Presentation Pointers  

This site provides tips on how to deliver a good technical presentation, both for the presenter him/herself, as well as for the content matter of the presentation. For the presenter, the note about the three Vs (Visual, Vocal and Verbal) are a must-read, and whether it is a PowerPoint presentation or a demo, the tips on how the presentation matter needs to be structured will be greatly apppreciated by any amateur/ experienced presenter.

Presentation Pointers (2000). Presentations>Technology>Communication>Business Communication

Presentation Shui

Have you ever been in a room that felt strangely uncomfortable? Most presenters have, making comments afterwards about a forebodingly long executive table, a sterile design that put a chill in the air or a frenetic disorganized feeling that seemed to bounce around the room during the talk. It's reactions like these that corporate room designers and architects seek to avoid, striving to use technology and interior design to create a professional yet welcoming atmosphere. That quest has opened the door to fresh ideas, including the Chinese art of feng shui.

Regenold, Stephen. Presentations (2002). Design>Human Computer Interaction>Presentations

Presentation Skills and Techniques  

Communicating efficiently when giving presentations relies on a superb blend of technique and knowledge. Knowledge is gained through research and experience, the techniques are learned by observation, deliberately reading topic specific books, or by attending relevant workshops. As you progress and you become increasingly proficient in delivery, your own unique style will ultimately evolve.

Rhodes-Marriott, A. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Presentations

Presentation Skills Training: A Matter of Personality and Outcomes

It was simply a matter of a web link or two and literally hundreds of trainees joined me online from all around the country. All in all, pretty easy and convenient and the price was right-- free. The topics were related to presentation design concepts and I knew going into it that the medium would be right for some, but unfortunately, dead wrong for others. Contrast that with another training venue coming up in a few weeks. Three presentation team members from a large consumer products company will be flying into Portland, Oregon for a day's worth of hands-on presentation design training. End of year budget utilization issues made that possible and I absolutely know that they will walk away with highly practical skills. So who got the best training value? The answer just might surprise you. Training is a personal matter but also a very practical one. When we approach training topics related to presentation design, message development, delivery skills and technology, the venues available for training are numerous. The bigger question is which ones are right for you and your learning style and of course, which options will your budgets support? With a rush to slash travel and off site training, the web is being viewed in overly glamorous terms for meaningful training deployment. Here are the trade offs.

Endicott, Jim. Presenters University (2003). Articles>Presentations>Rhetoric

Presenter's Code of Ethics  

At many conferences we encounter speakers whose sole reason in presenting is to entice customers for their products or services. The goal is not, in itself, a bad one -- except when the speaker presents information that is biased.

William Horton Consulting (2001). Articles>Presentations>Ethics

Presenters Who Play In The Gray Risk Their Reputations

We all bend the rules and shade the truth in various ways. Presenters do it for all sorts of reasons: to inflate the importance of their work, to get people to like them, to make a story funnier. Tad Simons suggests there's a line in there somewhere that may not be wise to cross.

Simons, Tad. Presentations (2002). Articles>Presentations>Ethics

Presenting Like a Pro!  

Your ability to construct and deliver a powerful presentation is one of the most important facets of your career. Without that ability, you will never be able to sell your ideas, projects, and yourself. Keeping these six main principles in mind and following this effective 8-step process will allow you to develop a presentation that anyone would be proud to deliver. Once the presentation is written, concentrate on watching body language, making eye contact, modulating your voice, and breathing properly as you deliver a dynamite presentation!

Laurent, J. Suzanna. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Presentations

Privacy

Privacy is especially difficult to define because it means different things to different people. Each of us has our own privacy needs. Women often have different privacy concerns than men; asking a 9-year-old child his age over the Net has different privacy implications from asking the same question of a middle-aged adult. A question that may not be seen as violating our privacy in one situation could have that appearance in another.

Coyle, Karen. Karen Coyle (1999). Presentations>Information Design>Privacy

Procedures Writing Training in a Corporate Environment  

In a corporate procedures writing program staff members of a financial company wrote procedures documenting their everyday work. Because these staff members were not trained in technical writing, a twostage training process was developed. The writing would be done by the in-house staff; in this case, financial analysts and accountants, referred to as SME writers. These staff members were required to document their everyday functions but had no professional training in writing; training, therefore, was a prerequisite to ensuring a successful writing program.

Perelli, Elizabeth T. STC Proceedings (1993). Presentations>Documentation>Collaboration

Process Maps  

A poster-sized map showing the steps and deliverables through the UI/IA/UX project lifecycle. Maps various activities and deliverables against project roles and indicates major milestones. Excellent resource for educating clients (internal and external) about 'the process' and what to expect at each phase of the cycle. Two different 'takes' on the process are available for downloading.

Malone, Erin. AIfIA (2003). Design>Presentations>Posters>Workflow

Processes, Roles, and Regulations: (Re)defining What Technical Communicators Do  

Understanding how you work (process) and understanding what you do (roles) are two important aspects of a successful documentation group that works within a regulated environment. These items will help writers produce better documentation and provide a way to better define (or redefine) their roles in the development process.

