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Smart Communication Means Smart Regulations. Center for Plain Language > Plain Language Blog Articles > Advocacy > Smart Communication Means Smart Regulations Posted on December 19, 2010 By Annetta Cheek, Board Chair of the Center for Plain Language I just got back from Brussels, where, on December 6th, I spoke at a small conference called “Smart Regulation and Smart Communication – Finding the right [amount of] words” held at the Belvue Museum, which displays information about the history of the city of Brussels.

Smart Communication Means Smart Regulations

The conference was sponsored by Indigov, a research consultancy for the public sector, with years of experience in academic and practical research. Indigov provides guidance to help public organizations’ develop and evaluate public policies. I opened the conference with a keynote address about how plain language can help with today’s problems of information overload and the stress caused by having too much information to process.

After lunch, Angela Morelli from Central St. The # techcomm Daily. Recruitment in Web Content and Technical Communication. Our expert guest blogger series continues with tech comms expert, lecturer and consultant David Farbey, who lists the kind of questions a technical writer should ask analysts, managers and engineers in order to create clear, useful support materials for users.

Recruitment in Web Content and Technical Communication

As a technical writer – of user guides, tutorials, online help systems, reference manuals, policy and procedure guides or other business document – you need to give your readers the answers they need so that they can use your company’s products to do their jobs. To get those answers, you need to ask the right questions of the right people. Easy, right? Who to ask? Firehead : Recruitment in Web Content and Technical Communication. Give the Perfect Gift this Season: A Laminated Quick Reference Guide. Quick Reference Guides as Christmas Gifts I was surprised and mildly pleased this weekend to see my sister-in-law Karin give a quick reference guide or “cheat sheet,” as she called it, to her grandma for her birthday.

Give the Perfect Gift this Season: A Laminated Quick Reference Guide

The guide focused on accessing and sending email in Gmail. Grandma was grateful and elated to see the work and detail that went into the guide, which was laminated and narrow enough to prop up next to her [ancient] computer. Contrast this happy image, passing around the quick reference guide at the birthday table and listening to the joyful chatter, with the sound of the dreaded almighty thud that large manuals create as one feels the weight and panic of an eternal instruction manual. Karen’s quick reference guide isn’t visually engaging or attractively formatted, but she did an excellent job in bringing out all the unconscious details behind checking one’s gmail — a key detail probably necessary for her audience. It takes me days to write these kinds of guides at work. Intelligent Editing - How To Write A Style Guide.

Introduction In publishing and media companies, use of a style guide is the norm.

Intelligent Editing - How To Write A Style Guide

However, style guides can also be useful for any organization that prepares documents for clients and the public. This article is for organizations outside of the publishing industry who can benefit from the introduction of a style guide. A style guide is a reference point that sets standards for writing documents within your organization. The focus of the style guide is not usually a matter of 'correct' or 'incorrect' grammar or style but, rather, it provides guidance for instances when many possibilities exist. Style guides offer you the chance to present your brand in a consistent way.

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DokuWiki]

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Corporate Knowledge Base Private notebook Software manual Project workspace. How technical writers can make themselves heard « ffeathers — a technical writer’s blog. We technical writers are such shy and retiring types!

How technical writers can make themselves heard « ffeathers — a technical writer’s blog

;) It seems to be part of our make-up. We like to get in the zone, write perfect and beautiful documents, and expect others to see the value of our work. After all, doesn’t the perfection of a well-crafted document leap out at you? Don’t people know we’re the cool dudes who write the docs that rock? Alas, sometimes we tend to fade into the woodwork and so does the documentation. Technical writers of the world unite – #twotwu « ffeathers — a technical writer’s blog. “If technical communicators ruled the world, I would take on…” A few weeks ago, I was given that sentence fragment and told to speak on the topic for five minutes.

Technical writers of the world unite – #twotwu « ffeathers — a technical writer’s blog

My audience was the group of technical communicators at TCANZ 2010. What would you have said? As far as I remember, I started by saying I would take on everyone in the world who does not know what technical communicators do. This rose from my heartfelt dismay when people ask, “What do you actually do all day?” ;) I then wittered on about the opportunities that modern technology offers us to do just that. More recently at ASTC (NSW) 2010, Neil James proposed the idea that we may move towards a single, unified communication profession. Best Careers 2011: Technical Writer.

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