My webinar slides as PDF handout

If you’ve attended my webinar “Getting ahead as a lone writer”, you might be interested in the slides in PDF: They were supposed to be made available to attendees by the STC, but apparently that hasn’t happened as I’ve just learned yesterday. If you have any more questions about the webinar or being a lone [...]

So what’s it like to present a tech comm webinar?

Presenting a webinar isn’t much different from other “public” presentations, but the format has a few quirky effects and demands of its own. On 29 February, I had the chance to present my first webinar. As with many first-time experiences, the newness of it all felt a little weird, there were some glitches, but altogether, [...]

Get ahead as a lone tech writer with a STC webinar

A compact 1-hour STC webinar gives you the low-down about getting ahead as a lone writer, from tools to strategy – plus two words every lone writer should know how to use. What? Writers are often the only person in a company who create and maintain documentation. Lone writers who operate without a dedicated budget [...]

My tcworld11 presentation “Getting ahead as a lone writer”

You can download the PDF slides to my presentation “Getting ahead as a lone writer” at tekom/tcworld in Wiesbaden on 19 October 2011: For alternative formats and versions, see Getting ahead as a lone author, the article from ISTC’s Communicator. Getting ahead as a lone author, my TCUK presentation which is a little more verbose and may work [...]

Join me for “Getting ahead as a lone writer” at tekom

If you’re attending the tekom conference in Wiesbaden, consider joining me for my updated presentation “Getting ahead as a lone writer” on October 19 at 8:45 a.m. in room 12C as part of tekom’s international, English-speaking tcworld conference. My presentation will be an updated version of the session I did at TCUK 10. I will [...]

Framing tech comm: O’Reilly vs. Dangerfield

Technical communication is perceived in many different ways, some more constructive than others. Luckily, the framing of tech comm is the result of a dialogue/feedback loop, so we can help to shape how we come across. Tim O’Reilly on the future Consider Tim O’Reilly, quite a visionary technical communicator. He works to create “The Missing [...]

Recommended read: Practice technical writing

Becoming a better tech writer requires practice. Mike Pope, tech editor at Microsoft in Seattle, has a brilliant blog post about 12 ways to practice tech writing. The catch is he means “practice” like a musician, so you learn to do stuff better than yesterday – instead of just doing the same things over and [...]

Getting ahead as a lone author, the article

“Getting ahead as a lone author”, based on my presentation in last September’s TCUK conference, appeared as a 3.5-page article in the current Winter 2010 issue of ISTC’s Communicator. I’ve covered lone authors over the last months in blog posts and in my presentation, after which Katherine Judge, commissioning editor of ISTC’s quarterly, asked me [...]

2011 megatrend in technical communications

I think this year’s megatrend for technical communicators and their managers, especially employed ones, is to position tech comm as a business in its own right – or to be redundant in the long run. This is my conclusion after thinking about three astute predictions that Sarah O’Keefe recently blogged about. – I know: I’m [...]

Resolution for 2011: Attend a conference!

Attending a conference is the perfect professional new year’s resolution for us tech writers: Regardless of what other plans for improvement you (or your boss) have, tech comm conferences are the perfect platform to exchange ideas, learn about new methods and tools and generally recharge your enthusiasm! If you’re a manager: Sending your tech writer [...]