Category: This Worked for Me

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This Worked for Me: How to Create an Internal Style Guide that Users Will Follow

by Chelsea Fulton

Part 1: Welcome! Now, please memorize all of this.

I started my technical communications career in 2011. I was hired to document a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system for the contact center of a Fortune 50 company, and my new team had an existing style guide. For a long time, our style guide was a one-page HTML document that outlined frequently used documentation processes and even included sections of code that users could easily copy/paste directly into drafted content. This style guide version worked well for a team of 4–5 people. However, the CRM system transition project and adding several new technical writers meant we needed more extensive documentation guidelines.

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This Worked For Me: Tackling Complex Content as a New Editor

by Jill Mazza

For some, the saying, “Those who can’t do, teach” may be true. For me, it speaks some truth about learners being my best teachers.

I am a trainer on effective technical writing. But my learners and I are not the same type of technical professionals. They are mostly engineers, scientists, and statisticians. While I can’t technically do their jobs, I do help them to see their written content through the eyes of non-technical readers.

At the training firm I work for (WD Communications), I design writing programs using our clients’ technical documents, such as investigation reports and procedures. When first in this niche role of editor-designer-trainer, I was overwhelmed. Literally. My background was in psychology, business communication, and coaching. It was hard enough to see my way through technical content at all, let alone edit anything.

How was I going to tackle such complex content?

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Call for Submissions to Corrigo!

Do you have something to say that you think technical editing practitioners will find interesting? Then consider submitting it for publication on Corrigo!

You don’t need to be a member of the STC Technical Editing SIG – regardless of your official job title, we welcome and encourage everyone to read and submit to Corrigo.

Corrigo has lots of different feature categories:

You can submit short (1000 words or less), original content about subjects you think technical editing practitioners might find interesting, for example:

  • Stories about how applying technical editing skills increases reader satisfaction
  • Information about tools you find helpful
  • Hacks that you use to make your job easier
  • Tips about how to balance quality and deadlines
  • Vignettes about a day in your life as a technical editing practitioner
  • Links to sites you find helpful in your job, with explanations about how they help you
  • Reviews of articles, books, or events you’ve read or been to that relate to technical editing

We’re also looking for longer, more detailed original articles about topics that pertain to technical editing, both its theory and its practice.

Send your submissions to the Corrigo editor, Yoel Strimling, at editor@stc-techedit.org.
We’ll try to get back to you within three weeks with our decision. If we think changes need to be made to the submission before it is accepted, we’ll make suggestions.

If you want to discuss possible ideas for submission to Corrigo, send an email to Yoel, and he’ll be happy to listen.

Posted on

Call for Submissions to Corrigo!

Do you have something to say that you think technical editing practitioners will find interesting? Then consider submitting it for publication on Corrigo!

You don’t need to be a member of the STC Technical Editing SIG – regardless of your official job title, we welcome and encourage everyone to read and submit to Corrigo.

Corrigo has lots of different feature categories:

You can submit short (1000 words or less), original content about subjects you think technical editing practitioners might find interesting, for example:

  • Stories about how applying technical editing skills increases reader satisfaction
  • Information about tools you find helpful
  • Hacks that you use to make your job easier
  • Tips about how to balance quality and deadlines
  • Vignettes about a day in your life as a technical editing practitioner
  • Links to sites you find helpful in your job, with explanations about how they help you
  • Reviews of articles, books, or events you’ve read or been to that relate to technical editing

We’re also looking for longer, more detailed original articles about topics that pertain to technical editing, both its theory and its practice.

Send your submissions to the Corrigo editor, Yoel Strimling, at editor@stc-techedit.org.
We’ll try to get back to you within three weeks with our decision. If we think changes need to be made to the submission before it is accepted, we’ll make suggestions.

If you want to discuss possible ideas for submission to Corrigo, send an email to Yoel, and he’ll be happy to listen.

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This Worked for Me: How Do You Want That Edited?

By Yoel Strimling

While technical editors might be great, most of us aren’t miracle workers. We have deadlines, resource issues, multiple tasks, and so on. While we want the documents we send to our readers to be as good as they can be, we realize that we can’t do everything, and that some sort of compromise needs to be made. The “golden triangle” of Good/Cheap/Fast calls on us to pick only two.

So what do we do? We have to let the document authors (be they technical communicators or engineers) know exactly what we can do and how long it will take us, and then help them plan accordingly. When everybody is “on the same page” and all expectations are clear, the editing process runs much smoother.

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