The Society for Technical Communication (STC) is an international professional society for the advancement of the theory and practice of technical communication. It has hundreds of local chapters (also known as 'communities.'
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The Australian Society for Technical Communication-New South Wales
The Australian Society for Technical Communication (NSW) is a professional non-profit organisation dedicated to serving the needs of technical communicators.
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Authorship and Responsibility: The Problem of Special Knowledge 
The ethical questions that technical communicators face frequently present themselves obliquely, arising because the communicators depend heavily upon the special knowledge of other people who provide necessary information. The special knowledge that communicators lack and others possess may come from highly technical education, privileged access to information sources, or socially constructed access to information. Proponents of need-to-know policies may argue that limiting communicators' knowledge absolves them of responsibility for the information's veracity and effects; however, more ethically rigorous considerations of the issue consider communicators' authorial roles, their right to know, and their responsibility to their audiences.
Bryan, John G. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>TC>Ethics
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Basic International Technical Communication
International technical communication is the profession of the present and most definitely of the future. Businesses around the world need technical communicators who are skilled in communicating with a multicultural audience and who are comfortable working as members of international teams. This workshop introduces you to some basic skills you need to master to be successful as an international technical communicator. The skills this workshop focuses on are: performing an international user analysis, identifying cultural bias, generating a glossary for translators, and designing a page with translation and the international user in mind.
Hoft, Nancy L. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>TC>International
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Effective marketing is key to your success. Marketing is based on your image and message, both of which can be delivered in a myriad of methods.
Maggiani, Rich. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>TC>Marketing
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To attain your career goals, you cannot simply go to work and perform the assigned projects, allowing your manager direct your professional path for you. You must treat your working life much like you treat a documentation project and be deliberate. Take charge of your progress by volunteering to complete projects that challenge and advance your capabilities. Plan and prepare for challenging opportunities that provide you with new work experiences; identify and execute tasks that advance your skills, knowledge, and abilities; and evaluate your career development, results, and your accomplishments with each enterprise you complete.
Swindle-Troell, Elizabeth F. STC Proceedings (2003). Careers>TC>Planning>Volunteering
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Becoming a Technical Communicator
So you want to be a technical communicator? Here are some pointers to get you started.
Info Action (2004). Careers>TC
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Becoming InfoWranglers: New Career Ladders and Competencies for Technical Communicators
The emergence of the web has accelerated the convergence of marketing communications, training, and technical communication. Marketing communicators are increasingly producing users' guides, trainers are producing wizards and marketing materials. Technical communicators are producing tutorials and pre-sales literature.
Carliner, Saul. Boston Broadside (2000). Careers>TC
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Behavior-Based Performance Expectations
Many organizations document job-oriented expectations for their employees and tend to leave behavior-based performance criteria to the individual managers. Or, they may lump so many different jobs into a single performance criteria definition that that definition becomes meaningless for any individual group. In this paper we will discuss the difference between job-oriented expectations and behavior-based performance expectations. We will describe the process we used to create our performance expectations and will show some examples.
Crawford, Vanadis, Angela Pitts, Rosalind Radcliffe and Leah Ann Seifert. STC Proceedings (2004). Careers>TC>Case Studies
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Behind the Scenes of Creating Value
There's a lot of volunteer work that that goes on behind the scenes by chapter members to create value. Today, I'm inviting you to get involved so you can take part in and benefit from creating value.
Koster-Lenhardt, Victoria 'Vici'. Carolina Communique (2004). Articles>TC>Community Building>Volunteering
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The Benefits and Pitfalls of Mentoring
A mentoring program encourages employees; can target potential managers and specific employees who need assistance; facilitates implementation of corporate strategies; requires a coordinator to administer the program, usually a person found within HR who spends no more than 1 day per week on mentoring activities.
Bailey, Elizabeth. STC Proceedings (2006). Careers>Mentoring>TC
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To get the most out of your STC membership--take action. Join a committee, write an article for the newsletter, go to a workshop, volunteer for the chapter conference.
Feldman, Diane. Carolina Communique (2006). Articles>TC>Community Building>STC
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Highlights from the winners of STC's international technical art, technical publications, and online communication competitions.
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Best of Show -- Winners of STC's International Competitions
Read about the Best of Show winners of the 2005•2006 competitions in international technical art, international online communication, and international technical publications. Also, meet the winner of the international student technical communication competition.
Intercom (2006). Articles>TC>Document Design>International
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Best of the Best of the Best: Winners of STC's International Competitions
This article profiles the winning entries in STC's international technical publications, technical art, online communication, and student technical communication competitions.
Intercom (2004). Articles>TC>Collaboration>STC
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Beyond End-User Documentation: Opportunities for Technical Communicators
A large number of people in the technical communication field create end user documentation; therefore, many people seem to believe that technical writing is synonymous with writing end user documentation. On the contrary, creating end user documentation is only one of many roles that a professional technical communicator can perform. In this paper, we will describe several roles for technical communicators.
