10-minute Tech Comm

In honor of the holiday spirit of making the world a better place, Dr. Natasha Jones shares insight from her recent article "The Technical Communicator as Advocate: Integrating a Social Justice Approach in Technical Communication." Plus, technical communicators share their New Year's Resolutions!

Dr. Tammy Rice-Bailey discusses findings from her new article "The Role and Value of Technical Communicators: Technical Communicators and Subject Matter Experts Weigh In," published recently in Technical Communication Quarterly. She explains how subject matter experts (SMEs) and technical communicators perceive the technical communicator's role, and she offers advice for technical communicators wanting to build relationships with SMEs.

Eric Shepherd, senior technical writer at Mozilla corporation, talks about his mission to document the entire web and invites you to join a Mozilla meeting.

Dr. Barbara Reynolds talks about developing a communication strategy for the mosquito-borne virus Zika. Dr. Reynolds is a Senior Advisor at the Centers for Disease Control on Crisis and Risk Communication and author of the book Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication.

Jennifer Morse, a product evangelist for MadCap software, defines topic-based authoring and helps technical communicators get started with this approach.

A discussion with two scholars of medical rhetoric. Dr. Lisa Meloncon analyzes websites available for adolescent boys with depression and Dr. Amy Reed discusses competing pamphlets about Down Syndrome given to expectant parents.

Dr. Leah Ceccarelli from the University of Washington discusses her recent article, Scientific ethos and the cinematic zombie outbreak: Science in fictional narratives, which analyzes how scientists are portrayed in World War Z, I Am Legend, and 28 Days Later.

Kristin Cantrell, a Technical Writer II at Southwest Airlines, talk about getting into tech comm, developing the skills a technical writer needs, and getting FAA approval.

Tom Johnson of idratherbewriting.com talks about writing API documentation for developers.

Jonathan Saunders, technical writer at Uber, discusses his career and upcoming trends in technical communication.

Katherine Spivey discusses the law and techniques of Plain Language. Spivey serves as the General Services Administration’s Plain Language Launcher, coordinating GSA’s plain language program. She is also co-chair of the Plain Language Action and Information Network (PLAIN) and teaches plain language courses for Digital Gov University and numerous federal agencies.

A supersized holiday variety special featuring Edward Smyda-Homa talking toy instructions and tech comm, Dr. Keith Botner giving evidence-based strategies for improving charitable giving, and special guest technical communicators sharing their New Year's resolutions!

Dr. Miriam F. Williams, co editor of Communicating Race, Ethnicity, and Identity in Technical Communication, discusses the impact of race and ethnicity on user experience.

Dr. Felicia Chong of Oakland University talks about how user-generated beauty tutorials function as effective technical communication.

Liz Fraley of single-sourcing.com talks about how companies can successfully make the shift to single sourcing.

Dr. Carolyn Boiarsky, Professor of English at Purdue University Calumet, discusses her research into the emails preceding the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Daniel Mann, content specialist at Facebook, talks about his work improving user experience and proves that a real human being at Facebook actually reads user feedback.

Vinish Garg, a technical communicator and content specialist from the digital agency vhite, talks about the role of storytelling in technical communication and the unique content needs of startups.

Dr. Guiseppe Getto and Dr. Kirk St. Amant discuss their recent article "Designing Globally, Working Locally: Using Personas to Develop Online CommunicationProducts for International Users."

Maxwell Hoffman, Technical Communication Evangelist for Adobe Systems, talks about his work and the latest trends in tech comm.