The Accidental Beginning of a Highly Successful Special Interest Group (SIG)  

SIGs exist to serve specialized needs within the greater organization. Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and Professional Interest Committees (PICs) are a tool by which the local chapters can serve a diverse range of special interests, boosting chapter membership. The Lone Star Chapter (Dallas/Fort Worth) began hosting SIG meetings three years ago. Currently, with four active SIGs, we are hosting an additional 100 to 200 members per month. This is how we built our SIGs to promote membership in STC. In the spring of 1990, a group of disgruntled contractors began to meet formally to discuss dissatisfaction with insurance plans for independents available through the society. We had been meeting informally for many years, to discuss the job market, rates available, and generally to gossip. We call it networking. personal contact or the sudden ice storm we had that night attendance was down significantly. From that point, we have kept a mailing list updated from our sign-in sheets, and sent postcard reminders about each meeting.

Steele, Karen A. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Collaboration>Case Studies>STC

Accommodating Active Learners in Software Documentation Decisions  

Recent research focusing on a minimalist approach to computer software documentation has explored ways to design computer software tutorials and workbooks for users with an active learning style. The principles of minimalism and active learning styles, however, are less frequently applied to traditional reference manuals. This paper reviews several elements of minimalism and suggests ways to apply strategies for active learners to traditional reference manuals.

Smart, Karl L. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation>Instructional Design>Software

Age Discrimination in Technical Communication  

Age discrimination in the workplace occurs any time one worker is treated differently from another due to age, or another worker's beliefs about age-related inabilities. Solving the problem of age discrimination in the workplace involves three things: understanding the problem and how it affects the way we work, educating ourselves and the rest of the general working public about age discrimination, and finding specific ways to address and overcome the issue.

Steele, Karen A. and Linda I. Bell. STC Proceedings (1993). Careers>Advice>Discrimination>Workplace

And Now, From the Company that Brought You the Seven-Eyed Trout: Risk Communication in Action  

Risk communication is usually defined as an interactive process of exchanging information and opinions among individuals, groups, and institutions or agencies concerning a risk or potential risk to human health, safety, or the environment. It draws from established principles of sociology and psychology to communicate with hostile or frightened audiences about sensitive issues. The demonstration illustrates the most important principles of risk communication as they are applied to a fictitious community.

Durbin, Margaret E., Linnea E. Wahl, S.T. Molony, Susan Klein and Carol Wade. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Risk Communication

Applying Expectancy-Violations Theory to Online Documentation  

A person usually expects another person to behave according to accepted norms, but how does a person respond to a message that violates his/her expectations? One theory dealing with violations of expectations is Burgeon and Hale's (1) nonverbal expectancy-violations theory. This theory posits that, under certain circumstances, violations of social norms and expectations may be an effective strategy for communicators to achieve the intended communication purpose. Although the expectancy-violations theory focuses on expectations for nonverbal behavior, such as gaze and conversational distance (2), I believe that this theory can also apply to expectations for humancomputer interaction.

Chiu, Yu-Kwong. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation>Rhetoric>Online

Are There ELF's in Your Monitor?  

Technical writers are justifiably concerned with the health risks that their work entails. Although the dangers of poor ergonomics, stress and repetitive motion are well known, the effects of Extremely Low Frequency radiation may also present a hazard. This presentation looks at what research is telling us about this risk.

Devine, Kevin M. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Technology>Biomedical

Authoring for Electronic Delivery  

Caterpillar is dramatically changing the way technical, product support information is authored. Book paradigms have been replaced by the more granular Information Element (IE) approach. The new integrated environment utilizes Unix based, TCP/IP connected, ECALS compliant tools on multi-tasking author workstations. Research data, in-process work approved IE's and relational indices are distributed to work group servers. Application software tools include a graphics editor and an interactive, context sensitive, SGML text editor. The environment is managed by a robust file management system that provides file tracking, revision control, workflow sensitive tool launching, burden planning and management reporting capabilities.

