STC Chicago

STC Chicago Awards Two $250 Scholarships

2013-03-09T14:51:00.000-06:00

The Scholarship Committee is pleased to announce that STC Chicago has awarded a $250 scholarship to both: Jamil Wilkins, a graduate student at New Jersey Institute of Technology Tracy Castro, a student enrolled at the College of Lake County in Illinois Jamil Wilkins is pursuing a Master of Science in Professional and Technical Communication from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He

Content Is King…We Design, Develop, and Deliver Valuable Content

2013-02-25T20:02:00.000-06:00

by Paul Mueller The 2012 Summit in Chicago was a huge success and showcased the vibrant STC Chicago chapter. Additional STC Chicago meetings and events continue to provide the exciting exchange of ideas and in-person networking that enrich our professional careers. I am consistently impressed by these lively discussions as we share our ideas and approaches to delivering the information our

February Meeting: "Speed Resume-ting"

2013-02-18T11:11:00.001-06:00

For February's chapter meeting, STC Chicago eschewed its traditional meeting format. In honor of Valentine's Day, a "Speed Resume-ting" session was held on February 16th to help attendees tighten up their resumes. Despite the Saturday morning meet-up time, roughly 10 intrepid souls from all over Chicagoland braved the sub-20s temperatures to attend. via The event, held at The CARA Group's Oak

"Selling" Your Tech Comm Project

2013-01-18T12:11:00.000-06:00

by Mary Whalen For our SMEs (Subject Matter Experts), time is a currency that usually is in short supply. Though a technical communication project might have dollar funding in place, getting our coworkers' or clients' time allocated to that

Why You Need to Enter the STC Competition in 2013

2013-01-08T10:47:00.006-06:00

by Mary Whalen It's a new year and many of us have set goals, both personal and professional ones. An INVALUABLE experience you could have this year would be to enter the STC international publications competition. I just finished serving as a judge for the 2012 competition, and I had an eye opening experience about how valuable entering the competition can be. I always assumed that

Tech Comm Friday (January 4)

2013-01-04T08:30:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year! Here's what's going on in the world of tech comm in 2013: Read Larry Kunz's most popular blog post of 2012 When everything "just works". TechWhirl gives us a few predictions of what will happen in 2013 in the world of technical communication. The folks over at Web Resources Depot are providing a bare bones HTML5 template for you to fiddle with. CherryLeaf posted a TED Talk

Tech Comm Friday (October 5)

2012-10-05T10:47:00.001-05:00

Fall sure snuck up on us, didn't it? If you were outside today, you know it's downright cold. But, we're not complaining. In fact, it's a welcome seasonal change from the summer's heat. And the weather isn't the only thing changing. Check out these links noting all the cool trends in the world of tech comm. Lavacon 2012 begins on Sunday in Portland, Oregon. If you're headed that way, you'll

Chinese Dictionaries and Technical Communication (Part 2 of 3)

2012-10-02T16:22:00.001-05:00

In this, Part 2 of my 3 part post (the first part appeared here), I will present some basics of the organization of individual Hanzi (Chinese characters). Then I will introduce the organization of Chinese dictionaries (I had the order backwards at the end of Part 1, where I said that first I'd talk about Chinese dictionaries, then the Hanzi). &

Chinese Dictionaries and Technical Communication (Part 1 of 3)

2012-09-20T11:29:00.001-05:00

My aim in this three part blog post is to present to you, professionals in technical communication, some of the basics of the organization of Chinese dictionaries. An English dictionary usually just indexes all entries by the 26 letters of the alphabet. The situation with Chinese, though, is not that simple. All of this will be presented in greater detail in Parts 2 and 3.

Call Me Maybe?

2012-08-30T13:20:00.000-05:00

In our time of virtual – well everything! – CIOs may wonder why they should bother worrying about where their IT support staff is located. If you can have instant communication with anyone, at anytime from anywhere in the world – who cares if their man power is located out of state, out of country or out of continent? The answer is that you should care. I would challenge that, in some

Tech Comm Friday (August 28)

2012-08-24T14:54:00.000-05:00

First off, thanks to all who made it out to our August Kick-Off meeting in Elk Grove Village this past Wednesday. We all enjoyed hearing Chris Ward talk to us about turning tech comm into ROI. Check out our blog post recapping the meeting. Here's what's going on in the world of tech comm this week: TechWhirl published an interesting paper exploring how close writers needs to be to end users in

Tech Comm as ROI - August Chapter Meeting

2012-08-23T15:09:00.000-05:00

Vice President Cheri Noble welcomes attendees to the August program meeting Wednesday night, STC Chicago members gathered in Elk Grove Village to hear Chris Ward of Web Works talk to us about generating ROI out of our TOCs. Get it? Here's an overview of some of his key points. Technical documentation is the most pivotal department to the company's success. Chris made a key point

Five Reasons You Should Attend WebVisions Chicago

2012-08-22T11:55:00.000-05:00

Sure, conferences are great fun and offer a chance to hobnob with fellow professionals, but sometimes your boss needs a little more than a simple reassurance that the event will offer real value for the money. Fear not, here are just a few good reasons for your boss to happily sign off on sending you to the show: Explore the future of web and mobile design, UX, digital media and technology

Interested in Judging a Technical Communication Competition?

