Tech Writer Today Magazine - TechWhirl
Technical writing and technical communications news, articles and resources for technical writers and technical communicators.
You only have to look at the number of folks who tweet with the #techcomm hashtag on any given day to see that technical communicators need to play a role in the corporate social media strategy. Dr. Laura Palmer, agrees, and her session at the STC Summit 2013 in Atlanta, introduced us to the frontier of social media and how to tackle its many pitfalls. Continue reading ...
Ever want to learn how to make better graphs? Check out a Jean-luc Doumont presentation sometime. In this STC Summit presentation, based on his book "Trees, Maps, and Theorems, about 'effective communication for rational minds'", he discussed how to choose the right graph and optimize the display to send the right kind of message. Continue reading ...
Here at TechWhirl, we use a lot of neat technology to make our collaborations and meetings as easy and efficient as possible. The reality is, thanks to the wide availability of the internet, we can work anywhere at any time without the need of meeting in a physical or centralized office. Without a physical location to meet, we technical communicators need a central location to conduct business and have virtual "face-to-face" meetings Continue reading ...
Sarah S. O’Keefe and Alan S. Pringle of Scriptorium Publishing tried a fascinating experiment in putting together their latest book, “Content Strategy 101.” They crowd-sourced the development, seeking commentary, feedback on the structure and content, and reviews from a wide range of content and technical communication professionals via the contentstrategy101.com website. Jacquie Samuels, a content strategy veteran, and Roger Renteria, a graduate of tech comm studies read the book at the website and offer their perspectives in this “mini-crowd-sourced” review. Continue reading ...
Currently, we have hundreds of books and countless YouTube videos telling us how to survive the zombiepocalypse, and many of them provide useful technical and non-technical content. But what about detecting the first signs of next coming of zombies before they strike? Here are some signs savvy technical communicators should be on the lookout before it’s too late. Continue reading ...
Technical Communication is definitely an art because all forms of art and technology converge together to create documents. Underlying all forms of art, is the core definition of communication; different art forms use different techniques to communicate to an audience. Continue reading ...
In August, I asked our wonderful community of technical communication professionals about their opinions and thoughts about online distance learning and I was amazed by the responses regarding the topic of distance learning. As part of TechWhirl’s September theme of "Your Career: Upgrade in Progress," we try to demystify the world of distance learning, because if you plan on upgrading your skills in technical communication, you may find yourself in front of the computer screen attending an online course. Continue reading ...
Freebies. Promotional Materials. Giveaways. Most people simply call it swag. Short for Stuff We All Get. Even the word SWAG is fun to say. A lot of us get cool trinkets when we attend technical communications conferences, and we thought we could “crowd source” this project as part of May’s TechWhirl theme. Thanks to those who participated via social media, and the technical communicators sent us pictures of their favorite conference goodies. Continue reading ...
Google is everywhere. Really. So it’s no wonder Google wants to help you migrate into the cloud, and they make it easy because their services work seamlessly and amazingly well with each other. If you have a Google Account, you have access to a plethora of programs and services, some of which you may not even be aware of, that can make your everyday life much more productive. These services can be a boon for technical communicators who want to break the chains of the old-fashioned desktop and move their digital lives onto personal, mobile, smart devices. Continue reading ...