Thanks again to all who entered. We hope that those who did not receive an award will be able to use the feedback provided to improve their skills and move up in the standings next year.

Here are the results:

Merit award

Author's Comments: NetWorker Module for Documentum is a software product developed by EMC Corporation to provide backup and restore capability for Documentum system data. The Administrator's Guide describes how to configure, administer, and use the software product. Due to the complexity of the product installation and configuration procedures, EMC Professional Services consultants are required to install and set up the NetWorker Module for Documentum and its related products. The information in the guide is intended for the consultants and system administrators who are responsible for maintaining the Documentum Server backup and restore system. Operators who monitor the Documentum data backups may also find the guide useful.

Due to the software project constraints, the Administrator's Guide was created over a period of approximately four months for an extremely tight deadline. Since members of the development team were under great pressures to produce their own deliverables within strict deadlines, they were not able to provide much feedback for the documentation. As a result, I researched and developed the guide largely through my own efforts and initiative, as the sole writer on the project.

The guide uses the styles, layout, and graphics approved by EMC Corporation. Due to budget constraints, the copy of the guide submitted to the competition was not printed in full color, except for the cover, and does not include perfect binding. However, the submitted copy is the intended size of 7.5 inches by 9 inches.

I submitted the NetWorker Module for Documentum Administrator's Guide to the competition because, having submitted documentation entries in the past, I knew that I would receive very useful comments from the judges, which I could use to improve my documentation in the future. And I was also curious to find out how the document would rank in such a competition, especially considering that it was developed under such tight deadlines and project constraints.

I am excited and pleasantly surprised by the news that my guide won an award in the competition! I feel very grateful to the judges for all their hard work in evaluating my submissions and providing their feedback. And my manager and colleagues are also happy with the results and how they reflect well on the Technical Publications Department at EMC Corporation.

Merit award

Author's Comments: DigitalToGo software is a Web server that dynamically creates Web pages linked to images and other files on a computer. This product was conceived and developed by my husband, Sander Smith, who is also my business partner and co-owner of Sericon Technology. We sold this product and delivered it with this documentation to our first customer, NIH (National Institute of Health) in Bethesda, Maryland. NIH purchased the software to facilitate sharing MRI files from one of its research projects with researchers around the world.

This was the first documentation deliverable that I created completely on my own -- based on templates that I developed, without a corporate style guide or any feedback from other writers. Our customer was very happy with the documentation, so I entered the contest to see how well it fared among my peers.

Excellence award

Best of Show

Author's Comments: The Financial Planning Practitioners' Guide (FPPG) is designed to help certified financial planners (CFPs) comply with the new Practice Standards that were introduced by the Financial Planners Standards Council (FPSC) in 2005. The Canadian Institute of Financial Planners (CIFPs) retained my services in January 2005 to research and develop a "best practices manual" for release at their 3rd annual conference at the beginning of June 2005. This was a very short timeline for a project of this magnitude.

The CIFPs provides the FPPG to its members as a membership benefit, at no additional cost. To keep this project financially viable for both the CIFPs and its members, the FPPG was distributed as a series of PDF files on CD at the conference. It is also available to CIFPs members as a download from the CIFPs website. Members can choose to read the material online, print out specific sections as desired, or they can print everything from the binder spine and cover to the full content, for a professional looking publication.

This was the first project I have done in several years over which I have had complete control. Given the limited timeframe and resources for this project, I am very pleased with how it turned out. With the exception of my technical reviewers, I was responsible for everything from outlining the scope of the manual, developing the document structure and layout, researching the best practices, writing all of the content, copyediting, formatting the document and compiling the PDF files. For that reason, I was eager to enter it into the STC competition - all of the document's attributes, good or bad, were my responsibility, and I was looking for constructive feedback.

I'm thrilled that the FPPG won Best of Show, who wouldn't be? But what I am especially pleased with is that there is still recognition for good paper-based content, without all of the bells and whistles that come with today's technology. The document was produced entirely in Word. There are no fancy graphics, color plates, flash animations or hyperlinks, and yet the document serves its audience well.