STC India Network

Final Reminder: STC India Mentoring Program: Let us learn together: 2012

—————
Dear Friends,

Thanks for the excellent response. Thank you for all those who have responded, and volunteered as mentors and mentees. I really appreciate it.

For all those who are keen to join the mentoring program, but have missed the earlier announcements: Friday, March 23, 2012 is the last
date for sending your responses.

For any queries, please write to me at

Wishing you all a Happy Gudi Padwa or Happy Ugadi in advance

Best wishes and regards,
-Ramesh

On Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 10:53 AM, Ramesh Aiyyangar wrote:
> Dear Friends,
>
> Greetings! Hope you had a great weekend.
>
> Thank you for the excellent response.
>
> Thanks to all those who have volunteered as mentors and mentees.
>
> For all those who missed the earlier announcement, and are keen to
> join the mentoring program – We learn together – 2012 – please send
> your responses before or on Friday, March 23, 2012
>
> Please write to me at if you have any queries.
>
> Regards,
> -Ramesh
>
> On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 10:54 AM, Ramesh Aiyyangar wrote:
>> Dear Friends,
>>
>> Here is some good news!
>>
>> The STC India chapter is launching a mentoring program – We learn
>> together – for the year 2012. With the growing interest in technical
>> communication, the STC India Chapter would like to assist interested
>> individuals ease into the technical writing profession.
>>
>> ******Mentoring Program
>>
>> The STC India chapter mentoring program is intended to address the
>> needs of would-be technical writers looking for that first break into
>> the business. It is also for people currently working as technical
>> writers who would like exposure to some area of technical writing with
>> which they are less familiar.
>>
>> The mentoring program matches experience to aspirations, in other
>> words pairs new technical communicators with senior communicators to
>> discuss personnel issues, technical problems, or career direction.
>> Mentorees gain new insights and strategies for how to create solutions
>> and propel their careers. Mentors develop valuable skills that can
>> further their personal and professional development. Both parties
>> learn when ideas and experiences are shared.
>>
>> The mentoring program allows individuals who participate to define
>> their own objectives and scope of involvement. The mentoring program
>> is not tied to any particular educational institution or program. It
>> is simply a way to connect individuals and provide a networking system
>> that is more focused. Mentors and mentorees can participate at a
>> number of levels, ranging from telephone, emails, interviews, and so
>> on.
>>
>> Ramesh Aiyyangar manages the Mentoring Program – We learn together -
>> and can answer any questions you may have after reading the
>> information provided below.
>>
>> ******How to become a mentor
>>
>> Becoming an STC India Mentor is easy! You need experience as a
>> technical communicator and the desire to help a new writer. If you are
>> interested in participating in the program, fill out the Application
>> Form for Mentors attached here. Enrollment is opened periodically
>> throughout the program year. You should expect to hear from Ramesh
>> after you have submitted your form.
>>
>> ******Mentor’s responsibilities
>>
>> As a mentor, your first responsibility is to listen. Ask open-ended
>> questions to gain more information and to get to the bottom of the
>> issue or problem. Share examples and experiences with mentoree. A
>> successful mentoring partnership must have a two-way
>> communication.Your role is to coach and guide.
>>
>> Give your mentoree a new way to look at a problem or additional
>> insight on a situation. Help lead that person to make his or her own
>> decisions; do not make decisions for the mentoree.
>>
>> Provide honest feedback on your mentoree’s strengths and weaknesses,
>> and be a sounding board for your mentoree. Having a trusted ally
>> enables your mentoree to share experiences, vent frustration, and seek
>> alternatives from someone who is there to help.
>>
>> Inspire your mentoree to action. Help your mentoree see opportunities
>> and viewpoints that will make his or her career dynamic.
>>
>> ******Becoming a mentoree — your responsibilities
>>
>> As a mentoree, there are some basic questions you’ll want to ask
>> yourself to see if you are, in fact, ready to consult with a mentor.
>>
>> Ask yourself the following questions:
>>> Are my mentoring goals clearly defined?
>>> Am I willing to take directions?
>>> Am I good at accepting help?
>>> Do I know how to follow directions?
>>> Am I grateful and quick to say thanks?
>>> Am I willing to speak up when necessary?
>>> Am I willing to ask for help?
>>> Do I believe in myself and have a lot to offer a mentor?
>>> Do I follow through with assignments?
>>
>> If you answered ”Yes” to most of these questions, you are a good
>> candidate for the Mentoring Program. The next step is to determine
>> what you want to get out of the mentor/mentoree partnership. Do you
>> need advice on a current problem or are you looking for a longer term
>> relationship for ongoing career guidance? The type of mentor you are
>> matched with will be different based on your goals for the
>> relationship.
>>
>> It’s important, also, to understand what the mentoring program does
>> not do. It is not an internship program. Mentors are not obligated,
>> and often not focused on, collaborating with mentoree on projects.
>> Mentors also do not typically provide tools training. There are
>> training courses for that. The mentoring program tries to meet the
>> needs that formal training courses generally are not able to.
>>
>> If you are confused about whether the mentoring program is a good
>> match for you needs, please contact Ramesh
>> Aiyyangar to discuss your needs.
>>
>> ******Why should I be involved?
>>
>> For new technical writers, the benefits include the following:
>>> a chance to examine the field of technical writing
>>> a better idea of how to transfer your current skills as well as what skills you will need to acquire
>>> processes of technical writing
>>> networking contacts… and friendship
>>> advice and guidance from a more experienced writer
>>
>> For mentors, the benefits include the following:
>>> an opportunity to assist others
>>> networking contacts that could potentially lead to discovering new staff members… and friends
>>> a chance to examine your current role and profession
>>> exposure to fresh ideas about technical writing
>>
>> ******Registration
>>
>> If you are interested in being a mentor, please fill out the attached form.
>>
>> If you are interested in becoming a mentoree, please contact Ramesh
>> Aiyyangar
>>
>> For information about the mentoring program, email Ramesh Aiyyangar.
>>
>> Thanks and regards,
>> -Ramesh
>>
>> –
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ”STC India” group.
>> To post to this group, send email to stcindia@googlegroups.com.
>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to stcindia+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
>> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/stcindia?hl=en.
>>
>
>

