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 Leadership Community Resource (LCR) is the STC's structure for providing support and guidance to STC communities. The LCR provides volunteer guidance, formal coaching and mentoring in specific leadership areas, support for communities in crisis, and resources for new and prospective leaders including an online Leadership Training course to help build a personal or community leadership plan.
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One definition of leadership that I like is 'the ability to cause other people to act in desired ways for the benefit of the group.' Those of us who are managers often have the authority to make other people act for the good of a group, but that power doesn't make you a leader--it makes you a boss. The people who choose to follow you decide if they want you as a leader and thus want to achieve the goals of the group. In the long run, folks in a volunteer organization follow a leader because they believe it's in their own best interests to do so. Those interests could be recognition, advanced career possibilities, learning a new skill, altruism, or any number of other personal perks. Good leaders know how to tap into an individual's personal interests and feed those interests so the person both enjoys and gains from helping the group reach a goal.
Oestreich, Linda L. Tieline (2007). Articles>Management>Community Building>STC
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Leading a More Successful Chapter 
This leadership training workshop is designed to assist new and seasoned STC Chapter leaders with solutions to their chapters' most pressing problems. The agenda of this workshop is determined by the participants. Successful Chapter leaders will facilitate group discussion and roundtable problem-solving sessions.
Brinegar, John P., Steven M. Cascone and Roger A. Grice. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Management>Community Building>STC
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Learn Public Relations Skills Through STC's Chapter Competition
Technical communicators need public relations skills. STC offers two free opportunities to learn these skills. You can build a portfolio of public relations pieces you produce for your chapter. You can get feedback on them from the Chapter Public Relations Competition, and you may win an award.
Blankinship, Ann. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>TC>Public Relations
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Learn to Read Technical Writing!
Why is my daughter not being taught to read technical literature? Practical things like reading a VCR manual or a pamphlet on health.
Kamath, Gurudutt R. IT People (2003). Articles>TC>Writing>Technical Writing
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Carolyn Miller's oft-cited "Humanistic Rationale for Technical Writing," published in 1979, tries to give technical communication faculty more cultural capital in English departments controlled by literature professors. Miller replaces a positivistic emphasis in technical communication pedagogy with rhetoric. She shows how technical knowledge is produced by individual activity and social affirmation and not by objective descriptions of sensory impressions. Her "Rationale" is an attempt to change institutional and discursive structures by persuading literature professors that technical communication can have as much distinction in the academy as literature.
Moore, Patrick. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2006). Academic>Education>TC>Professionalism
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Life Beyond Computer Documentation
In this paper we explore the title statement by examining some of the places in an industrial, business or educational organization where a technical communicator might reside as well as some of the numerous roles the communicator might play and the kinds of products the communicator might produce. The paper is intended to help young communicators see more clearly that their job need not be limited to the routine, the mundane, and the terminally boring, and to encourage them to see that the field of technical communication is far broader that just the production of computer documentation.
Wise, Daniel E. STC Proceedings (2002). Careers>TC>Documentation
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'Lone writers' — those people who work as their employer’s only staff writers — are a different breed, with their own unique set of professional and personal challenges. At the same time a blessing and a curse, the lone writer life offers flexibility, variety, and autonomy, along with feelings of stress, isolation, and burnout.
Potsus, Whitney Beth. Writing Assistance (2006). Careers>TC>Technical Writing
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Subject matter experts, under the influence of modernist notions of authorship, often view technical writers as mere grammar and punctuation specialists and marginalize them as their ignorant 'other.' Technical writers, on the other hand, as rhetoricians occupying a liminal space between different disciplines, can understand different disciplinary rhetorics. If subject matter experts, instead of marginalizing technical writers, would view them as liminal subjects who are knowledgeable in different disciplinary rhetorics, then technical writers, through liminal practice, may be able to use their knowledge of audience and rhetoric to improve the quality of documentation.
Jeyeraj, Joseph. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2004). Articles>TC>Theory>Collaboration
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Limitations in Technical Communication Ethics: Mastering the Shades of Gray
Technical Communication is changing rapidly due to the new global business community. Many of the ideologies and standard practices that have long been used to teach and guide technical communicators are not entirely effective. A new approach to ethical dilemmas in technical communication involves accepting limitations in order to overcome them. Most technical communicators are the liaison between many forces but rarely have the power for final decisions. When responsibilities collide it is often difficult to know what the best ethical choice is, given that most communicators learn about ethics in a controlled context or environment, such as academia. For a more realistic preparation, educators should acknowledge the limitations placed on ethics, such as politics, conflicting interests, and time constraints.
Witta Colosky, Jacelin. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>TC>Ethics
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Links of Interest for Technical Communicators
A collection of links to technical communication and technical writing resources online, run by INTECOM.
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Literacy and Technical Communication
Literacy has traditionally been the defined as the ability to read and write, but 21st century technical communicators must have skills which extend beyond these basic skills. They must be able to write rhetorically; read analytically and evaluatively; read and critique social situations, especially in the organization in which they work and act upon their critiques; analyze visual information and also create rhetorically effective visual or graphic information; and use and critique the technologies with which they produce their work and, often, which they write about. These extended literacies build from the basic skills traditionally taught to technical communication students, and they mirror skills identified and considered essential in recent studies of workplace literacies, including Dept of Education’s SCANS report and the NCTE’s own report on skills (Garay and Bernhardt). In this response, I will examine these extended skills and discuss what these new literacies privilege and what they reject. I will also consider how the field might better provide students with foundations in these skills and how such a focus on these foundations may change the field.
