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by Douglas Dow
I begin my second season as steward of Technically Write, truly one of the most unique STC newsletters on the Internet, cognizant of the advantages of electronic delivery, as well as of the limitations.
People have had a difficult time, in some cases, viewing what is admittedly a help file format as a newsletter. Some areas have been hard to find. The Archives, once buried under About Technically Write, has been re labelled "Past Issues" and placed at the top level. In general, I've placed more contents at the top level, and will do so until the Contents becomes unwieldy.
I have done little, alas, to make the appearance more inviting. Lack of staff and of my own personal time is the reason. It is quite a challenge, given that the software, in line with single-sourcing principles, is designed to limit creativity. I do admire many of the HTML-based STC newsletters out there, colorful, well-designed, and informative. For design, the PDF-based newsletters out there are top notch, but many of them have size limitations that constrain the content. Others that are more ambitious take two months to produce.
Producing Technically Write the way we do, we have the advantage of timeliness and bottomlessness. Some of this month's content was written just hours before posting, and we never have to edit for sizing constraints. (That does not give authors an excuse to become wordy. Brevity is an Internet virtue, just as it is with your technical content.)
Still, some people miss the old snail mail hard copy. As one attendee at the 49th convention in Nashville lamented, "When it arrived in the mail, I just had to open it and read it. Now [with electronic notification], I have to go out there and get it." Well, all we can do is to hope it's worth the effort. That's why we include more photos, and now, videos, than any other newsletter in STC-land.
Technical Writer Tune
The Tune is still with us, based on the old Lennon/McCartney hit. THIS WILL BE SUNG at the jam session during the 50th STC convention here in Dallas, so get your lyrics in! Here's the original spiel:
Technical Writer, TECHNICAL WRITER
Some of you may be familiar with the Lennon/McCartney tune, Paperback Writer. If not, several websites can aquaint you with the words. One is Beatlelyrics.com. This project, which will last until we can't stand it anymore, will reward a lucky (and skillful) entrant with the elusive Barnes & Noble gift card.
Your task is to write parody lyrics to that tune, substituting "technical writer" for "paperback writer." Lyrics must conform exactly to the tune. Acceptable entries will be appended to the Technical Writer Tune page each month, attributed to the entrant. At some time I'll call a halt to entries and solicit readers as to their vote for the most clever entry.
This kind of project may have been done in the past, but it's a new century. So many new things to mock!
Submit entries to the editor, or to Doug Dow. Enter as many times as you like. Good luck!