"Managing Your Documentation Projects" by JoAnn Hackos -- an overview

Everyone in the office where Tim and I work is issued a copy of JoAnn Hackos's Managing Your Documentation Projects. In this blog post, I'll provide some general remarks about this often-issued, not-so-often-read book.

JoAnn Hackos's Managing Your Documentation Projects (hereafter, MYDP) discusses technical writing from a managerial, strategic perspective, with emphasis on implementing a process for documentation development. MYDP provides a 5-level model for assessing the maturity of your documentation team.

It is important to say what MYDP is not. MYDP is not a manual for teaching you how

Archived Seminar Review: Strategies for the Social Web for Documentation.

Introduction:

The STC website has about 90 archived seminars, webinars, and presentations. Access to all this material is included in your dues. They are mostly over an hour long, and cover a range of topics. As a public service to STC members, I decided to watch and review them all. One at a time.

Review Number 2: Strategies for the Social Web for Documentation.

In this presentation, Anne Gentle (author of Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation) explored possible intersections between technical communication and social media, or the social web as she calls it. Anne explained how she thinks technical documentation could change and improve through more direct user interaction. She also tried to put to rest the idea that user generated content will one day put us all out of a job.

Don't be mean to non-writers.

I've gotten better at writing since I started being a technical writer. And sometimes my pride in myself verges on smugness.

I came across this blog post, that helped me remember how important it is to be humble, and stay off high horses. This line in particular hit me:

"The idea that there is only one right way of doing English – and everyone else is doing it wrong – is inherently flawed. And by “flawed” I mean illogical, elitist and even oppressive"

The point is, worry about your own writing, and learning more every day. It's one thing to help people learn from a place of respect, and another thing to cut them down for not being as awesome as you are.

Tips for Queenslanders dealing with hail in their driveways

This afternoon saw pretty impressive storms in and around Brisbane, leaving some people with hail in their driveways and on their lawns.

I grew up shovelling my driveway in the wintertime. For the readers who are at a loss on how to get started, I found this piece of technical communication that should help.

One more day for submissions!

There is one more day to submit your entries for the STC Australia Chapter's Technical Communications competition. Don't procrastinate any longer!

Competition details are here. Entry form is here. Payment information is here.

Good luck!

Passive voice bookend.

I started my holiday with an image of some bad passive voice.
This is a less bad example, but I wonder why they didn't tell customers to "Purchase tickets at the Fire-Fly counter"?

New payment methods available for competition entries.

I didn't want this to get lost in the previous post.

We're now accepting online credit card payments for competition entries using TryBooking's secure payment service. You can pay online at http://www.trybooking.com/CDCC and http://www.trybooking.com/37234.

Additionally, you can make a bank transfer to the STC Australia Chapter's bank account. For the bank account details, email the treasurer at treasurer@stc-aus.org.au.

Good luck!