Global Talk

As the STC conference approaches, you will be seeing more communication notices from the ITC Leadership Board. General information of ITC-based activities at the conference can be seen below by date.

INTERNATIONAL PAVILION (ITC AND GALA)
We are very excited about our main activity for the year: the International Pavilion, inside of the Exhibit Hall at the conference. We have nine sponsors this year, along with GALA and support from STC! During the conference, sponsors will have speakers talking at the Pavilion at various times along with other activities, like the Passport activity, detailed below.

PASSPORT ACTIVITY
ITC and GALA are sponsoring the Passport to International Technical Communication activity. With a grand prize of a $500 airline voucher, we hope that this activity will pull STC conference attendees to the International Pavilion to learn more about international tech comm while also pushing traffic to our sponsors in the Exhibit Hall. The Passport will be in every attendee conference bag, so there will be a good amount of exposure for the Pavilion, ITC, GALA, and international tech comm overall.

PAVILION HOSTS NEEDED
The International Pavilion could use some help in staffing the hours open.
Pavilion hosts are asked to:
–arrive at the time committed
–greet passers-by with info about ITC, GALA, and the Pavilion Passport Activity
–announce any sponsor speakers that may be presenting during your shift

Pavilion hosts will not:
–be speakers themselves (unless they are with a Pavilion sponsor). We are only looking for hosts to be a presence in the International Pavilion. There is no prep needed.
–have to do any clean up.
–leave the Pavilion unattended (we will have some expensive equipment there…).

If you are interested, please email Traci Nathans-Kelly (ITC manager) . For the most part, we need Pavilion hosts during Monday and Tuesday from 9am to 4pm, usually in half hour or 1hour shifts. You are welcome to pair up with a friend!

We also try to have ITC folks identify themselves as possible language translators for any conference attendees that may need additional support. We provide buttons to ITC members that they can wear on their conference badges that identify them as a translator. If you are interested, again, please let me know by May 5, 2008.

OTHER WAYS TO VOLUNTEER
We would love to be able to provide to ITC members a targeted list of session that may be of interest to ITC members. If you would be interested in creating this list, please return an email to Traci Nathans-Kelly. As well, if you are presenting at the conferemce, let me know and I will start a listing, too, to send around to ITC membership.

——————–

SCHEDULE (not complete, but a good start)
STC Annual Summit: ITC activities and opportunities for ITC SIG members

June 1
–Welcome Reception (for all STC members) 7-8:15pm in the Convention Center
–Leadership Day 8am-5pm (see STC website)
–Set up for International Pavilion, time tbd

June 2
–International Pavilion (ITC and GALA) opens in Exhibit Hall, 10:30am-6pm
–International Reception 6pm-7pm, Exhibit Hall (tentative)

June 3
–7:30am to 8:30am: ITC SIG meeting, Marriott room 302, for ITC Leadership Board
–International Pavilion in Exhibit hall open 9am-6pm
–ITC Progression, 1:30-2:30, room TBD
–ITC SIG luncheon at 12pm-1pm

June 4
–International Pavilion in Exhibit Hall open 9am-1:15pm
–ITC/GALA Pavilion Passport activity due at Intl Pavilion at 10am
–Drawing for Passport winner at 11am
–Break down of Pavilion structures, etc.

Please distribute widely to current technical writers, editors, communicators, and translators.

If you are a technical writer, editor, communicator, or translator, you are invited to participate in a North Dakota State University research project conducted by Bruce Maylath, from the NDSU Department of English, who is investigating the extent to which translation and technical writing may be overlapping or merging. If you are a translator or technical communicator/writer, you are invited to participate in this study here .

If you decide to participate, the survey takes only 5-10 minutes to answer the questions. The survey will help professionals in the translation and technical communication fields understand how their jobs overlap. The survey involves no risks to participants. Any information that is obtained in connection with this study is anonymous and cannot be identified with you. Your participation is voluntary. Your decision whether or not to participate will not affect your relationship with your employer, your clients, or North Dakota State University. If you decide to participate, you are free to withdraw your consent and discontinue participation at any time without penalty. The survey will be available until 10 May 2008. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Bruce Maylath at 701-231-7161 or Bruce.Maylath@ndsu.edu.
–
Bruce Maylath, Ph.D.
Professor, Dept. of English
320-D Minard Hall, North Dakota State University
Fargo, ND 58105 USA

