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What’s Next in Our Localization Strand: A Deep Dive into Terminology Management

CJ — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 11:23:28 +0000

A note from the series editors If you’ve been following the localization strand from the beginning, you’ve now covered a significant stretch of territory. You understand the difference between translation and localization, why your writing habits shape translation costs, how controlled language disciplines your source, how files move through engineering pipelines…

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Unlocking New Career Paths: How Translation Memory Skills Empower Technical Communicators

CJ — Thu, 28 May 2026 13:42:14 +0000

Post 7 in our series on localization skills for modern technical communicators Every time a translator in Tokyo, Sao Paulo, or Warsaw opens a file you wrote, something happens before they read a single word. The translation memory system checks whether it has seen that sentence before. If it has, the system offers the previous translation as a suggestion. If it has seen something similar…

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Unlocking New Career Paths: How File Formats and Localization Engineering Skills Empower Technical Communicators

CJ — Wed, 20 May 2026 09:26:00 +0000

You’ve written the content. You’ve applied controlled language, maintained your terminology, and structured your sentences for translation efficiency. Now comes the moment that many technical communicators never see: the content leaves your authoring environment and enters the localization pipeline. What happens next depends almost entirely on file formats and localization engineering.

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Unlocking New Career Paths: How Translation Management System Skills Empower Technical Communicators

CJ — Wed, 13 May 2026 12:01:47 +0000

If you’ve ever watched a documentation release fall apart because a translator was working from last month’s source file, a reviewer couldn’t find the approved terminology, and nobody was sure which vendor had which package, you already understand the problem that a Translation Management System (TMS) exists to solve. A TMS is the operational hub of a localization workflow.

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Unlocking New Career Paths: How Controlled Language and STE Skills Empower Technical Communicators

CJ — Wed, 06 May 2026 09:22:34 +0000

Post 4 in our series on localization skills for modern technical communicators Most technical communicators encounter the phrase “write clearly” early in their careers and spend years refining what that means. Shorter sentences. Active voice. Consistent terminology. Plain language over jargon. What fewer encounter is the idea that “write clearly” has a formalized…

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Unlocking New Career Paths: How Writing for Translation Skills Empower Technical Communicators

CJ — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 09:15:00 +0000

Post 3 in our series on localization skills for modern technical communicators Every sentence you write is a brief to a translator. You may never meet them, never speak with them, and never see the language they work in. But the decisions you make at the keyboard, how long your sentences run, whether you reach for an idiom, whether you leave a term undefined, whether you write in the…

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Unlocking New Career Paths: How Localization Skills Empower Technical Communicators

CJ — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 10:07:00 +0000

Post 2 in our series on localization skills for modern technical communicators If you’ve ever handed off your documentation to a language team and thought “job done,” this post is for you. The distinction between translation and localization is one of the most consequential things a technical communicator can understand, and most of us were never taught it.

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Unlocking New Career Paths: A New Series on Localization Skills for Technical Communicators

CJ — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 09:31:39 +0000

Post 1 in our series on localization skills for modern technical communicators If your organization is expanding into new markets, deploying AI-powered content tools, or simply trying to make documentation work harder across more channels and languages, one question sits at the heart of all of it: is your content actually ready? Not just written. Not just reviewed. Ready; structured…

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Unlocking New Career Paths: How Knowledge Organisation System Skills Empower Technical Communicators

CJ — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 17:02:59 +0000

This is our summary post of the Knowledge Organisation Systems series. You’ve spent eleven posts building something quietly remarkable. You understand controlled vocabularies and taxonomy design. You know how ontologies structure meaning, how SKOS governs terminology, and how semantic search turns well-formed knowledge into intelligent retrieval. You can see why faceted navigation works…

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Calling Teachers: It’s Time for TechComm Bootcamp!

CJ — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 19:26:17 +0000

Are you interested in exploring a different, but parallel, career that allows you to build on your wonderful knowledge and skills at training and teaching? Have you ever considered being a technical writer? Entering the field of technical communication allows you to build on all of that wonderful skill and knowledge you already have in helping people learn new material.

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