Hudson, Dave. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help

Authorship and Responsibility: The Problem of Special Knowledge  

The ethical questions that technical communicators face frequently present themselves obliquely, arising because the communicators depend heavily upon the special knowledge of other people who provide necessary information. The special knowledge that communicators lack and others possess may come from highly technical education, privileged access to information sources, or socially constructed access to information. Proponents of need-to-know policies may argue that limiting communicators' knowledge absolves them of responsibility for the information's veracity and effects; however, more ethically rigorous considerations of the issue consider communicators' authorial roles, their right to know, and their responsibility to their audiences.

Bryan, John G. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>TC>Ethics

Automating the Acquisition of Bilingual Terminology  

As the acquisition problem of bilingual lists of terminological expressions is formidable, it is worthwhile to investigate methods to compile such lists as automatically as possible. In this paper we discuss experimental results for a number of methods, which operate on corpora of previously translated texts.

van der Eijk, Pim. Association for Computational Linguistics (1993). Articles>Language>Linguistics

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

Bubba Awards: Recognition on a Shoestring  

This paper is an explanation of a low-cost and high-fun method used by the Lone Star Chapter to recognize officers and committee managers for their work during the past year.

Skinner, Judith N. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Collaboration>Community Building>STC

Building a Successful Acquisitions Program: One Publisher’s Story  

The Books by Users program, SAS Institute’s acquisitions program, serves a twofold purpose: helping SAS software users with book ideas turn their ideas into high-quality books about the SAS System; Providing Users with books about SAS Software to supplement primary documentation produced by in-house writers. This paper gives an overview of the Books by Users program and examines its operations and growth over the past three years. It offers tips both for companies building acquisitions programs and for authors hoping to interest publishers in their book ideas.

Ginn, Jennifer M. STC Proceedings (1993). Presentations>Writing>Publishing

Building and Maintaining Student Chapters  

Developing a strong student STC chapter is a challenging and rewarding experience. Those of us who are involved in this process can certainly benefit from sharing our ideas in a directed workshop atmosphere. Participants will exchange ideas and formulate working strategies for the development, maintenance, and growth of a student chapter.

Fink, Bonnie L. and William O. Coggin. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Collaboration>Education>STC

Building Language Theory  

Technical communicators need information about the nature and uses of language. Developing a working theory of language helps technical communicators conceptualize the qualities of good technical writing. Theory development and its application are especially important considering how rapidly technology changes the nature, function, and means of technical communication.

Fink, Bonnie L. and Gary M. Heba. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Language>Theory

The Career Survey Scope, Design, and Implications for Training and Education  

How do technical writers develop professionally after they graduate from college? To find the answer we developed a technical communication career survey between March and July, 1992, and polled members of STC. This panel discusses career development theory, the results of our survey and the reactions of actual technical writers who completed the survey.

Philbin, Alice I. STC Proceedings (1993). Presentations>TC>Statistics

A Career Theory for Technical Communicators: How Career Theory Informs Training and Education  

Career theory should inform any individual or corporate needs analysis for professional development. A useful career theory for technical communicators is one developed just for them. For this reason we designed the multi-phase study. This discussion focuses on the definition of career theory and how existing career theory can inform technical communication training theory. The research design used to create our survey has evolved from the relevant literature on career planning and career management. The literature on career planning and management contains no career theory specific to technical communicators. Traditionally, training personnel have assumed that professional development, training, and to some degree, post-graduate education are determined by the employer’s needs. This is true particularly in cases of tuition assistance for expensive technical or graduate training.

Marie, Ann Ryan. STC Proceedings (1993). Presentations>Education

Case Studies: Profiles of Two Technical Communicators  

Dr. Philbin and Dr. Ryan will first speak about creating and administering the survey and explain the reasons for conducting the survey. As husband and wife and as technical communicators, we will discuss our feelings about participating in the survey, working in the field, and our plans for the future. We encourage other technical communicators to examine their career goals as well. From the beginning, our relationship was linked to the technical communication field. We helped each other during our job interviewing processes and fortunately we both found jobs as Technical Communicators. While we have shared many of the same experiences, we have each experienced unique aspects of the profession. The discussion mainly focuses on the feelings, questions, plans, and expectations raised in the survey.

