#19987
Diagnosing and Curing Writer's Block Paralysis in the Workplace 
At one time or another, all writers--veterans or novices, technical or creative--struggle with writer's block. Advice on treating creative writer's block abounds, but very little information exists for technical writers who frequently must write even when they feel blocked. Fortunately, solutions used by creative writers to overcome blocks are often appropriate for technical writers in workplace situations. By understanding the symptoms, causes, and treatment of the problem, anyone can overcome and even prevent writer's block.
Ketelaar, Carolee C. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Writing
#24931
The Diary as a Professional Development Tool
This progression session focuses on diaries as serious tools for professional development. We discuss attitudes toward keeping diaries; issues such as anonymity and confidentiality; and strategies for tapping the full potential of the diary as a source of creativity and guidance.
Janicko, Raymond P. STC Proceedings (1995). Careers>Project Management
#20107
Digital Architectures: SGML, HTML, Multimedia and the Structure of Electronic Documents
With the use of online multimedia communication growing daily, online technologies have dramatically changed the ways we use and present information -- so much so, that we also need to have new theories and models for understanding how technology and content are related in this new communication environment. This paper presents a theory of digital architecture and explains how SGML, HTML, and Information Architecture are related in the creation of a new online literacy and rhetoric.
Heba, Gary M. STC Proceedings (1996). Design>Multimedia>Information Design
#29768
Digital Language and Literacy: An Online Course Design Learning Community
This paper overviews a discipline-specific educational technology assistance program titled Digital Language and Literacy, which links technologically literate graduate students in English with faculty developing online courses for the first time. Such models not only help with online course design but also help to establish technological and pedagogical learning communities among current and future faculty.
Blair, Kristine L. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Education>Online>Case Studies
#29769
Digital Portfolios: How to Market Your Skills!
A recent article in the Chicago Tribune last year suggests that technology workers need a variety of skills that include soft skills--good communication skills and the ability to work in teams.
Reece, Gloria A. and Louise I. Keeton. STC Proceedings (2004). Careers>Portfolios>Online
#25127
Digital Print Production and Distribution
A presentation about aspects of digital prepress every technical communicator should know.
Flaman, Tim and John Givens. STC Region 7 Proceedings (2002). Articles>Publishing>Prepress
#13166
Digital Video Design and Production Tips for Technical Communication
Technical communicators can expect to see an expanding role of video in product documentation, training, and marketing presentations. This is largely due to three factors: (1) digital video lowers the technology and cost thresholds to bring video to the desktop, (2) video makes sense for conveying information involving movement, and (3) video is a popular consumer medium. To technical communicators, video is a new medium in which visual communication is key. Narration and text are subordinate. Technical videographers must learn and apply video design principles and good production practices to create effective video that communicates the information.
Robbins, David B. STC Proceedings (2001). Presentations>Tutorials>Video
#21758
Digital Video in Technical Communication: Panel and Discussion
Digital does not experience signal loss or degradation...what goes in, comes out.
Robbins, David B., Donald Van Erem and S. Martin 'Marty' Shelton. STC Proceedings (2000). Presentations>Multimedia>Video
#24210
This unique and lively workshop is based on an ingenious board game developed by the Office of Ethics and Business Conduct for the Lockheed Martin Corporation, under a special copyright agreement with Scott Adams. It uses the famous characters in the cartoon strip, including celebrated ethicist Dogbert™, to inject a spirit of fun into the heavy debate that often swirls around the thorny ethical dilemmas we confront in the workplace. Here, teams of technical communicators will compete to see who can best balance ethical values with business realities and come out with practical, honest solutions. While the vehicle is rather lighthearted, the content is anything but. The case histories are carefully designed to cut to the moral chase. There are no right or wrong answers—only good, better, best, not so good, and Dogbert™. Yes, there's an answer key, but that, too, is controversial. What? No clear answers? Of course not. That's the whole point.
