November 1st, 2006
by Christy Simard
At first glance, technical communication (techcom) and technical marketing communication (marcom) appear to be very different genres. Where traditional techcom strives to help people use products, marcom seeks to make people realize they need products. Techcom instructs, while marcom persuades, and this distinction affects everything from the genre’s focus, to its content, and medium.
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October 30th, 2006
by Steve Capri
So you’ve given it a lot of painstaking thought. It’s decided. It’s time. Time to move into management. After all, you’ve worked hard to get where you are. You’ve paid your dues working through the various levels of technical-writing jobs, and survived all the promotional requirements to get through each position, and so on. As a senior-level professional, you’re at a crossroads. How do you prepare and are you absolutely sure you want to make this transition?
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October 26th, 2006
by Whitney Potsus
Whether the documentation department has a staff of one or a team of 12, visibility within the company is a frequent concern. The reasons for this concern range from personal to professional. You want to be remembered when promotions and bonuses are handed out. You want new challenges to add diversity to your workload, and new projects to add skills to your resume. You want to defend your turf against budget cuts and layoffs during lean economic times. And you want to be more than an afterthought that lives in the back 40 of the cubicle farm.
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October 17th, 2006
by Ruth Nickolich
What does it take to start your own technical-writing business? Chutzpa! Insanity! I began mine by getting a loan from my local bank for my first computer to set up a home office. It was a Micron desktop 386, the fastest computer in town! That was nine years ago. I now have a nice office, a sizeable staff, and all the work I can handle, most of the time.
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October 5th, 2006
Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal
Article Summary
Writing Assistance was named to the Twin Cities Business Journal Fast 50 Growing Companies.
October 5th, 2006
by Whitney Potsus
“Lone writers” — those people who work as their employer’s only staff writers — are a different breed, with their own unique set of professional and personal challenges. At the same time a blessing and a curse, the lone writer life offers flexibility, variety, and autonomy, along with feelings of stress, isolation, and burnout.
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September 30th, 2006
by Kristen Giovanis
Companies operating in a global marketplace know they need to translate documents for their audiences. But some documents actually need more than translation – they need localization. Although a document’s words can be translated perfectly, the document can still be ineffective in another market, due to differences in the way local businesses operate and in the way people think.
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September 18th, 2006
Accounting Today
Article Summary
Estimating documentation costs for a technology project that you’re managing seems like it’s almost outside the realm of possibility, like finding the perfect hamburger or a jacket that fits you just right. Like clothing and food, there isn’t a “one size fits all” amount of hours that your company can estimate for each project, because each project and each writer are different.
September 16th, 2006
by Karen O’Keefe
Whether you’re a manager or not, consider the following checklist the next time an interview is about to commence. As an interviewee, these actions might give you a competitive edge. As an interviewer, they might help set your standards on how you rate potential candidates.
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September 15th, 2006
TFCU Magazine
Article Summary
Delivering content to be read online using a video monitor or a flat panel display presents unique challenges in readability and navigation. There is a tendency to take material designed for printed distribution, turn it into a PDF, or portable document format, and post it on a Web site. This is far from ideal and may frustrate readers.
