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In this Issue: |
Welcome: The all new STC Newsletter! Special Feature: The Gender Gap in Technical Writing From the President's Desk: The Importance of Being... Plain! Report: October Meeting: Translating 101 Career Corner: Interviewing |
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STC Events: |
Finances for Contractors: Saturday Seminar on November 22 Presented by Ken McFarland, C.A. Be ready for the new tax season and enhance your bottom line. Learn how to increase your tax refund. Learn about incorporation options, legal implications, and getting financially organized. In the question period, Ken will answer specific questions about taxes and finance. "Ken always gives excellent advice." - STC member Mona Albano. Your investment for this valuable seminar is only $63. Saturday November 22 at 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., November General Meeting: XML Content Management and Formatting Rob talks about why database publishing is such a hot topic and why it is not for everybody. What drives the decision to treat content as data and what are the benefits of this approach? It includes some drawbacks of current solutions and a suggestion of what the right solution should be. Tuesday November 11, 2003 at 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. DITA: The Evolution of XML for Technical Communicators Our November session gets into some of the nuts and bolts around a very intriguing XML structure for single-sourcing information. Unlike other DTDs and schema such as DocBook that structure information along more conventional analogies, this DTD focuses on chunking information into recognizable forms along the analogy of topics within an online help system. Because it is XML, we are in no way limited to help systems and can easily use the content to build books and other information products. This new approach, in development at IBM, is known as the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA). Michael Priestley is an information developer for IBM's Toronto Software Development Laboratory and one of the original architects of DITA. He has written numerous articles on the subject for the STC and presented at this year's annual ACM SIGDOC conference in San Francisco. This month he joins us to discuss Scenario-Based and Model Driven Information Development with DITA. Seating will be limited so you are asked to please send your RSVP to Rob Hanna or call (416) 221-4113. The meeting will be held at the *NEW* offices of FrontRunner, located at Yonge & St.Clair: See you there! |
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Welcome: |
Welcome to the New STC Newsletter! By Editor Philip Kahn - newsletter@stctoronto.org Starting with this issue, we'll be e-mailing this newsletter to you on a monthly basis at the beginning of each month. We have some big shoes to fill; the old printed newsletter was very popular and won several awards. However, an HTML based newsletter allows us to easily include content we simply couldn't before. It will also let us produce the newsletter more quickly and get it to you at a fraction of the cost. I'm very pleased to kick off the new newsletter with an original article by a new STC member. We need more writers for this newsletter... so don't be shy; send me your ideas and start writing! The entire STC executive team has spent a great deal of time discussing the newsletter and planning this new edition. We hope it shows... and we want to hear from you about ways to make it better. You can send your comments to newsletter@stctoronto.org. Our privacy policy and subscription options are at the bottom of the page. |
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Special Feature: |
Analyzing Gender Trends in Technical Communication Hilary Edwards - hilaryedwards@rogers.com An interesting pattern is emerging among those who work in technical communications. Women are entering the profession in greater numbers than ever before. Indeed, the STC reports that most of their members are women. The following statistics were compiled from recent STC Technical Communicator Salary Surveys. Between 3,200 and 3,600 questionnaires were mailed out in 2003 and 2002, and the response rate was 25% and 29% respectively. As random samples of STC members, they are representative of the total number of females and males from Canada and the U.S who responded.