By Geoff Hart, Associate Fellow, Montreal Chapter

I first realized I had a problem with this language thing when I returned to my hometown of Montreal in 1993, after many years spent in the English monoculture of Ontario. Quebec is a primarily French province, and although there’s a large English community in Montreal, Montrealers tend to communicate in a tasty mixture of French and English known as franglais (from francais for French and anglais for English). The local dialect of colloquial French is known as joual—a mispronunciation of cheval, which means horse (i.e., the worker’s language). You’ll have to hold most of a bagel (another Montreal specialty) in your mouth as you pronounce cheval to see how it transforms into joual. Add to this the disconcerting tendency of Montrealers to switch promiscuously between English, French, franglais, and joual at the drop of a preposition, depending on which idiom is most suitable at any given moment, and you can imagine my linguistic disorientation.

Just when I was beginning to cope, I took on the role of technical writer for my employer and had to learn to speak fluent Geek—in a mixture of the abovementioned languages, of course. My favorite “lost in translation” anecdote is about the time I had to explain to a French developer why my loss of an entire morning’s work qualified as a bug in his software; to him, a bug was a calculation error. It took some ingenuity and judicious use of my then-nascent intercultural skills to express the real problem in a way that made sense to him.

In 2002, I traveled China as one member of a delegation specifically setting out to engage in jiao liu, an exchange of ideas (I’ll spare you the complexities of pinyin accents). Having decided at the last possible minute to participate, and now vastly overconfident in my linguistic skills after nearly a decade back in the linguistic melée that is Quebec, I engaged in a crash course to learn enough Chinese to be passably polite to my hosts. I’d reckoned without the difficulty of learning a tonal language after having spent some 40 years as a largely tone-deaf anglophone. It was a delight to watch the smiles of pleasure (or possibly polite and diplomatic amusement) on the faces of my hosts when I greeted them and introduced myself in fluent Chinese—and their outright incomprehension when, having now proven that I was a fluent speaker of Mandarin, I told them that wo bu shuo Zhongwen (”I really don’t speak Chinese—I’m just a very polite trained parrot”). I never did master how to ask for tea: every time I asked for cha, the waitress handed me a fork (also a cha, but with different tonality). Possibly it was just lack of motivation, since I quickly mastered how to request more piejou (beer). I look forward with mingled delight and dread to my proposed trip to India this December; though I hope to become equally polite in Hindi, I fear that I’ll remain entirely incomprehensible in the other 14+ regional Indian languages.

Then there’s that whole embarrassing Martian versus Venusian translation, as explained in John Gray’s “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.” After 40 years of practice, I’m still working on it, and hope to someday communicate almost as well as I do in English. There are no guarantees in life, of course, but I have some hope of success. After all, I earn my living as an editor and translator, so evidence notwithstanding, I have some pretensions of skill with words. On the other hand…. Mars? Venus? That whole War of the Worlds thing is awfully intimidating, and I can’t just blame Spielberg.

After 20 years as an editor, I’m convinced that I’m not alone in these problems. If you learn nothing else along the way, editing quickly teaches you how difficult it is to translate concepts that originate in the squishy stuff that lies between an author’s ears into words that will mostly convey the same meaning when transferred into the very different squishy stuff between the reader’s ears. So I figure, on this evidence, we should relax and not worry about internationalization, localization, and translation. It’s clear to me that the real problem is communication per se. Lick that problem and the rest will fall neatly into place. In the meantime, we can reconcile ourselves that information is always and inevitably lost in translation. What counts is the effort we make to minimize that loss.

For the second year in a row, the International Technical Communication (ITC) SIG and the Global and Localization Association (GALA) have partnered to present the International Pavilion at The Society for Technical Communication conference, held this year in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA from June 1-4, 2008.  With the International Pavilion, we have a great opportunity to educate and build awareness about international technical communication, globalization, localization, and translation.
The International Pavilion is hosted by partners ITC and GALA with support from STC. This year, we have a prominent 20 x 20 exhibit space in the front Exhibit Area which will once again be a gathering place for all conference attendees interested in international issues while providing cultural and industry educational presentations. It will also be home base for the Passport to International Technical Communication activity, which is designed to foster interaction between conference attendees and our sponsors while highlighting international technical communication topics.

