Academic Training for Independent Contractors and Consultants  

We need academic, along with, professional training, defining 'academic training' as conceptual and theoretical, future-oriented and speculative.

Farkas, David K. STC Orange County (1998). Presentations>Education>Consulting

Adapting Traditional Editing Practices for Online Documentation

Developing a process and using guidelines for editing online documents, both rooted in traditional editing practices.

Fink, Bonnie L., Carol E. Gasser, Jennifer L. Giordano and Beth A. Williams. STC Orange County (1998). Presentations>Documentation>Editing

Assessing "Translation Readiness": A Maturity Model  

Generally, cost increases and quality decreases when turn-around time decreases. Explore the latest technology for making the translation process more efficient.

Kuehn, Heidi and Steve Iverson. STC Orange County (1998). Presentations>Language>Localization

Building Documentation into the Interface

As documentation is more and more built directly into the interface, and as technical communicators move into interface design and usability, it is important to have a theoretical framework within which to make decisions about what kind of information will be conveyed at any moment. We can build on basic principles of cognitive psychology to help us make these decisions. We start from a question: Why should users be aware of the difference between interface and documentation when all they want is to get something done?

Quesenbery, Whitney. STC Orange County (1998). Presentations>Documentation>Usability

Building the Treasure House: Creating Knowledge Bases for the World Wide Web

What is a knowledge base? What are the components necessary to build one?

Massa, Jack A. STC Orange County (1998). Presentations>Documentation>Information Design>Databases

Changing the Way the Profession Communicates: A Workshop for Prospective Journal Peer Reviewers  

More than 90% of Technical Communication readers are informed practitioners--writers, editors, illustrators, designers, trainers, and project managers. About 10% are teachers and students. They come from diverse backgrounds as well as from technical communication programs.

Hayhoe, George F. STC Orange County (1998). Articles>Rhetoric>Audience Analysis>Surveys

From Purchase to Productivity: Bridging the Documentation Gap  

Marketing documentation entices clients to buy your products. Technical documentation tells clients how to use your products.

Alexander, Bruce, Avis French and Elaine Randolph. STC Orange County (1998). Presentations>Documentation

HTML Conversion Tools: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly  

The documentation conversion tool market is relatively new, but several vendors have established reputations in the market.

Laurent, J. Suzanna and Candie D. McKee. STC Orange County (1998). Presentations>Web Design>Software>HTML

Indexing: Exploring the Issues, Dispelling the Myths  

What is an index? Meeting user expectations.

Collins, William L., Sandra M. Gallagher and Karen J. Hamilton. STC Orange County (1998). Presentations>Indexing

Lessons Learned After Two Years in the Self-Employment Trenches

The advantages of staying in the same profession as when you we employed in a standard way: you already know the job; no need for immediate additional training; you probably have a good idea about procedures, costs, processes.

Teich, Thea. STC Orange County (1998). Careers>Freelance

Managing Quality: Systems and Metrics for Ensuring Quality in Products

There is, at present, no common definition of quality in technical communication--no common set of quality measurements for our profession.

Fisher, Lori H. STC Orange County (1998). Presentations>Management>Quality>Assessment

My Time in Hell, or Why I Fired a Client  

Some team members wanted the guide to be extremely prescriptive of format and content. Others insisted that it offer only minimal guidelines. A compromise was unacceptable to either side.

Hayhoe, George F. STC Orange County (1998). Careers>Consulting>Collaboration

The Plug and Play Technical Communicator  

A presentation about the history and present of technical communication.

Sakson, Donna M. and Saul Carliner. STC Orange County (1998). Presentations>Slideshows>TC

Selected Bibliography for Technical Communication Professionals: Gender, Communication Strategies, and Audience Analysis  

Effective technical communication relies on an analysis of the intended audience. If such an analysis includes the demographics of an audience, it is often primarily concerned with the level of the readers’ knowledge or how much the readers need to know in order to complete a task. Rarely is the gender of the audience taken into consideration, ignoring several decades of research on the different communication styles used and preferred by women and men. When gender is considered, writers often rely on prescriptive guidelines to avoid sexist language or, more positively, to use inclusive language to eliminate bias from their writing.

Lippincott, Gail. STC Orange County (1998). Resources>Bibliographies>TC>Gender

STC Employment Information Managers

STC Employment Information Managers are listed by state and chapter. If a chapter does not have an employment information manager, the chapter president is listed. College advisers with student chapters are also listed.

STC Orange County. Careers>TC

Tips and Tricks for Including AVI (Video) Demos in Your Online Tutorial  

This presentation focuses on creating video demonstrations of software for online tutorials, using AVI files, and Inserting these files into Windows Help or HTML.

Rosenberg, Nad. STC Orange County (1998). Presentations>Documentation>Multimedia>Video

Top Ten Blunders  

Common goofs, mistakes, bloopers, mal mots, slip ups, lapses, oversights, gaffes, and 'foe paws' in online documentation and Help.

Horton, William K. III. STC Orange County (1998). Presentations>Documentation>Help

What's Happening: Theory and Research  

What will the 'document of the future' look like? What will be the new balance between text and other channels of communication?

Farkas, David K. STC Orange County (1998). Presentations>Information Design>Hypertext

Writing Persuasively  

Just what IS 'persuasive writing' and how does it differ from any other kind of writing? If you ever have to use the written word to convince someone of something, then you will need to know how to write persuasively.

Brochu, Allison G. and Mary O'Neill. STC Orange County (1998). Presentations>Rhetoric