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TechWhirl: Technical Communication Recap for September 21, 2012

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One critical aspect to doing a successful career upgrade in technical communication concerns professional development. TechWhirl is fortunate in being able to cover some of the leading conferences in technical communication and content strategy, such as the LavaCon Conference (where we’ll be presenting sessions on winning business cases and on change management) and the STC Summit. And we’ve also presented features that look at distance learning as a professional development option. Continue reading ...

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Integrated Technical Communications: A Map to Better Understanding

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Technical communications overlaps with all the other fields involved in the software development lifecycle and often our job objectives dovetail with the business analysts, interaction designers, software architects, product managers, marketing specialists, and so on. Integrated Technical Communications (ITC) defines an approach that supports the business side as well as the technical side of product development. Professionals focused on these disciplines can create ITC Mall Maps to increase visibility to key audiences and demonstrate strategic value to the organization. Continue reading ...

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Ten Steps to Make Your Technical Translation Project a Success

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With an increasing number of companies pursuing a presence for their products in other countries, your management team’s global strategy may involve the need to translate technical and support materials into other languages. This article describes ten effective steps technical writers, publishers, or communications managers can take to ensure that translation projects go smoothly and to everyone’s satisfaction. Guest post from Dorothee Racette, president of the American Translators Association. Continue reading ...

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The STC Certification Program: Revisiting the Debate

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Back in October of 2011, debate raged on the TechWhirl email discussion list concerning the launch of the Society for Technical Communication's Certification Program. Al Martine and Connie Giordano sat down with Steve Jong, who chairs the STC Certification Commission to discuss the program history, application criteria, costs, and long-term plans. During the STC Summit, the first group of Certified Professional Technical Communicators (CPTC) were recognized. We thought it would be appropriate to publish the transcript of our original conversation. Continue reading ...

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LavaCon Session Summary: Lightning Talks – Multiple Speakers

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The LavaCon 2011 Lightning Talk session comprised six speakers, chosen to present in random order, who had ten minutes to present a topic of interest that is important in the field technical communication, including social media, wikis and XML, performing demos, certification, and the future of the field. Similar to the lightning talks at the STC Annual Summit in 2011, the LavaCon Lightning Talks took place without the strict ten-minute time period, twenty slide limit, or automatic advancing of slides. Continue reading ...

STC Extends Charter Period for CPTC

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The Society for Technical Communication’s Certification Commission has announced  that the deadline for applying as charter member Certified Professional Technical CommunicatorTM (CPTC) has been extended to February 14, 2012.   Charter members are eligible to save $100 on the evaluation fee, and if approved, will always retain  the charter member designation. Any experienced technical communicators working in [...] Continue reading ...

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STC Certification – TechWhirl Interview with Steve Jong, Chair of the STC Certification Commission

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What have you heard about the new Certified Professionals in Technical Communication (CPTC) credential (aka Tech Writer Certification)? You've probably read about it online, may have received an email, or were in the audience during the announcement at the 2011 STC Summit. Considering the volume on our email discussion group last week there are a lot of questions and opinions on this "new" program. You have questions and so do we, so we organized an hour-long interview with Steve Jong, current Chair of the STC Certification Commission on Sunday, October 23, 2011. Continue reading ...