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What Strategies Can Technical Writers Use to Cope with Stress?

In Part One of this article, we defined stress as occurring when we perceive outside demands as being greater than our resources to cope. We noted that an informal poll conducted on the TECHWR-L site and ratings in the Jobs Rated Almanac indicated that technical writers in general experience a moderate to medium level of stress in their work environment. Part Two offers some practical suggestions for increasing your ability to cope with each of these categories of stressors. Continue reading ...

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Highlights from International Freelancers Day: Six Tools to Build Relationships on LinkedIn

You may not have known it, but September 23 was International Freelancers Day, as declared by the International Freelancers Academy, a training company who sponsored a daylong set of webinars providing inspiration and practical advice to freelancers of all types. Among the webinar presenters that day was Steve Slaunwhite, author of The Wealthy Freelancer and small business marketing coach. Let's take a closer look at LinkedIn tools, with some thoughts on how to apply Slaunwhite's tips to technical communication careers. Continue reading ...

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To Tweet or Not to Tweet? Effective Networking with Twitter

What value could Twitter possibly add to your technical communications career? If you are not a Twitter user, you might think that Twitter is not interesting enough for you to bother with. If you are Twitter user, you might think that Twitter is entertaining, but it is basically full of useless information and that it definitely has no value as a professional networking tool. Until recently, as a casual Twitter user, my opinion of Twitter was a mix of the previous two viewpoints; however, this changed Continue reading ...

TechWhirl Recap for October 8, 2011

TechWhirl is transitioning from our September theme of User Experience and Design into the ever timely topic of networking. It’s pretty much a natural for us--TechWhirl has been about networking since its inception. One of the top discussions this week even focuses directly on networking… and reminds us painfully that networking should start long before you want or need that next job. Continue reading ...

Personas and the five W’s: Developing Content that Meets Reader Needs, Pt. 2

In the first part of this article, I introduced the concept of personas, a tool for creating a detailed description of the people we’re writing for. An ideal persona becomes so real that we intimately understand who that person is, what their needs are, the problems they face—and therefore, what we must do to help them solve those problems. To make that admittedly somewhat abstract more concrete, I used the example of Bruce Wayne—the man behind Batman’s mask—because of how instantly familiar that persona is to most Westerners. That description, simplified as it was, provides a strong hook on which to hang more details. Bruce is the answer to the “who?” question, the first of the five W’s. Continue reading ...

Taking Advantage of Social Media Part II: The Media Aren’t the Message

In my previous article (Taking Advantage of Social Media: The Media Are the Message), I described the main forms of social media currently being used. I referenced Marshall McLuhan’s “the medium is the message” in the title to make an important point, namely that the types of communication each medium supports strongly determines the nature [...] Continue reading ...

Networking Your Way to Success

You don’t have to spend hours making cold calls or squander money on invisible advertisements in order to find new clients. In fact, savvy businesspeople–technical writers included–know the best way to expand your client base is by leveraging the resources you already have. You might ask, “What resources?” Well, pull out your personal address book. [...] Continue reading ...

In Search of Buried Treasure: Five Ways to Expand Your Contacts

Any technical writer working as a contractor knows the importance of self-marketing. Although referrals and agencies are fine ways to secure contracts, finding a new client completely on your own is as exciting as discovering buried treasure. Just how do you find unadvertised companies in need of technical writers? Here are five less-traveled routes. They [...] Continue reading ...