Archive: Posts about Technical Writing
November 16th, 2004, 3 Comments »
Cross-posted from my dayjob blog.
A couple of years ago, I wrote an article for Intercom magazine called Ten Tips for Writing Whitepapers (PDF). I just had a quick glance through it, and I think every thing’s still relevant.
Regardless, my technical writer brother sent me two other articles on writing whitepapers. There’s 10 tips for writing compelling white papers and How to Write a White Paper - A White Paper on White Papers. The latter requires registration, and apparently the registrations get vetted before you receive their article. In light of the fact that I used my spam account at Capulet (a company that, you know, writes whitepapers), I’m unlikely to receive a copy. If anybody else registers and gets a copy, send it on to me, would you?
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October 12th, 2004, No Comments »
As regular readers will know, I run this silly thing called the Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness. It’s due for another update, and hopefully I get to that before the year is out. Paul writes to point out the fun serendipity between the images and the Google ads that run below each item (I should really get more mercantile and move those ads to above the images). In particular, he sent me this image, which would clearly help out those who didn’t heed the image in question. Scroll down to the bottom to see what I mean.
As I click around, there’s some amusing Google ad interactions on this image and this one.
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August 24th, 2004, No Comments »
I was just contacted by a recruiter who was looking for a senior technical writer for a full-time contract of indeterminate length in a suburb of Vancouver. It’s apparently a B2B software project. I know that’s pretty vague, but that’s all I managed to learn. I couldn’t help her out, but said I would ask around in case I knew anyone who might be interested. She emphasized that they’re looking for a senior writer, as this is a ground-up rewrite project updating some legacy manuals.
If you’re interested, or know someone who is interested, drop me an email (my first name at this URL dot com).
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August 17th, 2004, 1 Comment »
Since the recent update to the Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness, I’ve received a number of quality new submissions. While it may take me a couple of months to get around to updating the Hall, I had to post this one here–it struck me as particularly funny.
Robin sent this in, saying that it’s an illustration “on the side panel of a box of tea. Yogi Tea’s Ginger Tea apparently makes one want to smell other people’s bums.” You can just make out a colour version of the diagram from this promotional photo. It’s even funnier if you note that the text immediately under the drawing reads “inhale deeply through the nose”.
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August 17th, 2004, No Comments »
Speaking of the Hall, a visitor emailed me to say that his friend runs swanksigns, a similar site “born of a love for the strange and bizarre, and mocking said strange and bizarre items”. Impressively (and amusingly), they’ve got 156 signs, of which this one and this poor bastard are early favourites. I had a quick scan through the gallery, and remarkably I don’t think there are any duplicates between my site and his. Apparently there are plenty of goofy signs to go around.
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August 13th, 2004, 1 Comment »
Over the course of 2004, I’ve received a bunch of new submissions to the Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness. I’ve finally gotten around to sorting through them and posting the best ones. Thanks to everyone who submitted–with your help, the hall now has increased to 60 exhibits from its former 33.
If I didn’t post your submission, it’s probably because I had something else similar, or it didn’t quite fit. For example, I received lots of examples of ‘engrish’–poorly-translated instructions, generally from Asia. I’ve only included a few because this site does a great job with this content.
The image at left is one of my favourites out of the new batch, as are this one and this one. I know, I’ve got the sense of humour of a 13-year-old. What’re you going to do?
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July 12th, 2004, No Comments »
My friend volunteers for the local chapter of the Society for Technical Communication. She’s looking for a speaker for their September session on “Trends in Technical Communication”. They’re looking for someone local, or someone who will speak for a stay in a hotel and dinner. If you’re such a person, or know such a person, leave a comment.
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June 23rd, 2004, No Comments »
Back in January, at a combined meeting of the HTCE and STC, I participated in a panel that discussed the differences between a technical writer and a marketing writer. They videotaped segments of the discussion and have recently posted them on the STC site. It’s not really my best speechifying, as I wasn’t well prepared, but you can watch my bit here.
In that vein, I’ll also be participating in the HTCE’s forthcoming Brain Gain, where-in a series of speakers give a ten-minute spiel on ‘marketing outrageously’ (gulp). I’m talking up that most outrageous of subjects, RSS.
HTCE stands for High-Tech Communications Exchange, so this sort of talk would be of interest to anyone in marketing high-tech companies.
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June 21st, 2004, 10 Comments »
For no particular reason, I have been using instant messenger for about a year. I used it quite a bit when I worked fulltime for this company, because our developers were spread all over the globe. Since then, I’ve pretty much ignored it. Which is odd, because you’d think that, working from home, I’d crave more social interaction.
Regardless, I’ve downloaded Trillian and set myself up. Currently, I’m only configured with my MSN account. Should I bother with any of the other IM flavours–AIM, Yahoo, IRC, ICQ? I’m familiar with all of them, but have little sense of which is most popular. What do the Apple snobs users employ?
On MSN, I’m darrenbarefoot@hotmail.com (spam all you want, mofos, I never used that badboy). If you’re a friend, family or articulate stranger, feel free to add me and we’ll, you know, socialize.
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June 1st, 2004, No Comments »
Over at my day job, we’re looking for a junior technical writer who we can subcontract to do work for us. Ideally, this person would:
- Have one to two years of experience as a technical writer.
- Be an excellent written and verbal communicator.
- Know most of the software packages that all the other ads ask for.
- Not be dependent upon us for work. It will likely be a feast or famine
situation–20 hours one week, then 5 for the next two.
- Be available immediately…we have a project we need some help with over the next 2-3 weeks.
- Have some technical aptitude, or be willing to learn the difference
between a VPN and an API.
- Any graphic design and illustration skills are a bonus.
- Have their own computer and workspace (we’ll provide any software you’ll use).
- Live in the Lower Mainland.
If you are such a person, or know such a person, or have questions about the work, send us an email.
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