Technical Communication Metrics: What Should You Track?

In 2004, when I returned from a teaching stint in Egypt and began working as a copywriter for a health company in Clearwater, Florida, my manager insisted that I track something related to my writing. We decided that I would track word count, because this was the easiest thing to track.

Each week, I graphed the number of words I published, and during a weekly meeting, I held up my graph. If the number decreased for the week, I formatted the arrow red. If it increased, I formatted the arrow black.

My graphs regularly alternated between black and red arrows, and I found the whole exercise somewhat amusing and ridiculous. But I went along with it, because everyone was tracking something. We all had to create these little charts that we held up in weekly status report meetings.

Despite my cavalier attitude toward this word count tracking, I can tell you that I wrote more words than my manager could process by far. After working there several months, I had built up such a mountain of content — press releases, radio pitches, product descriptions, newsletter articles, pamphlets, e-mail campaigns — that my output was undeniable in size. I do think that holding up the silly little graphs each week had some impact on my determination to write.

Lately I have been trying to figure out the right metrics for my role as a technical writer. A lot has been written about metrics and technical communication. Many technical writers have struggled to define meaningful metrics, either because of a requirement imposed by managers or otherwise. One of the most common goals with metrics is to connect writing activities to financial figures, since this allows technical writers to establish value in a quantitative way that speaks to senior leaders.

http://idratherbewriting.com/2012/03/02/technical-communication-metrics-what-should-you-track/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TomJohnson+%28I%27d+Rather+Be+Writing%29

© 2011 I’d Rather Be Writing

Guest Post: Wikis Are the Future of Technical Documentation

Mick Davidson
———
The following is a guest post by Mick Davidson, a technical writer with 20 years of professional writing experience.
————-
Before I get started I’d like to thank Tom for giving me this opportunity to bang on about why I think wikis are the future for technical documentation.

