Articles

About Technical Communicators

• Who are technical communicators?
  Article describing what technical communicators do and different routes into this profession. Includes personal accounts from technical writers across the globe.
• Technical communicators in Cambridge   NEW!
  Describes technical writing in Cambridge, UK: industries where technical writers are employed in Cambridge and opportunities for technical writers in Cambridge. This article was published in the Summer 2008 edition of ISTC's Communicator.

Skills Improvement

• Interviewing Skills for technical writers
  Excellent communication skills is often listed as a prerequisite for a position as a technical writer. This article provides tips for interviewing subject matter experts (SMEs), to gather information on a project or subject. The article was published in 2008 in the STC's Intercom.
• Tips for Obtaining Effective Reviews  NEW!
  Encouraging reviewers to respond to review requests can seem a daunting task. This article discusses useful techniques for obtaining the review you need. This article was published in the Spring 2008 edition of ISTC's Communicator.
• Putting together a training course    NEW!
  This article describes how to put together the documentation for a training course — including presentations, workbooks, demos and tests. This article was published in the Spring 2009 edition of ISTC's Communicator.

Technology and trends

• Documentation for a Data Centre Migration    NEW!
  This article describes some of the strategies and methods for collecting and managing the information required for a complex data centre migration. This article was published in the Winter 2008 edition of ISTC's Communicator.
• The Zachman Enterprise Architecture Framework
  A framework for describing an organisation's structure. This article was published in the Autumn 2007 edition of ISTC's Communicator.
• Critical Incident Management Communications.
  This article provides some insight into incident management procedures and best practise in determining policy for incident management communications. This article was published in the Autumn 2008 edition of ISTC's Communicator.

General

• Don't be a writer's writer
  A discussion by Roger Kirkham on the unnecessary complexity that tends to creep into writing style guides and how to avoid this.
• Stress management for technical writers Part 1
  This article is based on a combination of job ratings, research findings and stress ratings from a survey conducted on a broad range of international technical writers. The article was published in 2002 on TECHWR-L.
• Stress management for technical writers Part 2
  This follow-on article explores strategies technical writers use to cope with stress, including personal annecdotes from a range of international writers. The article was published in 2002 on TECHWR-L.

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