1996 Policies and Procedures PIC Meeting  

This session is intended for those interested in (a) policies and procedures as a subject, (b) networking with others concerned with policies and procedures, (c) learning about this PIC, (d) influencing the direction of this PIC, or (e) listening, commenting, or volunteering. The first portion of the meeting will briefly review the PIC's history, mission, membership, budget, teams, goals, and progress. The second portion will be open to discuss new business.

Urgo, Raymond E. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Writing>Policies and Procedures>Technical Writing

A Process Model For Creating Accessible End-User Documents  

Electronic information products can be made accessible to blind and low-vision individuals. This is easier to accomplish with thorough planning and execution. This paper describes a five-step model for creating accessible documentation. The steps are (1) Preparing a source file (2) Producing accessible output, (3) Testing output for accessibility, (4) Modifying a source file if needed, and (5) Modifying a production process if absolutely necessary.

Herring, Richard D. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Documentation>Writing>Technical Writing

"About Us" -- Presenting Information About an Organization on Its Website

Study participants searched websites for background information ranging from company history to management biographies and contact details. Their success rate was 70%, leaving much room for usability improvements in the 'About Us' designs.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2003). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Writing

About Writing

Excellent answers to burning questions about who, what, where and why of writing ... even if you're not a writer to begin with.

Green, Chuck. Creative Latitude (2005). Articles>Writing

The Abstract Trap: Why Abstracts Are Bad for Persuasive White Papers

Abstracts, also known as executive summaries, are bad. As a matter of fact, they are really bad, and I stand nearly alone in my opinion. Abstracts are those summaries that typically stand in front of the core content of a white paper. They tend to include the key points about the white paper.

Stelzner, Michael A. WhitePaperSource (2006). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric>White Papers

Abstracts

An abstract is a short statement -- generally fewer than 150 words -- of the contents of a report, paper or other document. Few scientists, engineers, or managers have the time to read every paper that comes their way; they depend on the abstract. A well-written abstract is the best of way of making sure your vitally-important report reaches the right people.

Smith, Michael. York University. Articles>Writing>Genre

Achieving Objectivity Through Genred Activity: A Case Study    

Finding itself at the center of highly publicized legal and political deliberations over fairness in testing, personnel credibility, and legal liability, the training department at a North American transit authority adopted a genre system that enabled the production of objective evidence of job competence, which was then used to make objective decisions about who passed and failed various training programs. The ongoing genre-structured activity of the department involved not only the regularization of organizational texts but also the regularization of social interaction mediated by those texts, which, while producing the types of interpretively stable documents required for successful public deliberation, led to a shift in authority and social relations within the department that instigated considerable resentment and loss of morale among many veteran instructors.

Little, Joseph. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2007). Articles>Writing>Instructional Design>Genre

Activity Theory and Its Implications for Writing Instruction    

Proposes that educational institutions continue to improve the uses of writing in society in two ways: extend writing across the curriculum efforts and raise the awareness of students, the university community, and the public to the role of writing in society by having those who study writing teach an introductory liberal arts course on it. Both are important steps toward removing the remedial stigma attached to writing and its teaching, and toward combating the myth of autonomous literacy that reinforces the remedial stigma.

Russell, David R. Iowa State University (1995). Articles>Education>Writing>Activity Theory

Adding Life to Your Documentation  

Suggests several techniques technical writers can use to enliven their writing and improve their documentation.

Potsus, Whitney Beth. Intercom (2003). Articles>Documentation>Writing>Technical Writing

Administering Teacher Technology Training  

The collection of materials included here are designed to assist those, who for the first time, find themselves administering and developing an ongoing program for training teachers to use technology in the composition classroom.

Carnegie, Teena A.M., Amy C. Kimme Hea, Melinda Turley and David Menchaca. Kairos (2003). Articles>Education>Technology>Writing

Adolescent Diary Weblogs and the Unseen Audience    

This paper first situates adolescent diary weblogs and their implied audiences and then applies a typology of audiences for personal narrative performance to a sample of diary weblog posts to ascertain if the typology fits the implied audiences present in the weblog text.

Scheidt, Lois Ann. Indiana University (2005). Articles>Writing>Web Design>Blogging

Advanced Blogger  

Blogger's primary advantage is its simplicity--if you accept the default settings and host on BlogSpot, you can be up and running within five minutes. Once you have your blog, you'll find it's just as easy to customize it.

