After many years of blogging, and consistent with my desire to move toward retirement, we have ended the Insights blog. Thanks to Doug Bedell for his years of blog support.

Technical Writers Connect With Needs, Solutions

Posted on November 9, 2015
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Technical writers, you’ll be pleased to know, aren’t just scribblers. In their full professional regalia, they’re connectors, too. That’s a point made by Bart D. Leahy on his Heroic Technical Writing blog, which, by the way, has a Superman header. (After all, Clark Kent was a reporter.)

On their rounds, technical writers spot needs or frequently will be introduced to people with special abilities. If they take note of the skills of such specialists, they’ll be in a position to connect them to someone who, further along the way, might be able to consult with them.

Leahy notes that Malcolm Gladwell describes such linkups in his book, The Tipping Point. “Connectors,” says Gladwell, “are the people in a community who know large numbers of people and who are in the habit of making introductions. A connector is essentially the social equivalent of a computer network hub…”

Yes, technical writers often find themselves at the heart of the action. They need to sort through what’s occurring and, in that guise, might well make recommendations on how to improve the situation. In such instances, previously established contacts and accumulated insights are among their assets.

If not supermen, technical writers are knowledge hubs as well as scribes. “If you know what types of things other people know,” Leahy points out, “you can leverage that network when you have a question about certain topics. Or, conversely, if you find something of interest to someone who has particular interests, you can connect them with something or someone of interest to them later.”

So, technical writers are like circuit riders, or knowledge carriers. Don’t ever view them, the likes of Encore’s Dennis Owen, as drudges. That could cost you contacts and solutions. – Doug Bedell

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Purdue’s Online Lab: A Good Place to Approach Technical Writing

Posted on October 26, 2015
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Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab (OWL) provides virtually an online course in technical writing, free of any “charge” except for rapt attention. “These OWL resources,” says the site, “will help you conduct research and compose documents for the workplace, such as memoranda and business letters. This section also includes resources for writing report and scientific abstracts – pretty close to the definition of technical writing.

This isn’t to say, of course, that simply by scanning Purdue’s online materials you’ll become a practiced technical writer. Practice itself, preceded by an aim and sense of purpose and audience, is virtually the key to effective technical writing. But since technical writing is also orderly writing, Purdue’s Writing Lab, it appears, can be of great start-up help.

Founded as a land-grant college, Purdue evolved into a collegiate powerhouse, and not just in football. In 1891, it “acquired a working railroad engine to mount in a newly established locomotive laboratory. It was one more step in the development of Purdue as one of the world’s leaders in engineering teaching and research.”

So spend some time at Purdue’s Online Writing Lab. There’s a proud academic tradition behind it, a polished working-level, technically astute view of the world. On Boilermakers! – Doug Bedell

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Information (Most of It Anyway) Is For Sharing

Posted on October 8, 2015
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This needn’t be long and won’t be. But there’s a post on a blog called “Customers and Content, Ideas and opinions about customer-focused documentation” that deserves both comment and assent. The blogger, Neal Kaplan, a San Francisco Bay area technologist, is bothered by employees who hoard information, thereby withholding it from colleagues. Unintentionally and unwittingly, maybe, but they do it, and it’s wrong.

“Information gets locked in the heads of professional services, customer support, QA, sales…” when it may have much wider organizational pertinence.When it’s not shared, what ought to be a common effort is hobbled, sometimes drastically so.

“Customer support will have a knowledge base in their support tool, professional services will have a wiki, marketing will use Slack, but there’s no central repository of corporate knowledge,” Kaplan writes. “Every team has their own knowledge base, but they might not be shared with other teams. They might not know that the other knowledge bases exist, which is why they created one in the first place.”

Teams? These aren’t teams, they’re groups of “athletes” who don’t share what ought to be common signals. Organizationally, do you think they’re scoring as effectively as they could be?

Somehow, what should be obvious, isn’t always so in organizations. Technical writers are apt to recognize information impasses sooner than others because they often poke around among departments looking for threads of a common problem.

Some material with personal or proprietary significance, of course, may not be appropriate for sharing, but that’s not what were’s talking about here. Information of enterprise-wide operational significance is what we’re concerned about.

