Technical Communication Recap for February 22, 2013

It’s been a far-ranging week here at TechWhirl, and a short break is in order to provide a helpful technical communication recap. On Monday, we tickled the funny bone with Yehoshua Paul’s Genesis of Technical Writing and Engineering. Tuesday brought a chance to vote and chat on how we react and respond to criticism of our work. Wednesday was back-to-basics with a classic piece answering lots of questions on Indexing. Craig Cardimon curated another fascinating week of commentary from luminaries around the web.

Today may only be the fifth day, but we feel somewhat inclined to take a rest (Friday just has that effect, no matter how the rest of the week worked out). If you’re slowing down at the office, ready to drift into the weekend, it’s probably a good opportunity to at least look like you’re working -catch up on a busy week of news, check out our latest research areas, follow the latest threads on the email discussion list, peruse the latest job opportunities—you know the routine.

If you don’t know the routine, then welcome to TechWhirl, visit a while and join the conversations, or start one of your own. It’s a friendly bunch, just remember to bring your own coffee (or tea).

Have a great weekend!

-Connie and the gang at TechWhirl

	Tech Writer This Week for February 21, 2013 To help everyone through another chilly February week, Tech Writer This Week serves up warm and hearty portions of tech comm opinion and commentary. Filling technical communication, delicious content strategy, tempting user experience, finished with some career and life pointers.
	Technical Communication Foundations: Indexing FAQ The best documentation in the world is essentially useless if readers are unable to retrieve the information they need. The “three strikes and you’re out” rule is a good guideline to follow here. After three unsuccessful attempts to locate the entries they are looking for, most readers give up on the index.
	Technical Communication Poll: Handling Conflict Over Your Work As much as we would all like to have perfect relationships with all of our colleagues, superiors, and clients, the real world just never seems to work that way. Sometimes they just don’t agree with, or like the work you’re producing… which can cause a collision between worlds that makes last week’s meteor strike look like a light show. What tactics do you use to respond when someone has a problem with your work?
	Humor: The Genesis of Technical Writing and Engineering In the beginning God created a technical writer and an engineer. And the technical writer was without tools, and the knowledge gap was very deep. And then God decided to make things more complicated. On the first day, God said: “let there be light,” and the engineer developed light, and added in a darkness feature. . .

Technical Communication News:

Social Media and the Chance to Follow TechWhirl:

Our Google Plus Page – what’s happening behind the scenes | http://goo.gl/SO0R4
Will you be our Friend? Please, you know you want to click | http://goo.gl/tDrW7
Want all this TechWhirl goodness a few characters @ a time | http://goo.gl/itjDg
Updates from TechWhirl delivered to your email in box | http://bit.ly/tjshxU
Or, try our RSS feed (great on Flipboard) | http://goo.gl/msLzu