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The nights are getting cooler here in North America, but Technical Communication is hotter than ever. First, we have a double-shot of Tom Johnson (idratherbewriting.com). In his usual creative fashion, Tom compares technical writing to Zumba. Yes, Zumba. Then he wonders about applying the scientific mind model of curiosity, questions, and experiments, even to infamously dull careers, such as technical writing. Tom Smith (sdl.com) takes things further, saying technical documentation is as appealing as a trip to the dentist, and that’s bad for customer experience.

Ugur Akinci (technicalcommunicationcenter.com) shares some good news for the tech writer from the latest STC salary database. Scott Abel (thecontentwrangler.com) has created the “2012 Technical Communication Training & Benchmarking Survey.” When you have a moment or two to spare, stop by and help Scott out by participating. Mark Baker (everypageispageone.com) explains why we need to develop topic-based information design.

Wandering into Content Strategy, we have a webcast recording of content strategy for tech comm moderated by Alan Pringle (scriptorium.com). In User Experience, Marcin Treder (designmodo.com) finishes a seven-part course wireframing and document design course with a look at the future of UX. In Career and Life, we offer 10 free tools for techies on tight budgets (who isn’t?). 
We wrap this week with “Technical Writer” by The Peetles, just for fun.

Technical Communication

Comparing Zumba to Technical WritingRecently a fellow tech writer tweeted the following: Just taught my first class! If I were , I’d find a creative way to tie this to . Any…

Bringing the Scientific Mind to Tech CommI’m currently listening to one of the best books I’ve come across in a long time: The Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson….

Let’s face it, technical documentation just isn’t engaging, let alone sexyIt’s been played out a many a conference in the technical communications world, and it goes something like this: "Hands up who reads the …

STC 2011-2012 Salary Database — Good News for Technical Writers in USA | Technical Communication Center© Ugur Akinci Technical writing community is the only writing community I know that every year gains access to comparative statistical da…

TechComm Survey 2012undefined

We Must Develop Topic-Based Information Design | Every Page is Page OneThere is a lot of talk in tech comm today about topic-based writing, but very little about topic-based information design. This is a prob…

Content Strategy & User Experience

Webcast Q&A: Content strategy for tech comm | Scriptorium PublishingWebcast Q&A: Content strategy for tech comm September 7th, 2012 by Alan Pringle In this webcast recording, Erin Vang, Technical Publicati…

The Future of User Experience DesignWelcome to the last part of our course on wireframing and documenting design. Hope you’ve enjoyed the course – I’m looking forward to hea…

Career and Life

10 free tools for admins on a tight budget | TechRepublicIf you’re trying to stretch a thin IT budget, you probably can’t afford a lot of pricey tools. Luckily, a number of highly useful tools a…

Just For Fun

THE PEETLES: Technical Writerpetezolli