by Judith Harper

When (or if) you tell somebody that you’re a technical writer, do their eyes glaze over? Do they look at you quizzically and say, “So, what does that mean? Do you actually write ’Click here and press Enter’ all day long? What do you actually do?”

You can answer questions like that by articulating what STC Executive Director Susan Burton calls “your powerful story” about technical communication.

Believe it or not, you do have a powerful story. Your past and present professional activities have made and continue to make a difference. Your communication skills improve your company’s bottom line. Your manuals make the company’s products easier to use. Your safety guidelines save lives. Your procedures keep company officers out of jail. You have an impact.

Making a Difference

We all have stories. Here’s one:

To help us fix a not-very-good website, [this writer] came up with a website that is well organized, comprehensive and easy to use… much better. It can now be used by customers to research and understand the service offering AND it can used as an online “manual” for our service personnel. This site is the best example of this type of technical documentation resource that I’ve ever seen.

The story behind the story? Hours spent trying to:

• Unravel the convoluted workflow procedures that were kinda sorta in place
• Locate authoritative versions of forms and approval documents that had to be completed and filed
• Find answers to the unanswered questions that came up every time a customer tried to work with the service, and
• Organize all the customer-required information online in a clean, uncluttered, easily accessible format.

Having Unanticipated Consequences

At the STC-NEO (Northeast Ohio) regional conference held in Cleveland last month, Susan told a story of unanticipated consequences–a story about a 23-year-old beggar  whom she met on a trip to Africa. He regularly stationed himself on a rolling stool–his legs were useless as the result of a childhood bout with polio–on the street outside her hotel.

After striking up conversations with this young man, Susan discovered that his disabilities had not prevented him from finishing high school with the help of a sponsor and enrolling in college. He had  become a self-taught computer-literate student and soon-to-be college graduate. How? Simple. Contrary to popular wisdom, he DID read computer manuals and thereby opened previously closed doors. Technical communication enables people to improve themselves and the quaity of their lives.

What’s Your Story?

So what do I do? … in thirty seconds or less, I verify and streamline company procedures to make sure that employees can execute them and customers can understand them.

What about you? What are your powerful stories? Dredge them up, distill them into a paragraph or two, and send them to newsletter@stc-swo.org. We’ll publish them; they’re bound to be fascinating.

by Judy Harper  This year’s edition of Between the Lines has a new look that serves up several new benefits for members.

• Our new publication schedule–every month between September and May–will give you timely info about upcoming meetings and community activities, all in one place.
• Our new blog-like format makes it easy for you to express your opinions about any article in the newsletter, about community activities, about any techcomm-related topic you choose. Scroll to the bottom of any article and click the e-mail link at the bottom of each article, or complete the fields in the Leave a Comment area at the bottom of each article.
• If you want a printed copy of any newsletter article, click the Print link just below the article to display a print-ready page.

So you’ll know whom to thank (or complain to) regarding the newsletter, this is your introduction to this year’s Between the Lines staff.

Managing Editor

Judith Harper is an engineer and technical communicator who has spent the past 25 years writing about business, information technology, and engineering topics. She has also worked as an instructional designer and writing instructor. Her mission is to help technology-based organizations communicate effectively with their employees and customers by providing technical information that is targeted, clear, easy to read, and easy to understand.

Columnists

	Harold Fox (Calling all Verbivores) is a senior member and Associate Fellow of STC. He recommends retirement most heartily, and he is sorry you have missed the 18 community theater productions in which he has performed since retiring from the world of employment. Harold also logged many years of distinguished service as STC-SWO treasurer.
	Jean Fudge (President’s Message), president and interim webmaster of the SWO chapter of STC, works at Premier Health Partners (PHP) in Dayton, Ohio. Her team is implementing electronic medical record software at PHP’s hospitals and auxiliary locations. She has more than 20 years of experience in a wide variety of technical communication positions.

Contributing Editor

Lisa Carbaugh is the facilities manager for Universal 1 Credit Union in Dayton, Ohio. She has a varied technical research and publishing background, and it was not until 2004 that she was introduced to STC by a very enthusiastic STC-SWO member. Lisa is pursuing a BS degree in Management and Logistics from Park University.

Copyeditors

	Elizabeth Evans Fryer works as a science editor for a contractor for the US EPA. Her travel, health and fitness, and business writing has been published nationally. In 2005, she published her first book: My Lost Summer, a memoir about her recovery from a coma as a teen.
	Karen Stille has been employed for the past 12½ years at Communicating Arts Credit Union and also working a part-time job for the past 17 years in the concession stands or commissary at the stadiums and coliseum. She enjoys triathlons, tennis, and scrapbooking, as well as volunteering for Girl Scouts, hospital and KIDZ Character Club.