Guest Post: Wikis Are the Future of Technical Documentation
The following is a guest post by Mick Davidson, a technical writer with 20 years of professional writing experience. Before I get started I’d like to thank Tom for giving me this opportunity to bang on about why I think wikis are the future for technical documentation. Like many writers, up to a few years (Read more...)
Guest Post: A Week in My Life as a Technical Writer (with some humor)
The following is a guest post by Akshay Bardia, a technical writer in Mumbai, India. Technical communicators work odd hours of the day as we cater to clients in different parts of the world. So, you could find yourself yawning on the Tokyo shift, worrying about the traffic on the way back in the normal (Read more...)
Guest Post: Is Technical Writing Creative?
The following is a guest post by Lopa Mishra, a technical writer in Mumbai, India. At a college reunion party recently, someone asked me what job I’m pursuing. On replying that I’m a writer, a friend jumped in to clarify that I’m a “technical” writer. My friend considers that technical writing has nothing to do (Read more...)
Why don’t technical writers use wikis — or do they?
The following is a guest post by Sarah Maddox, a technical writer at Atlassian. In a recent conversation, Tom mentioned that he’s been pondering this question: “Why, in a time when collaboration is more important than ever, do wikis still remain mostly unused as a help authoring tool in tech comm departments?” Tom asked me (Read more...)
STC Certification: An In-Depth Interview with Steve Jong
The following is a guest post by Steve Jong, chair of the STC Certification Commission. What does the certification program involve? First, for an introduction to the subject, I recommend the Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_certification. Our Certified Professional Technical Communicator™ (CPTC) credential provides assurance to employers and the public that the certified practitioner possesses the knowledge, skill, and ability (Read more...)
Interview with Ugur Akinci about Technical Communication
The following is an interview with Ugur Akinci, a technical writer for Honeywell Corporation. Ugur asked me these same questions for an interview on this site. After answering them, I was curious about how he would answer the same questions, so I asked Ugur to respond to the questions for my site as well. (1) (Read more...)