Cargile Cook, Kelli. Texas Tech University (1999). Articles>TC>Literacy
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Living and Working in China: Understanding Communication Requirements
Technical communicators living and working in China need to be familiar with more than the principles of their craft. They should also understand the requirements of proper forms of address, what makes correspondence “official,” Chinese learning and communicating styles, and other cultural influences on communication, such as the importance of slogans, the rule of silence and the habit of non-specificity. Such understandings lead to cultural sensitivity and increased ability to respond to the challenges of working in the Chinese environment. names is a sign of friendliness. The best practice in China, however, is to address people in the generally accepted Chinese way.
Coggin, William O., Betty F. Coggin and Xiaoli Li. STC Proceedings (2001). Presentations>TC>Regional>China
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Living Through Layoffs: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Meets The Corporate World
Corporate 'downsizing' is effecting a large worker population: and not just those workers being laid off. The pervasiveness and breadth of layoffs at this time is changing workers’ trust in the future and ability to plan for tomorrow. The loyalty to firm is changing also. As one woman said 'the company used to be my family. This was my community, my network, like my parents’ hometown was to them. Its been bombed.' Trust in the future as it was known is shattered. Belief in the 'do a good job and you’ll be rewarded' is low. The effect of the economy on the workplace is grieving and distrust, and shattered selves.
Patton, Jill. STC Proceedings (1994). Presentations>TC>Workplace
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Location is Everything When it Comes to Getting Information from SMEs
A 20 minute monologue about the best way to get information from SMEs--sit by them, permanently if possible. Many IT organizations station the writer remotely from the developers, programmers, and other SMEs, but nothing could be more damaging to getting the information you need. Increasing your proximity also increases the communication you receive.
Johnson, Tom H. Tech Writer Voices (2007). Articles>TC>Collaboration>SMEs
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A discussion of the issues for a lone technical writer employed in an organization.
Alroy, Faye. Intercom (2003). Careers>TC
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A Longinian Concept and Methodology for Technical Communication 
The rhetorician Longinus advises writers to 'transport' their readers by aligning the readers' perspective with the writer's. The methods for transport are five 'fountains': high thought, emotional appeals, figures of speech, notable language, and arrangement. This essay develops a Longinian concept and methodology for technical communication by comparing his ideas to current scholarship and then applying them to two technical texts. It shows how and why technical writers employ stylistic elements to achieve transport.
Todd, Jeff. Technical Communication Quarterly (1998). Articles>Rhetoric>TC
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Look Before You Leap: Marketing Communication Strategies for Practitioners and Educators
Too often, the emphasis in marketing communication is the tactic—the specific promotional piece clients—or your bosses—think they need. But what should drive marketing communication are the intended audience and the ultimate goals of the effort. Part of the marketing communication practitioner’s job is to assist clients, whether they are internal or external, to step back and decide “what for,” “to whom,” and “when,” before plunging into “how” to implement marketing communication. Part of the marketing communication educator’s job is to make sure students learn that the marcom process determines the marcom product. As a result, the tactic in many cases presents itself.
Teich, Thea, Carol M. Barnum, Sandra Harner and Tom Zimmerman. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Communication>TC
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Looking for Questions to My Answers
Debuts a new professional advice column for technical communicators.
Alroy, Faye. Intercom (2002). Articles>TC
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Looking Toward the Electronic Future in the Classroom
The electronic tools available in the technical communication classroom have increased in number and sophistication over the last decade. Our three panelists examine the implications to the classroom of virtual reality, E-mail, and 'the information superhighway.'
Glover, Kyle S. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Education>TC>Online
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The Love Song of J. Alfred Techrock
Manley's loving parody of T. S. Eliot's 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' touches on the realities of technical communicators on the job.
Manley, Frank. Intercom (2000). Humor>Workplace>TC
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STC must change, and the Board has ideas on what STC should look like. But is it fair to simply foist our ideas on members? Why would we do that?
STC (2003). Articles>TC>Organizations>Blogging
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Low-Level Jobs to Avoid: Technical Writer
Grouping technical writers with grocery stock clerks and temps, this article mocks us all. Seemingly, from the position of someone who's done the job. For example, under 'manager says,' it quotes:
I want those four bullet points on letters of credit to be perfectly clear and concise. Spend a few more hours reworking them until they're exactly right.
Suck (1998). Humor>TC>Writing>Technical Writing
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Mail Your Newsletter with Less Labor and Cost
A lot of STC chapter and SIG mailings are done the old-fashioned way: envelopes stuffed by hand, and stamped manually or--occasionally--with a stamp machine. That's an awful lot of work, and expensive too. When I confronted this problem a few years back for my current employer, some research revealed a solution that eliminated the annual pressganging of volunteers to stuff envelopes and also saved us a fair bit of money.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (1999). Articles>Collaboration>Community Building>STC
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Making Academic Work Advocacy Work: Technologies of Power in the Public Arena
Through interviews and courtroom observations in a case study done in collaboration with a community partner in two judicial districts in Minnesota, the authors extend the scholarly conversation about critical, activist research in business and technical communication and make pedagogical suggestions by studying two groups who contribute to the discourse about victim rights: judges who accept plea negotiations and make sentencing decisions and advocates who help victims contribute, through victim impact statements, their reactions as crime victims and their requests for certain punishments and conditions for the crime perpetrators. The authors identify the technologies of power used by each group to assert their disciplinary authority and trace how these assertions play out in the courtroom. They conclude that by capitalizing on the normative structures of impact statements, advocates may actually give victims more power. Such activist research might benefit research participants and enhance research methods.
Propen, Amy and Mary Lay Schuster. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2008). Articles>TC>Legal>Ethnographies