Voss, Daniel W. STC Proceedings (1999). Careers>Workplace>Ethics
#30432
The use of real materials in a technical writing class involves both advantages and drawbacks. Use of real materials makes the class relate well to the work environment, improves self-esteem, critical thinking, and student motivation. Drawbacks include the problem of finding materials, a lack of course continuity, a lessening of use of the class text, and legal implications. Overall, the use of real materials for classroom editing is recommended.
Stibravy, John A. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing
#30073
Discover Buried Treasure at Your Local STC Chapter Meetings
You don't have to be an officer to benefit professionally from your local STC chapter meetings. Start attending your local chapter meetings and discover the many forms of buried treasure. These treasures will result in a new perspective of your writing, an increased library of professional resources, professional writers being hired at your workplace, and the chance to view the 'Best of Show' writing. You can reap rewards such as these with a small investment of personal time.
Lunemann, Rhonda S. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>TC>Community Building>STC
#13129
Discover Buried Treasure at Your Local STC Chapter Meetings
You don’t have to be an officer to benefit professionally from your local STC chapter meetings. Start attending your local chapter meetings and discover the many forms of buried treasure. These treasures will result in a new perspective to your writing, an increased library of professional resources, professional writers being hired at your workplace, and the chance to view the “Best of Show” writing. You can reap rewards such as these with a small investment of personal time.
Lunemann, Rhonda S. STC Proceedings (2001). Presentations>Collaboration>Community Building>STC
#24473
Discovering the Pedagogical Paradigm Shift in Technical Writing
For my dissertation, I am analyzing technical writing textbooks from the early 1900s to the present to determine whether technical writing pedagogy has undergone or is undergoing a paradigm shift. When I began this study, my hypothesis was that technical writing pedagogy, like composition and rhetoric pedagogy, has shifted from the product orientation to the process orientation. Textbooks that are product oriented emphasize the study of examples or models, and textbooks that are process oriented emphasize the study of the writing process. Now that I have completed my study and am in the process of analyzing the results, my hypothesis is that technical writing pedagogy shifted from a product orientation to a combined product and process orientation.
Jeansonne, Jerold. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing
#30371
Style checkers are software programs designed as writing tools. Despite their popularity in both academic and industrial settings, the effectiveness and advisability of using the technology is still unproven. A main issue is the ability of users to determine whether the program's suggestions are useful and to ignore inappropriate advice. Freshmen composition students, beginning technical writing students, and advanced technical writing students were asked to mark all suggestions made by RightWriter 4.0 as 'useful,' 'wrong,' or 'ignored.' Results show that all students ignored approximately 50% of the suggestions; however, freshman writers perceived a larger percentage of the suggestions that they ignored to be wrong rather than just not useful.
Moosally, Michelle J. and Roland D. Nerd. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Research>Education>Software
#24226
Distance education comes in all shapes and sizes. Videotaping led to satellite and videoconferencing. Today, web-based videostreaming is gaining popularity in many areas. Back in 1995, a team from Rensselaer and IBM met to discuss opportunities to deliver leading edge user interface design education via distance delivery methods. Join our panel discussion to hear how this program has progressed, and how Rensselaer’s Professional and Distance Education Program continues to work directly with its customers to deliver leading edge distance education.
Brauneis, David, Kim Scalzo and David Hans. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Education>Online>Videoconferencing
#13294
Distance Learning: One Student’s Perspective of an Online Course
Taking a course online sounds easy and convenient--you can go to class whenever you want from the comfort of your own home. But you have to learn or know the software and tools necessary to navigate in this environment. Also, you give up the traditional classroom, perhaps never seeing your classmates or instructor. Distance learning is here to stay, but online courses may not be for everyone.
Deming, Lynn H. STC Proceedings (2000). Presentations>Education>Online
#20191
Distinguishing Characteristics of Medical Writing
Medical writers and editors need to understand medicine as a discipline, its nature as a science, its humanitarian rather than commercial goal of alleviating pain and suffering, the sensitive nature of some subjects, and the reduced or distorted cognitive abilities of some patients. They need to understand medical terminology, the nature of truth, the scientific method, the primary research paper, numbers, probability, risk, statistical significance, and some specific language issues.