2012-08-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

If so, then we have a great opportunity for you. We're getting ready to kick off our annual Technical Communication Competition and we're in need of several judges with varying degrees of tech comm experience to evaluate the entries. Judges are placed in three-member teams with a designated team lead. The team members receive three to six entries that they must review over a two-month period.

Twitter Isn't Just for the Birds

2012-08-10T16:25:00.001-05:00

When Scott Berkun took the stage for his keynote address at the 2012 Summit, the first thing he asked was “How many people have never used Twitter?” and half the audience raised their hand. Now, I think it's your choice whether you want to use Twitter—I'm not here to force you to do something you don't want to do—but as technical communicators, it's our job to remain relevant and

August Byline

2012-08-09T11:33:00.003-05:00

In case you missed the email or the page on our website, the August Byline is now available for your perusal. You won't want to miss the following articles: A message from our new President, Linda Kelley Results from the program survey - check out how you responded! A look at what's coming up for you in 2012-23 Thoughts on Twitter from PR Manager Adam Evans A spotlight on STC Chicago member

Tech Comm Friday (July 27)

2012-07-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

We hope everyone is enjoying their summer as much as we are. And despite vacationing and this beautiful weather, the tech comm show must go on. Here's what's floating around the blogosphere: In Death of a Document: It's Time to Start Thinking of a New Way to Document Software, Paul Trotter reasons out why traditional documentation has gone by the wayside (and why yours should too). Waltzing

Make Guides in a Snap with SnapGuide

2012-07-10T16:41:00.000-05:00

Tonight I'm making a healthy summer pasta salad. I'm not following a recipe, per se. I'm following instructions on a new iPhone app called SnapGuide. SnapGuide is the latest software that puts instruction creation in the hands of the user. "eHow was a pioneer in publish content online," says SnapGuide co-founder Daniel Raffel, "but it's a lot of 'evergreen' [and impersonal] content. We

Tech Comm Friday (June 22)

2012-06-22T15:35:00.000-05:00

First off, thanks to all of the STC Chicago members who made Thursday's June Celebration possible. Thanks, also, to everyone who attended. I had a great time, and I hope everyone else did too. I have since recovered from the appetizer-induced fried food haze enough to bring you some equally tasty TC links. In "Writing User-Centered Documentation, or, My Best Days as a Technical Writer" Tom

June Celebration

2012-06-21T08:22:00.002-05:00

Last night over 20 tech comm professionals from the Chicago area gathered at Outback Steakhouse in Schaumburg, IL for our annual June Celebration. Attendees had the chance to network with fellow writers and learn a little more about each other. Outgoing president, Elizabeth Burke, passed the gavel to incoming president, Linda Kelley. Elizabeth, thank you for your hard work and dedication this

We need your feedback!

2012-06-19T10:27:00.000-05:00

We're just getting ready to kick off another great year of STC Chicago chapter meetings and events, but we need your feedback. What did you like and dislike about this past year and what would you like to see in the future? Take a few minutes to fill out our survey and send us your thoughts. STC Chicago Program Survey >>

A Rambling Account of the STC Summit '12…

2012-06-18T16:48:00.001-05:00

When the information about the “First Time Attendee Orientation Web Seminar” was sent to me, I at first thought I am not a first time attendee to STC. Upon brief reflection, I realized I might as well be, because 16 years had elapsed since I’d attended a Summit for the first and only other time. Thinking back to the 1996 STC Annual Conference in Seattle, Washington, I don’t

Tech Comm Friday (June 15)

2012-06-15T18:23:00.002-05:00

Happy Friday, everyone! The hubbub from the STC Summit is starting to die down, but our field is as prolific as ever. Here are some of the gems I found this week: Felipe Rubim, from CMSWire, describes five basic requirements that are often neglected when a company builds its Web site using a CMS. In "Social Media for Technical Writers," Theresa Pojuner discusses whether the use of social and

Tech Comm Friday (June 8)

2012-06-08T16:59:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday, everyone! I hope those who went to yesterday's First Thursday meetups had a grand ol' time. Sorry for the late post this week; there were so many great posts this week to pick through. But with the help of Graffiti Owl (whom I found next to the river at State and Wacker), I found some posts to help you stay aware of the past week's goings on in tech comm. With Twitter being such

STC12 Recap: Jenna Moore's "Building Your Professional Network--Beyond the Social Media Maze"

2012-06-06T12:07:00.000-05:00

The Chinese term guanxi literally means relationships or connections. More precisely, the word refers to relationships that are mutually beneficial to both parties through a system of voluntary reciprocal obligations. In short, "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours." In fact, these types of relationships are so important to the Chinese that failure to reciprocate is unforgivable