Doctorow, Cory, Rael Dornfest, J. Scott Johnson, Shelley Powers, Benjamin Trott and Mena G. Trott. O'Reilly and Associates (1998). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Blogging

"Advanced Composition" And Occasion-Sensitivity

As writing teacher but also freelance writer and editor, I rejoice to see current advanced composition textbooks emphasize sensitivity to occasion. For real-world writing profoundly requires audience-awareness. Out there, students will not be writing yet another typical theme for the teacher, concerned mainly with correctness. Nor will they be writing expressively, concerned mainly with self and authenticity. They must be writing for the occasion, to achieve specific purpose with specific readers, and hence must be concerned with effectiveness above all. But what about actual current classroom practice on this point?

Beck, James P. JAC (1981). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric

Advocating Plain Language: Thom Haller Discusses The Need For Clarity

Plain language is clear, concise, and straightforward presentation of information. It is professional content structured to eliminate ambiguity and confusion in technical, government, and legal documents. Plain language allows readers to fully comprehend complex regulations, practices and instructions by requiring the language of bureaucracy to reflect the language of everyday speech.

Haller, Thom. Rockley Bulletin (2007). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric>Minimalism

AECMA Simplified English  

ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English (formerly AECMA Simplified English) is a specification for writing aircraft documentation. The principles can be applied to all industry sectors. ASD-STE100 provides a set of writing rules and a dictionary of words and their meanings. It has a limited number of words; a limited number of clearly defined meanings for each word; a limited number of parts of speech for each word; a set of rules for writing text. This article outlines the standard, and shows how it helps to prevent ambiguity in text.

Unwalla, Mike. ISTC (2004). Articles>Writing>Minimalism>Controlled Vocabulary

Aligning Theme and Information Structure To Improve The Readability Of Technical Writing    

The readability of technical writing, and technical manuals in particular, especially for second language readers, can be noticeably improved by pairing Theme with Given and Rheme with New. This allows for faster processing of text and easier access to the "method of development" of the text. Typical Theme-Rheme patterns are described, and the notion of the "point of a text" is introduced. These concepts are applied to technical writing and the reader is then invited to evaluate the improvements in readability in a small sample of texts.

Moore, N.A.J. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2006). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Rhetoric

All the Secrets to Generating Creativity in Literature

NOT for the timid--here are proven, guaranteed, simple ways to create writing that is off-the-wall original. Why be mediocre? Now you can quickly and easily become innovative, bizarre, and distinctive. The "born writer" theorists and "author-worshipers", the non-deconstructionists, will HATE this article.

Streight, Steven. Blogger.com (2004). Articles>Writing

Alternatives to the Paragraph

'It's all in the manual.' How many times have you heard that - or said it in frustration? After all, when you are the person who wrote the manual, you know that all the answers are there. But time and again readers can't find what they need to know, or don't understand the material. Before you blame the reader, look again at how you've presented the material.

Hollis Weber, Jean. Technical Editors Eyrie (1989). Articles>Editing>Technical Writing

America the Beautiful

Writers of English have choices. Most every word we commit to paper (or its electronic equivalent) has a synonym

Wenger, Andrea. Carolina Communique (2007). Articles>Writing>Grammar>Tropes

Anatomy of a Weblog

In some sense, weblogs sum up what's so great about the Internet. Like fanzine editors before them, weblog editors embrace a topic or theme and run with it. Weblogs are a great indicator of what's happening on the Internet and within the web community.

Barrett, Cameron. Camworld (2005). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Blogging

Angels and Copy Editors Defend Us!

Tinkering with the author's words simply because 'I would not write them that way' is not discretion, but interference. Preserving the author's authentic voice is as important as enhancing its presentation so as to maintain the authority of the words. Of what, then, does the enhancing consist? And how does editorial discretion fit in?

Fothergill-Brown, Ann. Writer's Block (1999). Articles>Writing>Editing

Annual Reports That Work  

Offers suggestions for creating excellent annual reports.

Worth, Carol. Intercom (2000). Articles>Writing>Reports

Answering the Critics of Plain Language

Plain language has to do with clear and effective communication -- nothing more or less. It does, though, signify a new attitude and a fundamental change from past practices.

Kimble, Joseph. Plain Language Network (2003). Articles>Writing>Legal>Minimalism

Anything That Can Go Wrong: Lessons Learned from A Decade of Toolkit Documentation  

Writing software toolkit documentation for programmers is a special challenge and opportunity for technical writers. Compared with writing software documentation for lay users, toolkit documentation is more demanding and exacting. Checking facts and finding tiny errors is like riding a motorcycle through a swarm of gnats. However, for me at least, toolkit writing has opened doors to a larger role and greater input into product design. Engineers treat me like a peer and I get to see into their culture. I know my readers and salespeople need me.

van Oss, Joseph E. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Documentation>SDK>Technical Writing