Deadly Sins of Technical Writing  

Some technical writers enter the field with strong writing backgrounds and moderate technical backgrounds. Others enter the field with strong technical backgrounds and moderate writing skills. This workshop is designed to help the latter group polish their writing skills.

Cox, Donna H. and Loretta F. Albert. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing

Dealing with “Enronitis”: Written Communications for Building Investor Confidence  

Recently, investor confidence has deteriorated, in part due to the discovery of fraud at several large companies. As a result, many communications from those in the financial industry have attempted to regain investor trust and confidence. This paper reports my analysis of five such communications and the themes I found appearing in them: need for trust, history of continuous improvement, continued existence of high ethical and professional standards, and investor wisdom. In writing trust-building communications, technical communicators should note: trust is built in several ways, history does not always repeat itself, and emotions are very powerful factors in decision-making.

Bloch, Janel M. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Writing>Business Communication>Emotions

Dealing With Special Mobility Needs: A Lesson in Patience and Coping  

A great deal has been done over the years to make the lives of people with special needs easier. However, a great deal more needs to be done. This is an article about the special mobility needs of a career technical communicator. Through personal anecdotes and observations, the author establishes the point that the only way to really treat people with special needs fairly is to actually sit with them and understand what they are going through.

Vais, Fabien. STC Proceedings (2000). Presentations>Accessibility

Decision Support Systems for Environmental Management: Web-Based Communication Modules to Enhance Public Participation  

Nature provides important basic functions for society. Expert systems for integrated knowledge management, so-called decision support systems (DSSs), are tools to manage vegetation, air, soil, and water, and to assure functional integrity of ecosystems, e.g. river basins. Over the past decade sustainability has became the accepted norm to manage our life support resources. This concept is based on responsibility to the “Other” and on participatory consensus-forming dialogues leading to stakeholder models; before, the predominant school of thought has been utilitarianism. Scientists, engineers and technical communicators are challenged to develop feasible technologies to facilitate management, for example to supplement DSSs with virtual libraries and web-forums.

Kaempf, Charlotte. STC Proceedings (2001). Presentations>Web Design>Management>Participatory Design

Defining 'Value-Adding Work' of In-House Information Development Groups  

Many in-house information development groups are redefining their role (or seeking to justify their existence) around the concept of 'value-adding work.' But which tasks are value-adding? Finding an answer to this question is critical for the survival of information development groups. Unfortunately, there is no easy, 'one size fits all' answer, because the response depends largely on your point of view. Thus, deciding what is and isn't value-adding may require technical communicators to do more project-by-project task, audience, and media analysis than ever before.

Collins, William L. STC Proceedings (1998). Careers>Content Management>Information Design>Content Strategy

Defining a TC Body of Knowledge  

The Body of Knowledge effort is currently being led by a team of experienced industry and academic STC members. This spring, you will be invited to look at the initial outline of a hierarchy of domains, skills, and knowledge levels. This BoK is yours to develop; the start-up team is simply trying to put together a straw site to start the collaborative effort.

Hart, Hillary. STC Consulting SIG (2008). Articles>TC>Information Design

Defining The Control Level When Designing Hypermedia Training  

Before coding any part of a hypermedia computer-based training (CBT) system, designers need to decide how much control their users should have over their individual paths through the system. Designers can choose from three different levels of control within a hypermedia CBT system: complete computer control, complete user control, and adaptive computer control. Each level of control is suited to different types of audiences and system goals. Current research provides some guidelines for designers—showing which types of audiences and system goals are suited to which methods of control.

Weise Moeller, Elizabeth A. STC Proceedings (1994). Presentations>Information Design>Hypertext

Defining the Out-of-the-Box Experience: A Case Study  

We’ve all had an out-of-the-box experience – it’s what you go through when you buy a new software product, open up the box, and are faced with a plethora of cards, CDs, books, and other media. What do you do? Where do you start? Depending on the product and the audience, you might define the desired out-of-the-box experience differently. We’ll talk about how we defined the out-of-the-box experience for our product, given the goals and expectations for the product.

McMurtrey, Katherine. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>User Centered Design

Definitions of Information Design

The field of information design applies traditional and evolving design principles to the process of translating complex, unorganized, or unstructured data into valuable, meaningful information. The practice of information design requires an interdisciplinary approach which combines skills in graphic design, writing and editing, instructional design, human performance technology, and human factors.

STC Information Design SIG (2001). Articles>Information Design

Degrees of Edit  

The levels of edit concept can be a valuable editorial tool, especially to clarify for staff what editors do with documents. However focusing on degrees of edit (light, medium, and heavy) can simplify decisions about editorial work on a document. Dividing heavy edits into macro edits and micro edits can clarify what editors do in editing a document thoroughly. This presentation simplifies the editorial process by examining the three different degrees of edit and establishing the aims and procedures for macro and micro editing.

Samson, Donald C., Jr. STC Proceedings (1993). Presentations>Writing>Editing

Review: Degunking Microsoft Office

Degunking Microsoft Office, by Christina Palaia and Wayne Palaia, addresses the problem of anything that slows down the computer, interferes with your operations, crashes applications, or loses data, and presents some ways of avoiding it.

Delwood, Robert. STC Houston (2006). Articles>Reviews>Software>Microsoft Word

Delivering Bad News Effectively (and Other Useful Communication Skills for Managers)  

Learning how to communicate effectively when people problems arise is a key to your success as a manager. To make the process easier for yourself, you should learn to set clear expectations of your employees, make specific observations of their work and behavior, conduct timely communication with them when problems arise, listen closely when they respond, and schedule a follow-up meeting after the crisis has passed.

