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.'
#30292
A Beginner's Guide to Project Management 
Presents the basics of developing a project plan, managing the project, troubleshooting the project, and evaluating the completed project.
Houston, Bill. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Project Management
#24908
A physicist-turned-editor shows you the basics required for copyediting physics papers (physical quantities, symbols, units, scientific notation, the structure of mathematical expressions, the nature of graphs), and points the way to learning enough 'editorial physics' to begin substantive editing.
Murphy, Peter W. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Editing>Scientific Communication
#29741
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
#30145
Benchmarking the Document Management Process
The Bank of Canada manages the public debt as fiscal agent, for the Federal Government. As a public service organization, it is committed to deliver quality services to its clients in a cost effective and efficient manner. Recognizing that a fundamental role of documentation is to provide continuity within a changing environment, the Public Debt Department (POD) piloted best practices benchmarking of its internal documentation unit with partners identified as having best-in-class processes.
Edwards, Roy, James D. McGuire and Shirley A. Hancock. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Content Management>Assessment>Case Studies
#24764
Benchmarking: A Practical Guide
Using benchmarking, a company compares its processes with another best-practice company to improve the way it does business. The panelists, who have participated in several benchmarking projects, explain the benchmarking process and offer practical, real-world advice on how to do successful benchmarking.
Caldanaro, Regina M., Barbara Isa, and Lawrence D. Kunz. STC Proceedings (1994). Careers>Management>Project Management
#23605
Benefits and Pitfalls of Coaching Employees
Successful managers increasingly use coaching to help employees improve performance. Coaching is a better model than counseling because it presupposes that the employee is capable of making improvements. Coaching also helps maintain a good relationships between the manager and employees. However, coaching cannot be a 'pure' coaching relationship when the manager has supervisory responsibilities for the employee. Still, successful coaching can result in a win/win outcome for both the employee and the company, even in a problem situation.
Agnew, Beth. STC Proceedings (2003). Careers>Mentoring
#28751
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
#23604
Benefits and Pitfalls of Mentoring
Choosing a mentor or mentee can be a powerful moment in your professional life. Making the mentoring relationship work is not always easy and requires time and dedication from both parties. This article will define and explore the mentoring relationship, listing key factors for success.
Mason, Catheryn L. and Elizabeth Bailey. STC Proceedings (2003). Careers>Mentoring
#14350
Currently, “user-centered design” is the touted methodoloay for software development for many companies. To many of us, it’s merely a more global articulation of what we have always believed to be the preferred methodology. Technical communicators and HF professionals have critical roles to play as part of a multi-disciplinary user-centered design team. (1) This paper presents some viewpoints on how technical communicators and HF professionals can increase each other's effectiveness.
Rauch, Thyra L. STC Proceedings (1997). Presentations>User Centered Design>Collaboration
#26537
Better Reports: How to Communicate the Results of Usability Testing
You've spent several days setting up a usability test, recruiting the participants and running it. Then you've pored over the data. What next? If you are doing usability testing as part of user-centred design within a business setting, then there are many ways that you can communicate the results. This paper looks at reports and then considers presentation and observation as alternatives to reports.
Jarrett, Caroline. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Usability>Testing>Reports
#22185
Review: Beyond Borders: Web Globalization Strategies 
While the potential return on investment may indeed be worth the effort, globalization and personalization come with substantial cost. To ensure you’re heading down the right path (and that you avoid the expensive mistakes of the trailblazers before you), it’s best to have a roadmap.
Abel, Scott. STC Hoosier (2003). Articles>Reviews>Web Design
#19988
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
#30083
Beyond Help: Making Help a Core Component of an Electronic Performance Support System
With the advent of HTML Help and the ability to embed Help directly inside an application, there’s been an increased interest in creating Help systems that are seamlessly integrated with their host applications. By blurring the line between the application and the Help that supports it, and by developing Help that automatically responds to user actions, application developers and Help authors now have the ability to develop true electronic performance support systems (EPSS). With this new ability will come a paradigm shift in the ways applications are developed and documented.
Wexler, Steven S. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Document Design>Help>EPSS
#23554
Beyond Plagiarism: Ethical Issues in the Technical Communication Classroom
Recent discussions of ethical issues that relate to technical communicators reflect the rise of interest in this topic. Although some journal articles do look at teaching ethics in the technical communication classroom, most concentrate on ethics in the workplace. Yet, for students to understand current and future ethical issues, we must heighten their awareness of potential problems before they encounter such problems in industry and business situations.
