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Giving back to STC is fun and reaps enormous rewards. For the past five years, I have participated in the Lone Star Chapter Publications Competition as a technical publications judge. The experience has helped hone my skills as a copyeditor and writer. It has also given me an understanding of the different publications produced in different venues, which I may be writing for in the future. It is also interesting to see the formatting and style structure that other companies use, and to note the differences in individual writing styles, and word choices used to gain audience attention. Graphics and color selections are also fascinating to see.
I am honored to provide my technical communication expertise to this noble endeavor. Besides, it's a great time to network with STC and non-STC members. Over the past few years, I have met Gail Lippincott (our former PR person), Brooke Hessler (our former 2001-2002 2nd VP) and Dawn Lofgren. Dawn has become a good friend and supporter. This year, I had the fortune to serve as a team lead for Informational Materials and Training Manuals. I met two new faces, Paul Waschke from Metasolv and Barbara O'Toole. Barbara is an ASTD member who enlisted to help when the Chapter received more entries than expected.
It amazes me how much we learn from our peers. Every time I participate, I learn that we each look at different areas when we are judging. At this year's judging day, Barbara deemed me the copyediting queen. I read every page of each entry, checked the table of contents and index page references, checked all cross-references, looked at headers and footers, and even figures and tables including captions. Not a word escaped me. I even read the copyright notice looking for errors. You would be surprised how many people don't look at the finer details. Inconsistencies and grammatical errors abound in these composition elements. We all proofread differently and have different opinions on what is a good or bad entry. Yet, when it comes down to gaining consensus on an award level, it is interesting how we are willing to listen to each other's concerns and opinions, and then make a unified decision that we are all comfortable with.
The love of editing and judging had launched me into two years of judging for the International Technical Publications Competition (ITPC). My first year was spent as a judge over the telephone. It was an experience stretching me beyond my comfort zone. It got me out of the comfortable box of face-to-face to try something different. Being a telephone judge provides another interesting twist in meeting other technical communicators who share your passion. This last year, however, I served as an onsite judge and attended the Judging Day held in Houston where I met our current Region 5 Sponsor, Linda Oestreich. She served as the team lead for the Informational Materials category. She has an interesting look on life, serving in the STC on both a local and a national level. I wish we all had her passion!
I submitted my application form last week to serve as an onsite judge at the ITPC level. My service to the STC rewards me both personally and professionally. It takes only a few hours from my schedule, while increasing my knowledge in the field of technical communication. Sure we can gain more knowledge in our field by reading the wide array of published works of other technical writers, but think of how much more you can learn by reviewing your peers' works. Take the challenge: Participate as a judge!