So, share, guys share! Your organization, which represents, doesn’t it, your own future, requires it. And by the way, Neal Kaplan ought to give himself a byline on his own site. He’s got a photo posted, but you have to go to “About Me,” and then “How to contact me” and find that his email address is “nealbkaplan@gmail.com” or his Twitter handle, “nealkaplan”, to find him out. Not that he’s hiding his identity, presumably. – Doug Bedell

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As the World Turns, So Does Our ‘Beat’

Posted on September 29, 2015
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A technical writer named Rebecca muses on the web about her choices of employment – and her freedom to make them. That, as we know, is one of the benefits of being a “lone wolf” technical writer.

“My long-term goal in becoming a technical communicator,” Rebecca writes, “is to be an outsourced employee, but without a larger ‘umbrella’ company sending me my W-2’s each year. I want to dictate the companies I work for and have some control over the projects I accept. I am comfortable putting on that ‘company’s uniform’ for a temporary time and then moving on.”

Rebecca quotes R. Stanley Dicks in Digital Literacy for Technical Communication: “Many more technical communicators will be officially unemployed but constantly working. They will be following the consulting/temp agency model that already characterizes the work of many communicators.”

Speaking for herself, Rebecca adds that “I am hoping to open a fortune cookie with just that prediction for my future: “You will soon find yourself unemployed, but always working.”

That’s not a paradox, it’s the work of a consultant, which many technical writers, including Encore’s Dennis Owen, actually are. Their roles are well-suited to an increasingly digital economy in a continuing state of emergence.

Dennis has been something of a pioneer in technical consulting, working in jobs where he’s been needed and can make important contributions, but not working these past few decades in a job. And the varied experiences he has had as a result have been invaluable.

Rebecca expresses something of the same sense of fulfillment: “The technical writing program I was set to enter was very solid and respected. But in 2001, it wasn’t very focused on digital media. Within a few short years, their ‘technical writing’ program became their ‘Technical Communications’ program. It was completely revamped several times over the next few years, as they slowly began to focus the program more on the emerging use of technology.

“Had I enrolled back in 2001,” Rebecca adds, “I would have been ‘getting to the party a little too early’.”

So roll with the opportunities as they arise in a steadily changing world. Like anyone else, actually, that’s what observant technical writers ought to be mindful of in these challenging times. It’s sort of like a newsman’s ‘beat’. – Doug Bedell

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When to Pause to ‘Get It Down’?

Posted on September 18, 2015
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Jim Grey on his Stories From the Software Salt Mines site makes a clearcut distinction that’s worth stamping into one’s awareness: “Personal computers are for content creators; mobile devices are for content consumers.” Or, creators – think desktop; consumers – think mobile.

Makes pretty obvious sense – up to a point that seems to be approaching with increasing speed. The continuing development of iPads and other mobile devices tempts us to use them for creating content, not just reading or viewing it. (Apple says that, come November, its newest iPad will have an external keyboard available.)

Technical writers likely are paying increasing attention to these distinctions, or to their increasing tendency to blur together. It would be nice to create serviceable copy wherever you have the ability to pause a bit, not only at your desktop, but, say, in the park. Your insights might well be sharper and your writing fresher. Using a mobile device is like having your brain more readily at hand, providing your fingers have ready access to what you’re thinking.

Mobile devices as “mere” displays allow us to take advantage of idle time. Jim Grey notes that “an Internet device in our pocket lets us pleasantly wile away the minutes we spend waiting — in doctors’ waiting rooms, before meetings begin, in the john.” But he’s not going to start blog posting on his phone.

Unless, we’d venture, Jim or any of us finds ourselves in a situation where it would be advantageous to get our thoughts down coherently because they’re especially important to us or maybe to others.

You see what’s happening here? The modes of expression are tending to merge with the availabilty of technology that can help that happen. Reflections that used to be random meditations can now be recorded musings – if and when we feel they’re significant enough. This can help make us more observant, as well as more reflective, and that’s all to the good, most of the time.

Remember the title of Jim Grey’s blog – “Stories from the Software Salt Mines.” We don’t want to feel that we’re living in a salt mine, just that we have the ability to use a mental pick and shovel when they’re occasionally advisable – for the record, say. Maybe we’d even get more sleep some nights. – Doug Bedell

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Progress Promptings From a Roller Coaster

Posted on August 31, 2015
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One of the truly liberating aspects of a talent like technical writing is the ability to function with minimal support and oversight. That’s the setting you’re likely to find at a start-up company, so don’t overlook the advantages of working for a beckoning startup.