Giammona, Barbara A. STC Proceedings (1999). Careers>Management>Communication>Collaboration

Delivering Customer Satisfaction: Our Experiences with Responding to Customer Feedback  

The success of an organization that publishes product information depends on customer satisfaction. IBM Product Announcement Support representatives share their experiences in achieving very high levels of customer satisfaction. * How we conducted our surveys and feedback sessions: – Actual approaches – Sample surveys and feedback * How we used this feedback to: – Change the content and format of our deliverable dramatically – Offer our customers additional ways to access product information As writers in IBM Product Announcement Support, our mission is to produce high-quality, effective offering information worldwide. Simply put, we publish IBM product announcements on the full range of IBM hardware, software, and services.

Howell Betz, Margaret. STC Proceedings (1996). Presentations>Usability>User Centered Design

Delivering Documentation on CD-ROM and the Internet  

Many companies produce products on the cutting edge of technology but still publish documentation using old technology. At N.E.T., we develop our information with the goal of using the latest technologies; this includes using the Internet and CDROM as our primary modes of delivery.

Jones, Margaret and Pat Adams. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>Online

Delivering Dynamic Content  

Cisco Systems IOS ITD Documentation group had a requirement to move to the dynamic delivery of documentation to their customers. This meant that the documentation had to be redesigned using a component architecture, moved to XML, and delivered through a personalization engine. This session discusses this process and the results.

Badre, Albert and Sharon Laskowski. STC Proceedings (2001). Presentations>Information Design>XML

Delivering Effective Web-Based Education  

Delivering effective Web-based education is a challenge more communication professionals will face in the near future. While many approaches exist for solving this problem, one expedient solution is videotaping traditional stand-and-deliver classes, compressing the video for streaming off the Web, synchronizing important visual material to key points in the video, and placing everything in a well-designed and easy-to-use Web site.

Gange, Charles and Mary Ellen Coleman. STC Proceedings (2000). Presentations>Education>Instructional Design>Online

Delivering Training and Support Using Windows Help  

The Windows Help utility is familiar as a tool to provide context-sensitive and procedural help for people using a software application, but it also a highly effective tool for providing many kinds of desktop-based training and support within an organization. During this session, we look at a variety of systems built using Windows Help and explore why this was a good choice for the particular project.

Deaton, Mary M. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help

Demanding of Our Students, Demanding of Ourselves  

Students and faculty alike need to develop critical and practical technological literacies. Steps can be taken by programs and institutions to encourage faculty to develop critical technological literacies that are comparable to the literacies they demand of their students. Computing is everyone’s job. Com$uting will-in fact, already has-changed technical communication research, pedagogy, and practice. Likewise, technical communication can and will change the contexts andpractices of computing. Therefore, the responsibility for computing needs to be shared throughout our institutions.

Kitalong, Karla Saari and Wiliam J. Williamson, Jr. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Education>TC

Demonstration of an XML-Based Content Management System Implementation  

The impact of XML and content management on the field of technical communications is no longer just a speck on the horizon. This paper presents techniques and observations from the trenches of a real-world XML-based content management system implementation that is being used to develop and publish print and online documentation at a prominent software company.

Bookless, Jody, Annette Marx and Scott Davis. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Content Management>XML

Demystifying ISO and QS 9000  

Inadequate document control/documentation causes most ISO 9000 audit failures. For certification in ISO, QS 9000 and related standards, quality programs must be clearly documented through a series of controlled, sequential documents. This paper will overview how to do it successfully.

Paradis, Gerard. STC Proceedings (1996). Presentations>Workplace>Standards>ISO 9000

Design Considerations for Complex Problem-Solving    

Information design must go beyond help for simple lookups or providing simple instructions; it must assist in solving complex, real-world problems. This paper helps develop a foundation for design which supports approaches to the complex problem-solving which people use in real-world situations. It considers the dynamic situational context of information, the aspects of the information, and the data interrelationships which the requirements analysis must uncover to support the fundamental user wants and needs.

Albers, Michael J. STC Proceedings (2002). Design>Information Design>User Centered Design

Design is Function  

Good design, like good writing or editing, cart make or break a technical publication. Even if you know little about design us a discipline, as a technical communicator you employ it in every publication you produce. If technical communicstion is indeed the art that bridges the gap between people and technology, then understanding the function of design us an inherent element of communication is paramount. Design seeks 10 translate perceptions, goals, and desires through the manipulation of images and language. Design inspires understanding, is both an art and a science, and is good business. Design matters! The purpose of our presentation is to explore the relationship between design until technical communication and heighten the level of consciousness of the function of design.

DuBose, Mary E. and Deborah L. Baxley. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric

Design of Digital Media: A Multidisciplinary Approach  

This article discusses the use of activity theory, visual literacy, and sound theory in the design of digital media. It defines each of these in the context of literacy and how literacy is viewed and changing in today's culture. It then goes on to describe two phases of a case study underway that shows the lifecycle of content development for literacy purposes. It begins with phase one which is development and testing of the content information model and continues with an overview of phase two, currently underway, which is a description of the testing and evaluation of the mediating artifacts that were created in phase one. It ends with a brief explanation of how this research can help technical communications in expanding multidisciplinary efforts and instructional support within the field of education.

D'Ammasso Tarbox, Judy. STC Proceedings (2004). Design>Multimedia>Cultural Theory