Zoll, Mary. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical
#20309
Distributed or Centralized: How to Maintain Quality When They Keep Reorganizing Your Organization
Is there a 'best' way to organize technical publications? One central organization? Many small organizations per business unit? Communicators distributed through the development teams? Discuss the pros and cons of organizational structure and its relationship to quality.
Hackos, JoAnn T. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Writing>Quality>Technical Writing
#23644
Distributed Workgroups Employing Single-Sourcing Techniques Around the Globe
Single sourcing, which is increasingly used at the technical writer's workplace, has now reached the classroom of Technical Communication programs. This paper examines the impact of working on an XML-based single-sourcing solution on a geographically diverse graduate student team whose partners were all singlesourcing novices. It shows that managing communication within the virtual team is superordinate to managing the publication process. The paper discusses best-practice strategies for transient start-up publication teams, which rely solely on online communication, pointing to the differences between teams in the classroom and in business organizations.
Kaempf, Charlotte. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing
#30249
Diversity in Technical Communication
Diversity is multifaceted multilayered and addresses human uniqueness in all aspects. Diversity has become legally mandated and politically correct. We bring differences in thinking styles, gender, religion, age, and job function, as well as diversity of many other aspects of being and living to the workplace each day. To remain a viable workforce component in the 21st Century, technical communicators must promote diversity by actively recruiting people of color and integrating diversity issues within the curriculum.
#24429
Diversity in Technical Communication: A Work in Progress
This paper documents the beginnings of an effort to increase the diversity of technical communicators in the Pacific Northwest. An ad hoc committee of technical communicators came together for this purpose because they believe that greater diversity will help technical communicators better understand and reach audiences from a wide variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds. The committee is using the STC International Student Technical Writing Competition as a tool for introducing technical communication as a career choice to people of color at the high school level.
Cheirrett, Peg A. and Bruce R. Gibbs. STC Proceedings (1995). Careers>TC>Ethnic
#30274
Do A Presentation At The STC 42nd Annual Conference!
Both old hands and newcomers can create a plan to do a presentation at the next STC Annual Conference. Simply follow this 5-step process: (1) Understand the call for proposals. (2) Discover possible topics to develop. (3) Identify gifts--something of value--to give your audience in your presentation and in your paper (if you do one). (4) Think of appealing gift wraps to attract your hearers and readers. (5) Prepare a thorough proposal for the Program Committee. This process works best in a workshop where the participants can form a critical mass for creative excitement, help one another generate ideas--and have fun!
Dean, Morris. STC Proceedings (1994). Presentations>TC>Research>STC
#30433
Do a Presentation for the 41st STC Annual Conference!
Both old hands and newcomers can create a plan to do a presentation at the next STC Annual Conference. Simply follow this 5-step process: (1) Understand the call for papers. (2) Discover possible topics to develop. (3) Identify gifts—something of value—to give your audience in your presentation and in your paper (if you do one). (4) Think of interesting gift wraps to attract your hearers and readers. (5) Prepare a complete proposal for the Program Committee. This process works best in a workshop where the participants can form a critical muss for creative excitement, help one another generate ideas—and have fun!
Dean, Morris. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>TC>Presentations>STC
#23562
Do Students Really Feel Integrated With Computers?
This paper reports the results of a survey of senior Business and Engineering majors conducted at the University of Cincinnati. The survey's goal was to examine whether or not students felt integrated with computers yet, since the technological trend is towards a human-computer interface.
Stibravy, John A. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>User Centered Design>Human Computer Interaction
#30483
Offers an approach to achieving 'Quality of Service' that emphasizes the importance of understanding your customer's business problems, soliciting active customer involvement, and employing prototyping techniques to create cost-effective solutions. A new definition of quality has also emerged.
Zwaska, Bob. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Business Communication>Quality