Horowitz, Renee B. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Writing>Ethics>Plagiarism
#28760
Beyond the Basics: Project Management Essentials for Technical Communicators 
Project Management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to a broad range of activities in order to meet the requirements of a particular project.
Currie, Cynthia C. STC Proceedings (2007). Presentations>Project Management
#23603
Beyond the Universal User: How to Design for the Universe of Users
Current 'user-centered' design methods place great value on design for the user. In this, I examine how investigation methods for user-centered design like usability testing and field methods are often only used to design for the universal user and not the universe of users. I critically explore the universalizing of the user that occurs during these investigation methods. I then address the problems with designing for a universal user and finally present ways to design for the universe of users.
Bowie, Jennifer L. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Usability>Testing
#28761
What does 'bias' mean in usability testing? Is it bad? good? in between? What are sources of bias in usability testing? Which one(s) should we worry about most? How do we know our methods are any good? Especially when we all do things differently?
Snyder, Carolyn. STC Proceedings (2007). Articles>Usability>Testing
#19482
The Big Cocktail: Cognitive and Humanistic Traits of an Information Designer
This paper describes how our experience in striving to hire Information Designers led us to identify the very basic cognitive and humanistic traits that make up a successful technical communicator. It also shows how, once identified, such traits can be used to unveil hidden potentialities which can help turn a non expert candidate into a successful and gratified Information Designer and communicator. This paper focuses mainly on psychological traits, not on technical skills, that have been extensively discussed in a series of other papers.
Zace, Sokol. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Information Design>User Experience>Cognitive Psychology
#21575
A company decides to release its software and documentation simultaneously in markets with different languages. For the documentation team, the traditional model of 'write and translate' does not work any longer. A bilingual writing team collaborates to produce a handbook in two languages at the same time.
Duffy, Gerald J. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Documentation>Localization>Collaboration
#21577
Bilingual Team Writing: Planning a Project
A two-person bilingual writing team enabled a software application development group to produce on-line documentation and a user guide simultaneously in two languages. Team writing in an international environment requires detailed planning, constant monitoring, and continuous communication in order to succeed.
MacKay, Brenda. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Project Management>Localization>Collaboration
#23602
Bits and PCs: Designing Icons for Software Interfaces
When creating icons for internationally-marketed software products there are many factors that the icon designer should consider. Whilst the users' needs are paramount, other considerations will influence the final designs. These include the technical requirements and established visual design style of the operating system, legal issues and the avoidance of culturally sensitive images. The process for gathering information, designing, and building icons is also important. To assist the icon designer there are many valuable resources available, these range from reference books, to web resources maintained by the major platform providers, and published International Standards addressing software icons and symbols.
Hodgkinson, Richard N.P. STC Proceedings (2003). Design>Graphic Design>International
#14384
Black and White and Red All Over
Color is a powerful motivation and selling tool. We can also use color to improve people’s performance. Color is comprised of hue, value and saturation. When selecting a color scheme for a web site or slide presentation select a pastel background, then a complimentary or contrasting secondary color for accents. Select black or neutral text. Avoid the jelly-bean syndrome of contrasting, saturated, adjacent colors that fatigue the eye. Instead, use bright colors only for accents, not for major areas.
Lisberg, Beth Conney. STC Proceedings (1998). Presentations>Graphic Design>Design
#29742
Blog 101: An Overview of Weblog Technologies
A weblog or 'blog' is a Web site with content consisting of a series of discrete postings added sequentially and presented in reverse chronological order. Historically used for personal Web sites, blogs in fact represent a form of lightweight content management that can be adapted to virtually any topic, including technical communication. The recent explosion of blogs is in part a result of the availability of publishing tools that simplify their creation. These tools vary significantly in capability, setup, and ease of use, and each offers advantages and disadvantages.
Berry, Robert R. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>Blogging
#13247
Borders Are Not Barriers: Running a Multilingual Tech Pubs Competition
This presentation is aimed at all those who would like to either participate in a Technical Publications Competition in a language other than English or organize multilingual Technical Publications in their chapter. And we hope you will! We briefly describe why and how we came to organize multilingual competition in the France Chapter. There is some practical information but feel free to ask us questions. We will do our best to answer you.
O'Neill, Jennifer and Patricia McClelland. STC Proceedings (2001). Presentations>Language>Assessment
#20283
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