The prize this year to one lucky conference participant is a $500 airline voucher!

To become a sponsor, please see the attached form.  There are two levels of sponsorship:  $500 Diamond Level and the $250 Ruby level. 

As well, we will need volunteers to staff the booth AND to speak at the International Pavilion.  If you are interested, please contact Traci Nathans-Kelly, the ITC SIG Manager at kelly@epd.engr.wisc.edu .

Seminar: Writing and Designing for Translation
Speaker: Speaker: Nancy Hoft, Nancy Hoft Consulting, STC member
Event: Translation World Conference, Montreal. March 11-13, 2008.
http://www.translationworld.com/index.htm

Synopsis: The seminar focuses on how translation and translation technologies affect content and design. We review localization, internationalization, and globalization issues and methods that are known to reduce translation costs, reduce time-to-market delays associated with the translation and localization of print and online content, and reduce usability problems experienced by non-native readers of English. This is a highly interactive seminar with many exercises and limitless occasions for group discussion.

When conversing with a friend the other day, he said that technical documents are not like magazines or comic books that can keep users engaged. They are only meant to be read when required. He is correct, but wait! He mentioned comics. Hmm…technical documentation as comics, I thought.

I did not answer, but that set my mind moving. I have always been curious to find out how end-users go through our technical documents, and to be honest, I am sometimes dismayed at their approach to reading the documentation. I have always wanted to find out an approach of making technical documentation livelier. This article of mine is based on the research and feedback that I have received from numerous writing and design specialists on how to engage technical document users in a natural dialogue.

How it Started

I read an article by Rebekah Sedaca entitled “Comics: Not just for Laughs!” (http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/comics-not-just-for), where she suggests using comics to capture reader interest, advance understanding, and utilize the knowledge in purchasing. Her ultimate objective is to use comics as a medium of communication wherein complex thoughts are broken into simpler tones for various audiences. Great, I thought.  We deal with a lot of technical topics that are complex and difficult to explain; a medium like comics could contribute to the purpose of simplifying technical documentation without eliminating the fun factor.

Benefits of This Approach

Many people say that technical documentation is not supposed to be fun. That is exactly what I am trying to refute. Almost 50% of technical documents lie on shelves. Some are untouched; and, some documents are read whenever its need arises. If  documents are being wasted, can we try something new? What is the harm in making it interesting? Disregarding opinions in opposition of my idea, I started working on it. I considered developing a chat messenger to help writers use the comic techniques, and I decided to create an online help guide on how to use this messaging system.

Problems with This Approach

The following are some of the common problems with using comics in technical documents:

• Comics or cartoon characters can be interpreted in different ways. What may seem creative to the designer/writer could be offensive to the reader.
• A lot of thought needs to go into every aspect. For example, the customs, nationality of the character, dress, and dialogue may be viewed differently by individual readers.
• For technical documents, if the information needs to be corrected, that can be done easily. If incorrect information is presented through a comic, the time and cost to change it will be too great.

• Kids like comic art. Adults like it only if it is witty. We do not want our documentation to be witty, do we? We want it to be informative. Even if we make an informative comic, an adult reader may ask, “Why are they doing this to me? I just want to quickly learn how to do a particular thing, not view a cartoon strip.”
• When viewed for the second time, a cartoon or comic strip loses its charm. If users want to refer to a technical document again, they may be very frustrated to see the same comic a second time, even if they liked it initially.
• Printing costs will increase substantially.
• Translation will be an issue.
Suggestions from the Experts

I pitched my idea to several design and writing professionals, and they suggested the following ideas: 

• Analysis of the interaction between audience, content and the drawing style should be done before starting the writing. The mindset of using the comic style could trivialize the material or it must only be used for humor. Therefore, to avoid confusion, documentation must be entirely done in either the comic style or a more serious style. This initial analysis is pretty similar to technical writers working on a documentation analysis before setting up to start with the first draft.
• The panel structure of comic art is also a nice way to show a sequence of actions because the time concept is built into the design pattern. Using a comics style also allows the artist to over-exaggerate critical details or to adjust the view to make small details easier to see.
• Comics might also be an effective way to engage readers who might not typically turn to a book for instruction. For example, the United States Army using the comic book style for heavy equipment manuals and service bulletins could be an effective way of communicating with the mechanics in the maintenance departments.
• The critical factor here is to understand the users and the context of use and to make design decisions that enhance usability (for the appropriate people trying to meet their goals. This is similar to the awareness of end-users in technical documentation.
• Understanding the culture and mapping it into technical documentation is one of the critical factors in making the document useful.
• Anything that reduces cognitive overhead in communication is welcome. Whatever the medium, usability testing to check on the deliverables is recommended.