I acknowledge the possibility of other variables or gender biases (for example, perhaps females make more of an effort to respond to salary surveys than males) and the margins of error that are inherent in every statistical survey. As a result, the ratio of survey responses (female to male) may not perfectly reflect the gender mix among technical communicators. However, there is a definite possibility that women, whose primary responsibilities are technical writing and editing, are populating the technical profession in increasingly larger numbers. This interesting trend is also observed in my second year class, in Professional and Technical writing, at Glendon College, York University. The class, which will graduate in the spring of 2004, consists of 22 females and 11 males, a clear 2:1 ratio. Many of us will take entry level positions in the Technical Communications industry, further consolidating the statistics. A STC Dallas survey reports that the average age of male technical writers was forty-five, while that of the women was thirty-seven. The national survey also reports that a larger number of women were in “the lower-paying entry-level range.” Could it be that the reason why so many male Technical Communicators are older is because, after initially starting careers in the field of computer technology, they progressively branched into the practice of technical communications as well? They just redefined themselves or their job descriptions. When Toronto STW (Society of Technical Writers) Chapter was formed in 1959, it consisted, primarily, of male engineers who, among other activities, wrote instructions and descriptions of how electrical and mechanical products worked. (In 1971, the name became STC.) With the pervasiveness of computer technology, and the emergence of the Internet and on-line communication, the need to understand it all fueled a growing desire for personnel to support all aspects of the rapidly evolving world of technology. And one of those aspects was making technical information available to those who need it, creating a desire for technical communicators at all levels. ...why are women suited to this type of work? Although the STC Rocky Mountain Chapter’s salary survey mentions that women hold a third of senior supervisory positions in technical writing, it is evident that a high proportion of newcomers to the profession today are women. What is it that attracts them to technical writing and editing, a place where men are becoming comparatively less attracted? And why are women suited to this type of work? Debbie Davy, a senior technical communicator, feels that technical communicator positions offer greater flexibility than traditional office positions. Achieving a work-life balance may be easier for women in technical communication because they are not limited by a physical office environment to earn income. This opinion is endorsed by Claudette Labriola, a technical writing student who says that flexibility is definitely one of the attractions that has drawn her to technical writing as a career. The STC’s 2001 Independent Contractor/Temp Agency Employee Salary Survey supports this view of flexibility. Studying the responses of 153 females and 96 males in the U.S. and Canada, who call themselves independent contractors, they found that the number one reason for being an independent contractor was flexibility in work schedule. Ninety-eight percent said that given the choice they would prefer to be an independent contractor than a full-time salaried employee.
Research, apparently, backs up a woman’s suitability to a career in technical communication, a large part of which is teamwork, written and oral communication. Studies show that females are good listeners and empathizers. They are also better spellers. As team players, women, in general, relate and interact well, skills highly useful in the communications field. And what about the future of technical communication? Recent computer and gender studies show that men and women use computers as tools for the Internet, email and word programs at equal rates. However, there is a striking disparity in the number of men and women who are participating in the technical revolution at a more sophisticated level. The culture of the information technology workplace is still overwhelmingly masculine. This disparity spills over into universities classes. Just take a look in a fourth year computer engineering or computer science class today. Interestingly, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (IEEE) has more male members. However, the emphasis of their work appears to be on preparing information for a technologically sophisticated audience, i.e. people dealing with information architecture and development, as opposed to the STC, whose primary specialties are in the area of writing and editing technical documents for a more general audience. The conclusion appears to be that when it comes to communication – that is writing, editing and online help, women seem equally attracted to the profession, and if the numbers are any indication, perhaps even more so. Hilary Edwards, a new STC Chapter member, enjoys number crunching. A former programmer/analyst with a recent B.A. in psychology, she is currently looking for work as a technical writer. |
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From the President's Desk: |
The Importance of Being... Plain! STC Toronto President Robert Milovich - robert.milkovich@sympatico.ca The other day I was walking through my favourite Indigo bookstore, having just enjoyed a Tuscan wrap with blue corn chips and a cappuccino, when a book caught my eye: Mindfulness in Plain English, by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana. I opened the book and read the first two paragraphs of the preface:
I couldn’t have said it better myself. As technical communicators, it’s part of our job to explain things clearly to help people perform tasks. When we cloud our message with jargon, complicated sentence structure, or rarely-used words, we do not get our meaning across. This might seem quite obvious to some, but there are still people out there who believe that plain language writing is less impressive, less credible, or even less professional. How do we convince detractors that this is not the case? One way is to tell people that complicated writing gets companies into legal trouble. In Canada, the USA, and the European Union, laws have been passed to protect consumers from hard-to-understand contract language. Courts have ruled that complicated legal language in contracts can mislead customers. So it’s in a company’s best interest to seem honest and transparent by using plain language in all of their communication materials. Besides, it’s expensive to fight court battles! Another way to spread the word is to show how plain language saves lives. If you found yourself in an emergency, would you have time to decode complicated language to figure out what to do? Every second is precious. Studies have shown that people’s ability to understand complex instructions decreases dramatically when they’re under pressure. Make it easier for them by making the writing simpler. You may also be writing for an audience where most people’s first language is not English. Your writing must be plain to make it more easily understood. Using complex grammar and jargon will leave many people scratching their heads and missing the meaning. Plain language communication can help anyone learn any subject, avoid lawsuits, or escape danger. The plain truth is that complicated writing doesn’t impress people, it just confuses them. |
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Meeting Report: |
October: Oleg Kuzin presents 'Translating 101' Katrina Gale - newsletter@stctoronto.org At the October meeting Oleg Kuzin gave an informative and humourous presentation on the value of using professional translation services as an adjunct to technical writing. Mr. Kuzin is originally from the Czech Republic and has over 40 years experience as a professional translator. The presentation began with a brief overview of the history of translation services in Canada, stretching back to the Voyageurs’ first meetings with Canada’s First Nations. Kuzin indicated that translation is a slow process. A translator can be expected to translate no more than 1200 to 1500 words per day. In order to overcome these limitations many clients have suggested dividing up a translation job amongst three or four different translators. Kuzin advised that this would create the same kinds of difficulties one might encounter if one were to divide up the writing of an article amongst three or four different writers. Unless all the participants have the same ?voice?, use the same style guide, have the same cultural references and the same backgrounds, there will be noticeable differences in the resulting text. The translation would be an unprofessional and confusing mess. Kuzin gave a few humourous examples of the perils of using “direct” translation, the sort of thing you might get if you used a French-English dictionary with no vernacular or idiomatic knowledge. One sign in a hotel read, “Please don’t smoke or do other disgusting things in bed.” Another requested that the patrons, “Please take advantage of the chambermaid.”