Like many writers, up to a few years ago I was plodding around using backwoods technology, stuck with systems that had once been great but now begged to be retired. From a personal angle, I felt I was stuck with dull tools, tools that were not joined up, couldn’t talk to each other, and excited me not one jot.

Then in through the window came the wiki — and everything changed. Now, three years on and two wikis later, I am 100% convinced they are going to be one of biggest and best documentation tools we have. In short: revolutionary.

There are perhaps four reasons for this:

http://idratherbewriting.com/2012/03/20/guest-post-wikis-are-the-future-of-technical-documentation/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TomJohnson+%28I%27d+Rather+Be+Writing%29

FINAL CALL FOR REGISTRATION

***********************
MITWA(Mentors, Indexers, Technical Writers & Associates) announces
LIVE YAHOO CHAT CONFERENCE WITH RAJEEV JAIN
***********************

TOPIC – Managing Key Stakeholders
————-
Interacting with the key stakeholders is one of the key responsibilities
of a technical Writer. You have to provide various reports and pieces
of information based on the stakeholder’s needs. This requires a lot of
work in the background – in terms of collating data, analysing the data,
translating the data into meaningful information. The information needs to be
presented in a way that the desired outcomes are achieved. This may mean you
need to be straight-forward or diplomatic at times.

Hence, interacting with key stakeholders is a challenge, and fun too,
since you learn a lot during this process.

This session will provide tips on how to deal with key stakeholders,

and meet their expectations. Rajeev will be sharing his experiences
during the session while focusing on the following points:

- Who are the key stakeholders?
- How to manage when things go wrong?
- What all can go wrong?
- Importance of communication and escalation.

- How to ensure KSHs are involved?

- Best Practices (Tips)

After a brief introduction about Managing KSHs, Rajeev will answer
questions related to this topic.
————-

DATE & TIME – Friday – July 30, 5.00PM – 6.00PM.
———-

REGISTRATION – FREE and OPEN to all. REGISTER NOW.
———-

SPEAKER – RAJEEV JAIN
Rajeev is a published author with more than seventeen years of
experience in IT field. He has managed teams spread across continents and
geographies He has presented papers in STC annual conferences of 2009, 2006, and
2004 along with many regional STC and MITWA events. He is working with
Agilent Technologies as Expert Technical Writer. He is actively involved in
promoting Technical Writing course in many Universities and Institutes.

He alsomoderates the yahoo group APIWriters:-
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/APIWriters
You can write to Rajeev at: <<rajeevjain72@gmail.com
Blog: http://api-writing.blogspot.com/
Linkedin Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rajeevjain72
———-

HOW DO I REGISTER?
———

1. Send a email to Ramesh Aiyyangar

———-

HOW DO I JOIN THE CHAT CONFERENCE?
———–

1. You must have an Yahoo id and access to Yahoo Messenger(preferably
the latest version, though not mandatory).

2. Add Ramesh’s id (ram_aiyy) to your Yahoo Messenger list.

3. Ramesh will send an invite and add you to the chat conference.

4. In case of any queries or difficulty in joining the chat
conference, please send an email to:
——————

NOTE: Please be ONLINE by 4.45PM to avoid any last minute delay.
————

–
Regards,
Ramesh Aiyyangar

Adding Customer Partnering to your Information-Development Portfolio
http://www.infomanagementcenter.com/members/pdfs/BP09-12JHackos.pdf

Ramesh Aiyyangar Why Is Business Writing So Awful?

Nearly every company relies on the written word to woo customers. So why is most business writing so numbingly banal?
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20100501/why-is-business-writing-so-awful.html

On behalf of the STC Mgmt SIG, Rajeev Jain had conducted a session
on Managing Key Stakeholders recently. He will be conducting a similar
session at MITWA. Those who could not attend the earlier session can
attend the same. The details are as follows:
***********************
MITWA(Mentors, Indexers, Technical Writers & Associates) announces
LIVE YAHOO CHAT CONFERENCE WITH RAJEEV JAIN
***********************

TOPIC – Managing Key Stakeholders
————-
Interacting with the key stakeholders is one of the key responsibilities
of a technical Writer. You have to provide various reports and pieces of
information based on the stakeholder’s needs. This requires a lot of work
in the background – in terms of collating data, analysing the data, translating
the data into meaningful information. The information needs to be presented
in a way that the desired outcomes are achieved. This may mean you need
to be straight-forward or diplomatic at times.