Tom Johnson, of I’d Rather Be Writing, asks: “What qualities should technical writers have to work at startups?” He answers by listing: Technical aptitude, Independence and leadership, Content strategy skills, Versatility and Stability.

Stability? Aside from coming to work each day at an agreed time, what’s that mean in terms of successful technical writing?

“To ride the roller coaster of a startup,” Tom explains, “you need to have stability in your career, knowing that if your job dries up you can find another, or that you have savings to cover a period of unemployment during the transition, or that you can handle any changes and continue with the company, perhaps in another role entirely (e.g., support or training manager).”

Actually, as we discovered at a trip to our local, continually-evolving amusement park recently, the roller coaster was among the milder of the thrill rides. You’ve got to be prepared for anything that fate or fortune throw at you these days.

Underlying ability, interest and fortitude still contribute the most to your ability to keep your seat when things get turbulent which, at some point, they most likely will. Close your eyes (for a moment), hold on, circulate, observe and write well. Keep your hands on the car, not up in the air, as the non-achievers tend to do.

Okay, they’re just doing that out of exuberance (or maybe in defiance of fear). But it’s not exuberance that keeps you safely employed at today’s workplaces, or on behalf of today’s clients. It’s ability, vision and diligence. – Doug Bedell

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A Ballerina’s Take on Her Technically Demanding Craft

Posted on August 17, 2015
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Technical writing comes in many forms, dance being one of them. There, good technical writing – instruction in ballet moves, for example – can be life-changing. Beth Bluett de Baudistel, a long-time Australian ballerina and dance teacher, reminisces about her international career in the Sunshine Coast Daily in Queensland.

As an 18-year-old ballet soloist, Beth would would write evenings in her diary, half a world away from her family, “all the amazing technical concepts I had been learning. Little did I know that this would be the foundation of writing a dance curriculum like no other.

“Exercises based on how a student could sense the centrelink of the body from quite a young age – it had never been documented.”

Her dance curriculum was rated a success “because it is giving the world of dance a way to train with excellence without the propensity to injury that other methods have.

“Innovative ideas come in seed form, and seeds have to be nurtured to grow,” Beth says.

“I like the phrase ‘do not discount small beginnings’.

“If you feel it is worthwhile, keep at it.”

These are words befitting the experience of technical writers in all sorts of arenas. They’re born of experience and close attention to detail with the enthusiasm of a participant observer who wants to share with others how to do something challenging safely.

Beth Bluett de Baudistel reminds us that conveying any complex information can properly be called technical writing if it is done to teach and inform. – Doug Bedell

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Keep the Insights Churning

Posted on July 30, 2015
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Technical writers may not realize it, or always act on it, but they’re positioned to know a lot about their organizations, more, perhaps, than most of their colleagues. That’s because they’ve traveled their reaches looking for what we might call linking insights, and have mulled over those they’ve received.

Craig Haiss on his HelpScribe blog is good at paying heed (and minding his manners) on his technical writing rounds.

“There are ways,” he writes, “to infiltrate the minds of your coworkers and make an indelible impression of your worth. But you have to make a proactive effort.”

“Don’t let the routine lull you into an apathetic state,” Craig urges. “You job is not about what happens to you. You can meet your deadlines and still find ways to meet other key players in your business. Look for projects outside of your department that could benefit from you technology and communication skills.”

They you have it: Not everybody, far from everybody, in fact, has both technology and communication skills. Treasure what you’ve acquired, along with the instincts you were born with. If you’re not learning, you’re likely wasting the time you’re spending on your daily rounds.

Or maybe, by organizational fate or mistaken fiat, other departments are working on the same things you are. Should you note that, do something about it. “Payroll is pricey. Tools are pricey,” Craig notes. “When two or more people are documenting the same process with different tools, your company is losing money.”

That’s the style of an activist writer, not a mere transcriber of observations made on fitful rounds.

“Only you can help others realize how valuable an asset you are,” Craig notes. That’s true, but you have to act like an asset – by making connections others may be missing, and by noting needs and issues that may have been overlooked.