Theodore, Todd E. and Paulette R. Elsass. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>TC>Case Studies

Caterpillar Technical English and Automatic Machine Translation  

Caterpillar is developing an Automatic Machine Translation (AMT) system for translating product support literature into eleven languages. Source language authors write in Caterpillar Technical English (CTE) which uses a constrained English language domain and sophisticated spelling, lexical, grammar and disambiguation software. CTE tools are accessed through pull down menus in the author's text editor. Integrating the source language author into the translations process using CTE has allowed the development of the AMT system which completely eliminates the need for human post-editing of the translated service literature.

Gallup, Sharlene. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Language>Translation>Machine Translation

CD-ROM: From Print to Prototype  

A panel of industry experts provides an overview of the CD-ROM publishing process--and its business issues--for technical communicators who are responsible for John Gale implementing CD-ROM publishing in their organizations. The panelists will discuss how to gain the benefits of reduced manufacturing warehousing and distribution costs, without degrading documentation quality.

Rosenbaum, Stephanie L., John Gale and Pamela Sansbury. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation>CD ROM>Online

CD-ROM: From Print to Prototype  

There are many significant benefits to releasing documentation on CD ROM rather than on hardcopy including cost savings, storage capacity, and the ability to implement search and retrieval functionality. To determine whether or not you should go to CD ROM, it is advisable to survey your users and to get approval from the folks in "corporate." Once you decide to pursue CD ROM, you need to determine the platform requirements and feature set of the search and retrieval software. You will then be able to choose from a variety of products, and ask the selected vendor to produce a prototype for you.

Florsheim, Stewart J. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation>CD ROM>Online

Characterization of Quack Theories

In this article, I will first list some evidential flaws and then discuss errors in relating evidence to theory. Of necessity, this is a short list that omits most such problems. It is largely biased by what I have seen in newsgroup discussions.

Turpin, Russell. University of Texas (1993). Articles>Rhetoric>Theory>Assessment

Cinderella’s Slipper—Does It Fit Americans and Europeans?  

This paper represents an international study of IBM customers in the U. S., England, and Germany to see what effect the layout of a technical document has on usability for an audience of Americans and Europeans. The results indicate that while Americans and Europeans want most of the same usability features, they do not agree on all features. Communicating effectively with readers from different countries requires that writers work closely with international readers who represent the readers of their document; interview people who represent their audience; work with a document designer before starting the first draft; and test the draft document on representative users.

Ryan, Suzanne V. STC Proceedings (1993). Presentations>Usability>Publishing

Clarifying Abstract Concepts Through Multimedia: Principles for Technical Communicators  

Multimedia can sometimes convey meaning in ways that text and graphics alone cannot. This paper offers two principles for understanding how multimedia can clarify abstract concepts. The first principle is that multimedia is excellent for conveying any kind of change, such as change in quantity, size, shape, or relationship. The second principle is that multimedia can help present complex concepts by providing information in both the visual and auditory modes simultaneously. These principles can guide technical communicators in evaluating whether multimedia is a cost-effective way to present their information.

Garb, Rachel and Claudia M. Hunter. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>TC>Multimedia>Visual Rhetoric

Client-Vendor Communications: What to Talk About to Get the Job Done  

This progression presents a structured approach to client-vendor communications that can enhance quality; ease frazzled nerves; and result in win-win situations for clients, vendors, end users, and their organizations. Participants will discuss how clear, structured communications can strengthen their roles as clients and vendors of publication products and services. Participants will review the checklist that this vendor developed for use from initial contact to contract to project completion. Discussion will address how participants can develop their own customized checklists.

Shenouda, Judith E. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Business Communication>Collaboration