Rupel, Roberta A. STC Proceedings (2001). Presentations>TC

Producing Site-Specific Training Materials: How Technical Communicators Can Increase Job Security  

According to the SCANS report, '80 percent of the workers on whom American employers will depend as we enter the 21st century are already on the job.' Onsite employee training and retraining must become a major focus for American companies. Technical communicators can develop site-specific training materials for their employers, but they will need to 'speak another language' in order to communicate the potential savings and benefits to management. Technical communicators who produce site-specific training materials can increase their job security by increasing their employer's ability to compete.

Wietelman, Sherry S. STC Proceedings (1994). Presentations>Documentation>Writing

Program Models for Supporting Faculty and Student Research

Presentations about how to facilitate student and faculty research in higher education academic programs.

Yeats, Dave, Miles A. Kimball and Robert Waller, Nancy Allen, Kathleen Gygi and Russell Willerton. CPTSC (2005). Presentations>Management>Research

Program Revision and Assessment

Four presentations about program assessment and the revisions to programs that they suggest.

Eble, Michelle F., Ann S. Jennings, Janice Tovey and Sherry Southard. CPTSC (2005). Presentations>Education>Assessment

Program Revision and Assessment II  

Four presentations about exigences that are leading to change and innovation in technical communication academic programs.

Smith Taylor, Summer, Karen Kuralt, Elizabeth Pass and Wanda L. Worley. CPTSC (2005). Presentations>Education>Assessment

Programmatic Roles in Research, Professional Development, and Ethical Responsibility

Four presentations about the roles of programs in the professional, ethical, and research roles of its students and faculty.

Farkas, David K., Jennifer L. Bowie, Kenneth T. Rainey and W.J. Williamson. CPTSC (2005). Presentations>Education>Professionalism

Project Management and the Technical Communicator

Describes how project management can help technical communication professionals better plan and manage their technical documentation projects.

McCormick, Greg. SlideShare (2007). Presentations>Project Management>Documentation>Collaboration

A Project Manager's Survival Guide to Going Agile  

When software development project teams move to Agile methodologies, they often leave project managers behind. Traditionally trained project managers are confused as to what their new roles and responsibilities should be in an environment that no longer needs them to make stand-alone decisions. This presentation focuses on re-defining the job of project manager to better fit the self-managed team environment, one of the core Agile principles. Special emphasis is placed on the shift to servant leadership, with its focus on facilitation and collaboration. Mapping of PMBOK knowledge areas to Agile practices is discussed at length. After reading this paper, project managers should have a better understanding of what changes they need to make professionally, and how to make these changes in order to survive the transition to an Agile software development approach.

Sliger, Michele. Rally Software Development (2006). Presentations>Project Management>Agile

Providing Mentor Opportunities for Students and Professionals  

Mentorships provide an opportunity for students and new professionals to increase their career awareness by interacting with experienced technical communicators. STC chapters can develop mentor programs that facilitate this important professional development activity.

Stertzbach, Lori A. STC Proceedings (1995). Presentations>Management>Mentoring

PubsTrac: A Project Management Simulator  

The PubsTrac simulator is a new tool for teaching project management in a technical publishing context. It takes the form of a board game in which one or more people each manage one or more projects. Each project must progress through the many steps that make up a typical technical publication development project, and must deal with such problems as bad reviews, product redesigns, sick employees, and resource overloads. In this workshop, participants will actually experience PubsTrac in small groups.

Caernarven-Smith, Patricia and Anthony H. Firman. STC Proceedings (1995). Presentations>Education>Project Management

Putting Large Documents Online  

Large documents are among the most suitable documents for online viewing. This paper will look at the process of converting large printed documents to online documents. It will discuss the role of hypertext, SGML, and other technologies in their creation, This paper will then look at the process of designing large online documents from the traditional analyses of audience, task, and information to implementation concerns such as determining the design requirements, evaluating electronic publishing software and prototyping the design.

Rockley, Ann. STC Proceedings (1993). Presentations>Web Design

Putting the Science into Technical and Scientific Communication Classes  

Although programs and courses frequently are titled “technical and scientific communication, ” often the scientific part is shifted to the science classes many students are required to take. All technical communication students, but especially those who are targeting a career in scientific communication, should be made aware of scientific principles and practices that apply to technical communication. Educators might add information about technical proposals, empirical research reports, regulations, basic abbreviations and definitions of statistics, research methods used in the sciences, and the scientific style described in style manuals to the materials they regularly teach.

Porter, Lynnette R. STC Proceedings (1995). Presentations>Education>Scientific Communication

Quality and Usability in Indexes  

Indexes are essentially user interfaces for product documentation and trade books. Determining the quality and usability of indexes requires many of the same considerations as determining the quality and usability of user interfaces for software products. The time and resources spent on indexing represent the most cost-effective investments companies and publishers can make. Unfortunately, the truth is that very few companies and publishers devote a sufficient amount of time and resources to developing indexes.

Lathrop, Lori M., Peg Mauer and L. Pilar Wyman. STC Proceedings (1997). Presentations>Indexing>Usability