Hence, interacting with key stakeholders is a challenge, and fun too,
since you learn a lot during this process.

This session will provide tips on how to deal with key stakeholders,

and meet their expectations. Rajeev will be sharing his experiences during
the session while focusing on the following points:

- Who are the key stakeholders?
- How to manage when things go wrong?
- What all can go wrong?
- Importance of communication and escalation.

- How to ensure KSHs are involved?

- Best Practices (Tips)

After a brief introduction about Managing KSHs, Rajeev will answer
questions related to this topic.
————-

DATE & TIME – Friday – July 30, 5.00PM – 6.00PM.
———-

REGISTRATION – FREE and OPEN to all. REGISTER NOW.
———-

SPEAKER – RAJEEV JAIN
Rajeev is a published author with more than seventeen years of experience
in IT field. He has managed teams spread across continents and geographies.
He has presented papers in STC annual conferences of 2009, 2006, and 2004
along with many regional STC and MITWA events. He is working with Agilent
Technologies as Expert Technical Writer. He is actively involved in promoting
Technical Writing course in many Universities and Institutes. He also moderates
the yahoo group APIWriters:- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/APIWriters

You can write to Rajeev at: <<rajeevjain72@gmail.com
Blog: http://api-writing.blogspot.com/
Linkedin Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rajeevjain72
———-

HOW DO I REGISTER?
———

1. Send a email to Ramesh Aiyyangar

———-

HOW DO I JOIN THE CHAT CONFERENCE?
———–

1. You must have an Yahoo id and access to Yahoo Messenger(preferably
the latest version, though not mandatory).

2. Add Ramesh’s id (ram_aiyy) to your Yahoo Messenger list.

3. Ramesh will send an invite and add you to the chat conference.

4. In case of any queries or difficulty in joining the chat
conference, please send an email to:
——————

NOTE: Please be ONLINE by 4.45PM to avoid any last minute delay.
————

–
Regards,
Ramesh Aiyyangar

*******************************************************************************
STC India Workshop at Pune: Introduction to Author-it
*******************************************************************************
****Presenters: Mark Trotter and Makarand Pandit

This is a practical one-day workshop, aimed at technical writers, that
will teach you the skills required to start using the Author-it
enterprise authoring platform competently.

Mark Trotter is the Managing Director of Author-it’s newest office in
Dubai. Mark has been involved with Author-it since 1999, and has used
it for and managed it in various applications. He is an experienced
Author-it trainer and consultant. Mark brings a wealth of knowledge to
the Author-it community in the region and has recently completed a
Graduate Diploma in Information Design. He is passionate about the
information management field and feels that education is a life-long
pursuit.

Makarand (Mak) Pandit is the managing director and chief executive
officer of Technowrites Pvt. Ltd.(India). He has conducted corporate
training for clients in India, Singapore, UAE, and Malaysia. Mak also
works as a visiting faculty with leading institutions and
Universities. As a trainer, Mak has experience of more than 8000
training hours and is an award-winning speaker. He has more than 17
years experience in Technical Communication, and has completed more
than 200 projects for more than 70 clients globally. Mak was the owner
of Technical Writers of India mailing list http://www.twin-india.org for six
years. He is also a senior member of Society for Technical
Communication, and a founder member of STC India Chapter. Mak has
served STC India chapter in various positions (including Chapter
President in 2005). Mak completed his graduation in Electronics
Engineering and Post Graduation in Marketing Management.

In this workshop, Mark and Mak will introduce you to Authorit, and
help you understand how to author, manage, publish and deliver
documentation.using Authorit.
For more details about the workshop, see the section ’Agenda’ below.
_____________________________________________________

When? Saturday, June 19, 2010

Where? Hotel Deccan Royale, Next to Woodland Showroom, Near Sambhaji
Park, J M Road, Deccan Gymkhana, Pune – 411 004 Phone: 97665 93586
(Mahendar) 020 4102 4000 (Desk)

Time? 9:00 am – 6:00 pm

Cost? FREE. Registrations are limited to 55 seats ONLY.