One of the most obvious reasons a technical writer might need to work with a translator in Canada is because our federal labeling legislation requires that all products sold in Canada be labeled in both official languages. If our goods are not labeled in both French and English they can be removed from the store shelves by government inspectors. Of course, if Canadian companies hope to expand to foreign markets then labeling must be provided for those goods and services in the relevant languages. Translators also ensure that the intended message in advertising and other marketing materials is both accurate and professional in all languages used. There was a brief discussion of the uses of machine translation, which is an automated form of computer-assisted translation. Kuzin related two instances he remembered where machine translation went horribly wrong. In the first case the computer had been programmed to translate the French word for bill into the English word invoice. Thus throughout a government document, every time the Member of Parliament, Bill Graham, was referred to, his name was changed to Invoice Graham. The second error involved the use of the masculine and feminine genders in French. In English a twin is a twin, but in French the masculine version of twin means twin, while the feminine version can also be used to refer to a pair of binoculars. Thus, whenever the translated document referred to “my twin daughters” in English, the French version read “my binocular daughters”. Not quite what the writer had intended. These examples illustrate the importance of the human factor in the art of translation. A good translator really needs to know his subject matter and must be comfortable not only reading and writing both languages involved, but he also needs to be comfortable with both the style and culture of the intended audience. An example where industry experience is paramount would be translation in the highly regulated financial services sector, where certain terms or phrases may be considered incorrect, or even disallowed by legislation, because they could be ambiguous or misleading. Kuzin rounded out his presentation with a discussion of the average costs of translation and the factors involved, i.e. exotic languages are more expensive to translate. He provided us with his personal website url further information: http://www.hpcaonline.com/olku.html Katrina Gale helped create the new STC Toronto Newsletter. |
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Career Corner: |
In the spirit of Halloween, the following is a “scary” excerpt from an article entitled "True IT Confessions” by Chad Dickerson, appearing in the September 29 edition of InfoWorld magazine, sent in by Toronto STC member Dorothy Birtalan:
This quote reflects an unfortunate fact to be aware of during an interview: that documentation is often a neglected area within a company. During an interview you should try to assess the state of the documentation department by asking questions such as:
Note that this probing works both ways: a good interviewer will try to assess how you well you would work for them by asking questions such as:
Try to glean from all these questions what working there will be like. Do you sense there is extreme pressure and long hours? Does management understand the complexities of the documentation process? Is documentation something that is developed concurrently with the product itself, or is it something that is quickly “thrown together” at the last minute? In doing so, you will find that all companies fall somewhere into the “Documentation Relevance Spectrum”, which can be represented as:
At the far left edge of the spectrum documentation is not considered very important, minimal resources and attention are given to it and technical communicators are given little input, if any, into the development process. At the other end, documentation is considered critical, full resources and attention are given to it and technical communicators are given extensive input into the development process. They may even be asked to give feedback on product design and usability, review error messages, test the product and report bugs. During an interview you need to determine where the company falls on this spectrum. Most will be somewhere in the middle, but you may find some closer to one end or the other. Obviously, most of us want to be at places nearer the “right” edge of the spectrum, but a few may not. Some people actually thrive in a high pressure environment and seek the challenge of improving existing processes. However, even at companies where documentation is highly valued, never forget it is still one among many departments that must compete for limited resources and attention. Often technical communicators fall into the trap of viewing the work required to create a product as simply:
As a result we often complain that we do not get the respect and attention we deserve. While there is some truth to this, it’s important to see things from the perspective of the product manager or project team lead – this person may even be the one interviewing you! For them documentation is one of many areas required to complete a project, so they will view the development process as:
Like you, people in these areas often feel they are not getting the time and attention they deserve. Therefore, your task in the interview is to convey the impression that you are a reliable professional who is aware of these other areas and who can help the company by making documentation one less thing to worry about. Even managers who value the documentation process do not want to devote any more time to it than absolutely necessary. They want writers who can quickly assess and manage their projects, in order to free up the manager to focus on all these other areas. This is the impression you must convey the interview – you must be “The Fixer” who feels their pain and eliminates it, or at least minimizes it! In the next issue, I’ll begin discussing some of the specific questions you may be asked, and effective responses to them. Andrew Brooke is the STC Toronto Job Bank Manager and Membership Manager, and is a full-time technical writer at InSystems in Markham. |
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Meeting Report: |
At the opening meeting of the year, Alex Povzner spoke to the STC Toronto Chapter about XML content management. Povzner is a founder and Chief Technology Officer of Siberlogic, and he spoke with specific reference to his company's product called Sibersafe. Several previous STC speakers have explored the advantages of using XML for content management. XML separates content from layout (unlike HTML for example) and this means XML documents can easily be presented on different devices and in different media. XML also supports metadata tags, which provide a solid structure around which content can be easily manipulated and reorganized. Siberlogic's Sibersafe application is a web based content management system that harnesses these benefits of XML. Teams using Sibersafe can create documentation more quickly, maintain it more easily, and customize it with greater flexibility than before. A technical document is created by a writer who send it to an editor, who in turn sends it to reviewers. The reviewers add their comments and send it back to the editor, who evaluates and compiles these comments (many of which could be duplicates) and passes them back to the writer. The writer then revises the content based on these reviews and sends it back to the editor, who once again sends it to the reviewers. After many repetitions of this process, the reviewers are satisfied and the document is finished. Povzner used some impressive animation to show how Sibersafe could expedite this process. As before, the writer creates a document and then posts it online (through Sibersafe) so it is available to the editor. The editor then informs the reviewers, who can also view the document online and add their annotations. However, the reviewers are able to see the annotations made by other reviewers, and so there is no repetition. Meanwhile, the editor is evaluating the annotations and passing them back to the writer who is revising the content on an ongoing basis. Instead of various versions of the document being sent back and forth, we have one 'living' and evolving document. Using this process, documents can be created with much greater speed, a factor that was key in the decision of the US Army to adopt Sibersafe to handle ammunition malfunction investigations. These investigations have to be done quickly by multiple people and require extensive review... all needs that Sibersafe addresses.
Through use of XML metadata tags, Sibersafe is also a single sourcing solution. A typical application might need to run on three platforms, for three different types of user, at three different levels of complexity. Already, that means that 27 manuals are required! Sibersafe uses XML to tag content to identify what information is applicable to each platform and user. Rather than having 27 manuals then, we have a single document that can be outputted in 27 different configurations. This eliminates repetition, and so the documents are cheaper to write, maintain and if necessary, translate. This is why Tokyo Electron chose Sibersafe to produce manuals for their products. The promise of XML is something that technical writers have been hearing about for some time. Users of Sibersafe benefit from a product that delivers on that promise. Philip Kahn is the newsletter editor. He is a website customer service administrator for Rogers Media and also runs his own web design and technical writing company called Digital Jive. |
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About the STC: |
The Society for Technical Communication is an individual membership organization dedicated to advancing the arts and sciences of technical communication. It is the largest organization of its type in the world. Its 25,000 members include technical writers and editors, content developers, documentation specialists, technical illustrators, instructional designers, academics, information architects, usability and human factors professionals, visual designers, Web designers and developers, and translators - anyone whose work makes technical information available to those who need it. The STC Toronto Chapter was founded in 1959 (then the Society of Technical Writers) and is the largest chapter in Canada. |
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About this Newsletter: |
This newsletter is produced monthly by the STC Toronto Chapter and is sent to all registered members just before the General Meeting. We will not share nor sell our address list and will only send e-mails with information we believe to be useful and relevant to our members. If you do not wish to receive this newsletter, please unsubscribe by clicking here and sending us the resulting e-mail. If you are a member but wish to subscribe at a different address, or you are not a member of the Toronto chapter but would like to receive this newsletter, please click here and e-mail us the address at which you wish to receive the newsletter. If you would like to advertise in this newsletter, please send an e-mail to newsletter@stctoronto.org |
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