Yes, a technical writer functions, or should, in the mode of what the newspapers used to call a beat reporter. Newspapers are fading now, unfortunately. Don’t let that be the fate of your technical beat. Your organization can’t afford it, nor can you. – Doug Bedell

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Metering Energy Efficiency

Posted on July 9, 2015
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There’s a thoughtful article on energy efficiency – how to achieve and measure it, especially in households – on MIT’s Technology Review site. This post isn’t intended fully to resolve this important question, but to note MIT’s helpful information on it.

First off, American industries, as contrasted with homes, “have done a good job of becoming more (energy) efficient.” That’s not, of course, because homeowners and renters are perverse about energy savings, but that achieving them in significant volume is harder to do in households. So “overall energy consumption by households has continued to rise, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.”

Sentiments have sharpened since a study on weatherization assistance in Michigan households was released in June. Based on 30,000 households participating in the federal Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), it showed that “The costs to deploy the efficiency upgrades were about double the energy savings.”

Gee, households are hopeless. Not really – “There’s plenty of counter-evidence,” the MIT review notes. Marshaling it is challenging, though. You need to measure “actual savings at the electricity meter.”

That’s what California is attempting to do: “Using data from electricity meters to track actual savings and adjust projections to match performance.” The state’s CalTRACK program is “using data from electricity meters to track actual savings and adjust projections to match performance. It’s “supported by environmental groups and utilities such as Pacific Gas & Electric and is based on the Open Energy Efficiency Meter, “a technology standard designed to help businesses, homeowners, utilities, and regulators reliably calculate the savings from energy efficiency projects.”

Monitoring energy use is challenging and MIT provides several links to source materials on the issues and prospects involved. They’re definitely worth pursuing by anyone seriously interested in energy efficiency, and we’re pleased to provide this lead into the matter. Metering’s the method, it appears. – Doug Bedell

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Dr. Quick’s Knowledge Reaped World Harvests

Posted on June 24, 2015
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The vast range of human technical ingenuity is brought home, sadly, by the death of Dr. Graeme Ross Quick, an Australian whom most of us never heard of.

The Land, an Australian blog, advises that Dr. Quick “was an authority on harvesters, tractors and much more.” He died last month at the age of 79.

An authority on harvesters? Don’t they just grind across a field, bringing in a crop? Not if you’re a farmer they don’t. They’re highly specialized pieces of technical equipment.

What you come to know depends largely on where and how you’re raised, and what experiences and opportunities you’re exposed to. Dr. Quick was raised in Australia’s Victoria state and developed a fascination with farm equipment “on an uncle’s nearby farm where he helped stock sheaves and worked with a horse-drawn reaper and binder.”

Farm work “helped fund his studies for a University of Melbourne degree in mechanical engineering, also sparking a career-long interest in field equipment efficiency.” What you influence, thereby, is what you become increasingly attached to.

Graeme Quick and his wife, Marlene, moved with their three young boys to the U.S. in 1967, where he accepted an invitation to teach and study for a doctorate at Iowa State University. His later career took him to Norway, Canada, the Philippines (where he headed the International Rice Research Institute’s agricultural engineering division), and then to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). “His rice research and FAO projects,” the FarmOnLine writers add, “took him as far afield as Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Bhutan in the Himalayas.”

That all made him an international technical advisor in harvesting. Think how much of an increased yield resulted from his work! And he became the first Australian fellow of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers. Obviously, you don’t give accomplishments like these any thought if you’re not aware of them.

Finally, Dr. Quick received agricultural engineering’s highest recognition – the C.H. McCormick-J.L. Case gold medal “for meritorious contributions to the profession.”

How many such technically grounded men and women, largely unsung heroes and heroines of our times, do you know? Don’t you wish you knew more of them? Be alert to where they might be active in your field, and seek them out. In this Internet age, that’s becoming easier to do. You’ll grow together, harvesting wisdom. – Doug Bedell

Technical Writers Connect With Needs, Solutions

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Purdue’s Online Lab: A Good Place to Approach Technical Writing

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Information (Most of It Anyway) Is For Sharing

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As the World Turns, So Does Our ‘Beat’

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When to Pause to ‘Get It Down’?

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Progress Promptings From a Roller Coaster

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A Ballerina’s Take on Her Technically Demanding Craft

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Keep the Insights Churning

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Metering Energy Efficiency

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Dr. Quick’s Knowledge Reaped World Harvests

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