Instructions: Please get your laptop with you so that the evaluation
copy of Author-it can be installed on it, and you can work on it.

Benefit: All participants will be given a Certificate of Participation
from Author-it

Registrations: To register, write to Ramesh Aiyyangar at
or call at: 09730172644

*****************************************************************************
****AGENDA
*****************************************************************************
INTRODUCTION
*****************************************************************************
WELCOME: Introduction of participants & Networking
*****************************************************************************
TEA BREAK
*****************************************************************************
****PART 1
1. Overview of the workshop (Mak)
2. Overview of Content Management (Mark)
3. Introducing Author-it and Important Concepts (Mak)
4. Installing Author-it on participant machines (Mak)
*****************************************************************************
LUNCH BREAK
*****************************************************************************
****PART 2
5. Concept of Books & their Use (Mak)
– Book Properties
– Book Characteristics
[Hands-on Exercise: Getting Started with Author-it]

6. Objects the Powerhouse of Author-it (Mak)
– Content Objects
– Book Objects
– Content Definition Objects
– Special Use Objects
[Hands-on Exercise: Using Content Objects]

7. Working with Topic Objects (Mak)
– Concept of Topic
– Characteristics of Topics
– Topic and the re-usable unit
– Book Objects
[Hands-on Exercise: Creating Topics with Content]

*****************************************************************************
TEA BREAK
*****************************************************************************
****PART 3
8. Special Objects (Mak)
[Hands-on Exercise: Using Table of Contents, Index]

9. Templates and Media Objects (Mak)
[Hands-on Exercise: Using existing Templates]

10. Reuse and Conditionality (Mak and Mark)
[Hands-on Exercise: Generating different outputs from same source,
studying what you got]

11. Structured Authoring (Mak and Mark)
· Advantages
· How it is implemented in Author-it
[Hands-on Exercise: Structured Author-it in practice]

12. Importing Objects (Mak)
– The import engine
– How the process works
[Hands-on Exercise: Import a Word document]

*****************************************************************************
CONCLUSION
*****************************************************************************

Regards,
- Ramesh Aiyyangar

Trends in technical communication 2010

Tech writers will branch out into related organizational and technological functions, according to the transcontinental webinar on “Technical Commmunication Trends for 2010 and Beyond“.

Sarah O’Keefe from Scriptorium, Ellis Pratt from Cherryleaf and Tony Self from HyperWrite gathered around a virtual crystal ball and shared six trends they’ve indentified.

I’ll summarize and comment on two of the trends that have resonated with me. The recording and slides are available on the web, so be sure to check out all six trends

http://kaiweber.wordpress.com/2010/05/24/trends-in-technical-communication-2010/

(1-Yr Archive) New Writing Methodologies
Posted by Julie Norris on May 21, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Tech writing is changing, has changed, and the old ways won’t work any longer. Many of my posts over the past year address those considerations. Here they are.

http://www.2morodocs.com/2010/05/1-yr-archive-new-writing-methodologies/

1-Yr Archive) The Future: Doc Management
Posted by Julie Norris on May 21, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Yes, everything has changed. These posts relate more to documentation planning and management, and ways to keep up with changes.

http://www.2morodocs.com/2010/05/1-yr-archive-the-future-doc-management/

The Magic of Touchscreens and HTML5
Posted by Julie Norris on May 26, 2010 · 1 Comment

This grabbed me yesterday. The info I want to discuss is longer than a tweet, shorter than a regular blog post, but I just have to get this out until I can start testing it. So – here’s an interim thought. Just can’t drop everything to think about this at the moment. If nothing else, be sure and review the two videos mentioned below.

Touchscreens + HTML5 + audio/video = new docs?

http://www.2morodocs.com/2010/05/the-magic-of-touchscreens-and-html5/