Category Archives: TC

TC, Technical Communication

Look Forward to 2013

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This year was quite an awesome year for my career and I look forward to advancing it further than I did in 2012.

Some notable items to mention which I thought were successful:

What was amazing about this year was seizing opportunities when they were available and pushing forward to open up new doors and avenues to succeed in the field of technical communication. To be quite honest, there are a lot of amazing people which I had the opportunity of meeting in Chicago and Portland.

On my personal side, I had a wonderful year from around May to December. I met a lot of awesome friends from the Albuquerque blues community. If you don’t know much about my private life–I love blues dancing and blues/alternative music.

Blues Dance in Albuquerque

Blues Dance in Albuquerque

As this year is nearly finished, I look forward to 2013 with very positive notes and think the best is still yet to come. If you are reading this, I sincerely hope you had a great 2012 and that your professional development and career advancement continues to surge forward–I definitely know mine is.

STC Tryout 2012 and Member Get a Member Programs

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In August of this year, the Society for Technical Communication introduced their STC Tryout Program to recruit non-members to join STC for the remainder of 2012 and use their dues forward for a 2013 membership.

STC - Society for Technical Communication

STC – Society for Technical Communication

The program was an effort for current STC members to recruit new members to sign up for a STC membership for the remainder of 2012. In return, members can use their paid dues for 2013 membership renewal. Members who referred their colleagues to sign up for the tryout program were entered in a drawing to win a complimentary STC Membership for 2013.

I was happy to hear that Samantha Miranda, a technical communication student from New Mexico Tech, signed up for the STC Tryout Program and added my name for the drawing. Last week, the STC Office randomly selected me for the 2013 membership. As part of STC’s ongoing marketing and outreach strategy, they interviewed Samantha and me about our thoughts on the STC Tryout Program. Read our interview on STC’s Notebook Blog.

Member Get a Member Program

If you were unable to recruit members this year for the STC Tryout Program, current members can receive a $25 credit for each new member they recruit from now until January 15, 2013. Visit the Member Get a Member Program site for details.

STC - Member Get A Member

STC – Member Get A Member

I highly encourage current members to find a new member to sign up–it only takes a few minutes and you might save on 2013 membership dues.

Is TechComm Art? Yes!

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What does technical communication have in common with art? A lot, but do they go hand-in-hand like two peas in a pod or like peanut butter and jelly?

Is it art or technical communication?

Is it art or technical communication?

In the article, “Resolved: Technical Communication IS Art,” co-written with Wanda Phillips and published by TechWhirl, we argue that technical communication is an art. While these thoughts are, admittedly, positive and forward-thinking, we reinforce the idea that technical communication is a unique and dynamic art with historical and everyday examples.

In contrast to Yehoshua Paul’s article, “Resolved: Technical Communication is NOT art,” from the previous week that our profession is not an art, both Wanda and I share our own opinions that we believe technical communication is an art. While our line of work may not make it to the museum, it still is art.

Painting at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Will TechComm make it as a display piece?

What was really neat about our article was we originally wrote our pieces separately and had the awesome task of merging it together as one uniform article. The result was a conversation piece between me and Wanda about how we believe TechComm combines together a variety of arts, such as graphics, visual and document design, content strategy, etc.

This article and many more are found at TechWhirl.com.