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Of Interest: Editing Essentials for Writers and Editors

Comtech and CIDM are pleased to announce the Editing Essentials for Writers and Editors online course presented by Dawn Stevens, Wednesdays, 3 November to 15 December 2021, from 12pm to 2pm ET  (click here for your local time zone).

The goal of technical writers and editors alike is to produce consistent, accurate, and complete information products. Reaching this standard requires a systematic approach to condensation, organization, and correction of the copy. During this 2-hour, 6-session class, participants will work through the different levels of editing and gain strategies and tips for creating cleaner content.

For more information and to register, go to https://comtech-serv.com/training/editing/.

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Of Interest: So You Think You Know What Your Readers Want?

by Yoel Strimling

Do you know what your readers really want from the documentation you send them? You might think you are giving them high-quality documentation, but do your readers agree with you? Have you asked them?

On 13 October 2021 at 1200 PM EDT (click here for your local time zone), join me as I present data from an applied research study that proposes a preliminary, focused, clearly defined, and reader-oriented model for collecting meaningful and actionable feedback to improve documentation quality and increase reader satisfaction.

In this interesting and interactive talk, we will get some clear, research-based takeaways that we can use to:

  • Collect meaningful and actionable feedback
  • Provide reliable methods and metrics for measuring documentation quality
  • Create a common documentation quality terminology
  • Help writers understand what is important to readers

This is a joint STC Technical Editing SIG, STC Santa Barbara, and STC Los Angeles event, and is open to members and non-members. To register for this event, click here.

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Of Interest: What Does Documentation Quality Really Mean and How Do We Improve It?

By Yoel Strimling

As technical editing practitioners, we put a lot of time and effort into ensuring that the documentation we send our readers is of the highest possible quality. We want to make sure that it helps our readers do the tasks they need to do or understand the concepts they need to know.

But what do we mean when we talk about “documentation quality”? What do our readers mean when they talk about it? And is it the same thing we mean?

For the past seven years, I’ve been researching these questions. As a practicing technical editor, I don’t always have time available to investigate what readers want. But because I see myself first and foremost as a “reader advocate”, I feel that it is critical that we as technical editing practitioners have solid and empirical evidence to help us do our jobs better.

On 1 September 2021 at 0830 PDT (click here for your local time zone), join Liz Fraley, Janice Summers, and me in Room 42 for a lively and interesting discussion about how readers see documentation quality and how we can use this information to make them happy. And, after all, who doesn’t want happy readers?

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A Little Humor: What Exactly Do Technical Editors *Do* Anyway?

Just another day in the life of a technical editor… 😀

So I’m reviewing this really long and complicated architecture specification document (written by a team of engineers), and I come across the names they’ve decided to call the modules: ELVIS and COSTELLO.
ELVIS stands for “ELementwise Vectorized Iterative Sequencer” and COSTELLO stands for “COmplementary STreaming ELementwise LOgic”.

It’s pretty clear that they were really proud of these backronyms, but something about them raised a red flag in my mind when I saw them.
Oh, wait – that’s right! You shouldn’t use names of famous people when naming your product! They might sue you! 😀

I remembered a famous case where Carl Sagan sued Apple for using his name internally for one of their products (https://lnkd.in/dtyqUnS).

So I contacted Legal and the engineers and told them “Listen, I like British New Wave just as much as the next guy, but you can’t call the modules this.”
They were disappointed.
But that’s one of the things that a technical editor has to look for – editing is more than just style and grammar!

Do you have a similar story you’d like to share?
Send it to editor@stc-techedit.org and maybe we’ll publish it here! 🙂

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STC Summit 2021 Session Roundup and Recommendations

UPDATED 18 AUGUST 2021: Access to Summit OnDemand has been extended to 30 September 2021.

By Marcia Shannon

Even though the live virtual Summit is now history, STC is still offering Summit OnDemand with access to recordings of all of the Featured Speaker sessions, education sessions, and exhibitors on the virtual Summit platform. Access to all of these goodies will be available through 31 August 2021.

I believe this would be a good education investment for anyone interested in improving their technical communication skills. To help you decide whether to spend the money to access all of the recordings, here are some of my recommendations, based on my favorite sessions. I hope you find these recommendations useful whether you are catching up on sessions you could not attend in June or attending the virtual Summit for the first time.

Continue reading “STC Summit 2021 Session Roundup and Recommendations”