.

Jones, Colleen. UXmatters (2007). Articles>User Centered Design>Project Management>Workplace

Who Should Document Organizational Policies and Procedures?  

Senior-level managers in organizations often over- or underestimate the role employees should take in documenting policies and procedures (P&P) on their operating practices. Solutions to this challenge include engaging the talents of a P&P writer, having stakeholders participate in a P&P information development process, and training employees in P&P writing skills.

Urgo, Raymond E. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>Documentation>Workplace

Who's Policing the Policy Makers?  

This ethics case concerns a technical writer charged with the task of introducing new company policies to employees. The writer faces a dilemma when she discovers that the workplace habits of some managers contradict the policies. Reader responses to this ethics case will appear in an upcoming issue of Intercom.

Wiles, Debbie. Intercom (2001). Articles>Workplace>Ethics

Word Processing vs. "Web" Documents

Reading on screen is different than reading on paper. The metaphors used for writing word processed documents do not make for easy to read screen documents. Techniques from CD-ROM's, the Web, and on-line documentation can help make web documents that are compelling to read on-screen.

Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Writing>Workplace>Word Processing

Workplace Surveillance and Managing Privacy Boundaries    

According to communication privacy management (CPM) theory, people manage the boundaries around information that they seek to keep private. How does this theory apply when employees are monitored electronically? Using data from 154 face-to-face interviews with employees from a range of organizations, the authors identified various ways organizations, employees, and coworkers describe electronic surveillance and the privacy expectations, boundaries, and turbulence that arise. Privacy boundaries are established during new-employee orientation when surveillance is described as coercive control, as benefiting the company, and/or as benefiting employees. Correlations exist between the surveillance-related socialization messages interviewees remember receiving and their attitudes. Although little boundary turbulence appeared, employees articulated boundaries that companies should not cross. The authors conclude that CPM theory suppositions need modification to fit the conditions of electronic surveillance.

Watkins Allen, Myria, Kasey L. Walker, Stephanie J. Coopman and Joy L. Hart. Management Communication Quarterly (2007). Articles>Workplace>Security>Privacy

Write Newspaper Style

Write in an inverted-pyramid style, with the conclusion first, details later. Writing with the 'punch line' first, starting with the conclusion, rather than building up to it with careful reasoning may be hard for some writers used to presenting detailed arguments orally. If you think like you are writing a newspaper or newscast, instead of telling a joke, you may find it easier.

Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Writing>Workplace

You Want to Do What? Convincing Your Management to Support Usability Studies  

It's a classic chicken-and-egg struggle. Many information developers wait for management go-ahead before conducting usability studies. Management, on the otherhand, is sometimes reluctant to support usability work.

Scanlon, Tara C. and Alicia Flanders. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Usability>Planning>Workplace

The Life of a Lone Writer

Lone writers are found across all industries, as junior- and senior-level employees, contract workers and direct employees. Sometimes, they’re not even the only writers in their company, but rather are the only writers in their division with either little to no contact — or little to nothing in common — with the other writers in other company divisions.

Potsus, Whitney Beth. TechCom Manager (2006). Articles>Writing>Business Communication>Workplace

Raising Your Documentation Team's Visibility

Whether the documentation department has a staff of one or a team of 12, visibility within the company is a frequent concern. The reasons for this concern range from personal to professional. You want to be remembered when promotions and bonuses are handed out. You want new challenges to add diversity to your workload, and new projects to add skills to your resume. You want to defend your turf against budget cuts and layoffs during lean economic times. And you want to be more than an afterthought that lives in the back 40 of the cubicle farm.

Potsus, Whitney Beth. TechCom Manager (2005). Articles>Management>Documentation>Workplace

Copyright for Corporate Information Professionals: Staying Within the Law    

Considers the role of copyright in the dissemination of information within the corporate sector. Examines the various forms of authorization available for companies using copyright-protected content to ensure compliance with copyright law. Discusses the distinction the law makes between copying for a commercial purpose as opposed to copying for a non-commercial purpose. Looks at the limited scope for businesses to rely on the copyright exceptions to justify their copying, particularly fair dealing. Considers licensing as a way of being able to do more than the copying exceptions would allow, and the interrelationship between contract law and copyright law. Outlines some copyright legal cases and the lessons we can learn from them. Sets out examples of copying activities that should be avoided if one wants to reduce the risk of being accused of copyright infringement.

Pedley, Paul. Business Information Review (2008). Articles>Intellectual Property>Copyright>Workplace

Ready for the Enterprise?

A quick look at ten Open Source Content Management Systems which are beginning to find their way inside Enterprise IT Departments.

Shreves, Ric. Water and Stone (2006). Articles>Content Management>Open Source>Workplace

Information Architecture for My Office

To get a handle on the challenge in front of me, I created a complete item inventory of everything currently in my office. I used Microsoft Excel and created a spreadsheet.

Swope, Amber. Content Wrangler, The (2008). Articles>Information Design>Workplace

Intranet Communications: Improving HR Service and Communications

Effective communications requires two-way, synchronous communications – not just messages pushed on a one-way street from the top floor executive offices. Successful intranets have a well-defined plan that accounts for employee needs and preferences and engages the target audience.

Ward, Toby. Intranet Blog (2006). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Workplace

Is Your Intranet Trusted by Staff?

It is widely recognised that an intranet must be trusted, if it is to be regularly used by staff across an organisation. While it is easy to make this statement, it is harder to qualify what is meant by trust, how users assess it, and how we can build (or rebuild) trust in the intranet. This briefing looks at the issue of trust, and presents some simple steps that can be taken to further build staff trust in the intranet.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2005). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Workplace

Make Sure Your Intranet is Well-Perceived by Staff

Many intranets are only now beginning to show their true potential. However, many staff, having had unsatisfactory previous experiences of the intranet, may need quite some convincing that the intranet is now genuinely useful.

McGovern, Gerry. New Thinking (2005). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Workplace