Vaughn, Joan E. and Katie Walton. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Documentation>TC
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Beyond the Bleeding Edge Technical Sessions
Perlin summarizes several presentations on new technologies given at STC's 49th Annual Conference in Nashville.
Perlin, Neil E. Intercom (2002). Articles>Technology>TC
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Beyond the Mechanical: Technical Writing Revisited 
Optimism about the future of technical writing can be sustained only if we persist in setting for technical writing the same standards we apply to other sophisticated modes of writing and require refinement in style as well as accuracy in content. The importance of content in technical writing, of the information presented, may seduce us into seeing technical writing as purely a form of language engineering and into teaching our students to perform mechanical writing tasks, churning out dull reports to fit mindlessly into the institutional norms of industry and government.
Iyasere, Marla Mudar. JAC (1988). Articles>Writing>TC>Technical Writing
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The Bhopal Gas Tragedy: An Analysis 
Around 1 a.m. on Monday, the 3rd of December, 1984, in a densely populated region in the city of Bhopal, Central India, a poisonous vapor burst from the tall stacks of the Union Carbide pesticide plant. This vapor was a highly toxic cloud of methyl isocyanate. Of the 800,000 people living in Bhopal at the time, 2,000 died immediately, and as many as 300,000 were injured. In addition, about 7,000 animals were injured, of which about one thousand were killed. After the incident, over the next few years, numerous studies were conducted, many theories were explored, and the involved parties accused each other. In this paper, I will try to explore the various causes offered for the tragedy. In the course of my research for this case study, I came across many articles that put blame on various people and groups involved in the tragedy. I found one document particularly interesting from a rhetorical standpoint. This document, titled Union Carbide: Disaster at Bhopal , was authored by the retired Vice President of Health, Safety and Environmental Programs in Union Carbide Corporation. So for this paper, I would also like to rhetorically analyze this document and also, try to explore the various image restoration strategies that Union Carbide Corporation used through the course of the crisis.
Ungarala, Pratima. Michigan Tech University (1998). Articles>TC>Risk Communication>Crisis Communication
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A Bibliography of Basic Texts in Technical And Scientific Writing
Instruction in writing beyond the freshman level takes a variety of forms, all of which may be thought of as 'advanced' composition. One of the best established forms and one that shows all signs of continuing growth is technical writing. Although some teachers of traditional advanced composition may blanche at the comparison, I believe it helpful to take the relationship seriously. Technical writing is a form of advanced composition that relies upon well defined audiences and writer-roles, and that addresses itself to specific purposes found in industrial, manufacturing, research and development, and other bureaucratic and technological contexts. It is its specificity that makes technical writing distinct, but, like all advanced composition, its general function is to help students muster their linguistic and rhetorical resources to have effects on readers.
Miller, Carolyn R. JAC (1982). Resources>Bibliographies>TC
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Blogs and Technical Communication
Blogs are a simple, yet powerful tool and their popularity is rapidly growing. How are blogs affecting the community and technical communication?
Cottrell, Christina. Michigan State University (2003). Articles>Content Management>TC>Blogging
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Review: Book Reviews in Technical Communication
This page provides links to book reviews related to technical communication. I am looking for book reviews to publish. Please email me if you have a review that you would like to see published here. Note that this is a non-commercial site -- I don't pay for reviews.
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It's not been easy for art directors and graphic designers to maintain a career amidst rapidly changing technology and design trends.
Shinn, Nick. ShinnType (2001). Careers>TC>Typography>Graphic Design
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This panel explores what corporate leaders in the Technical Communications field consider the hottest topics in the industry today.
Conklin, John James, Judith L. 'Judy' Glick-Smith, George Hayhoe, Thomas B. Hoyt and Deborah Rosenquist. STC Proceedings (1998). Careers>TC>Knowledge Management>Localization
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Bridging Cultures: Working Overseas
Working in another country can be a rewarding, exciting experience. Preparing for an overseas job, however, involves more than sorting out visas, work permits, inoculations, and currency exchanges. You must also learn as much as possible about the host culture in order to avoid some of the more unpleasant “cultural pitfalls” discussed in this session. Once you are aware of these issues, you can reasonably assess whether an overseas project is right for you.
Guren, Leah. STC Proceedings (1998). Presentations>TC>International
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Review: Bridging the Gap between Cultural Studies Theory and the World of the Working Practitioner 
Cultural studies is an academic field that focuses on understanding the unchallenged assumptions that constrain and shape communication and related interactions among people. Although the field has made considerable progress in the last half-century, many practitioners have either never encountered the field, or have encountered it only through extremist advocates who do the field a great disservice. As a result, they have lost the ability to benefit from the insights provided by cultural studies. In this paper, I review the recent book Critical Power Tools to provide an update on the current thinking in the field, and to demonstrate how the modern form of the field has much to teach technical communications practitioners who are willing to listen to what the theoreticians have to say.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. International Journal for Technical Communication (2007). Articles>Reviews>TC>Cultural Theory