Development

I am developing an online help website wherein I am using comics as an interactive medium. On successful completion of it, I will be forwarding it to my colleagues and listening to their responses. Using comics for interactive learning is worth a try. Whether it will work or not would be something to watch out for in the days to come.
– Rajdeep Gupta is a writer with Infosys Technologies and is currently the Bangalore STC City Representative. He has more than three years of work experience in Technical Documentation and Usability Testing. He is the Assistant Organizer of the Bangalore Technical Writers Meetup group and a quizmaster. You can browse through his blog for a collection of his writings http://coloredwritings.blogspot.com/

Hello ITC members!

As the  ITC manager, I just wanted to post a few updates and requests for help.

1.  We are actively making plans for the 2008 conference in Philadeliphia, PA, USA.  ITC and GALA are excited to once again host the International Pavilion, with help from the STC office. Watch for updates AND be thinking of short presentations that you may want to give if you are attending the conference.  As well, ITC members can volunteer to help translate for STC attendees and/or staff the pavilion for short periods of time.  More details will be posted here in January/February 2008.

 2.  Theodora Landgren has done a fantastic job organizing a progression session for the 2008 conference.  We will have notes on participants as they become available.

3.  The STC publication, Intercom, is now in the process of working with articles and authors for the May 2008 issue which will focus on international technical communication. 

4.  The STC handbook is in a near-final phase of this version.  Along with members of the ITC leadership team, I have been editing the handbook to address specific issues for international members and SIGs.

5.  We are currently looking for a new volunteer to handle membership for ITC and the listserv.  If you are interested, please email me at kelly@epd.engr.wisc.edu.

6.  We could also use some volunteers to help us with a conversion of content from our old website (http://stcsig.org/itc) to this one.  Interested?  Please email me at kelly@epd.engr.wisc.edu.  Ann Wiley has been a driving force for this project, but we could use more people to help us out.

Have a great end-of-year!

Traci Nathans-Kelly,  ITC manager

The Bangalore Technical Writers Meetup, supported by STC India, was held at Continuous Computing on September 29, 2007. Over 25 people from various companies- ranging from Huawei to Infosys -attended. There were two sessions: ”Programming Concepts for Writers on C++” by Rajeev Jain of Zilog and “Introduction to Structured Writing and Structured FrameMaker” by Makarand Pandit of Technowrites.

Rajeev Jain started his presentation by stating “Concepts are important, not language.” He then explained the basics of C++, concentrating on the API/ SDK documentation. He also provided an API template, which is the first step towards API Reference Guide documentation. The training material is available at the following link:  http://techwriter.meetup.com/2/files

Makarand Pandit covered “Structured Writing & Structured FrameMaker.”  Mak provided a demonstration of Adobe FrameMaker 8.0. He explained what Element Definition Document (EDD) and Document Type Definition (DTD) are, and he showed how to edit an EDD, importing a DTD, and all the other tricks that will come handy to the naïve user of FrameMaker 8.0. Pandit was asked questions on all the recent developments in Information Development field. One such question was on DITA. He then explained, in brief, what DITA is and how it has evolved over the years.

You can view the photos of the meetup by clicking the following URL: http://techwriter.meetup.com/2/photos/?photoAlbumId=225090 (requires sign up).
Report submitted by Rajdeep Gupta

UK Chapter of STC. 10/11 November 2007, Manchester, England. Details on the STC Forum: http://stcforum.org/viewtopic.php?pid=4163#p4163

On the news page at http://www.smh.com.au click the “show site sections” widget near the top middle to see “all site” navigation.

This technical is also used at http://amazon.com (mouse over the “See all 41 product categories” tab) and http://thottbot.com (mouse over the category links below the search box).

Some European news websites have begun to show the entire homepage at the bottom of each article.

Examples are:

French: http://www.20minutes.fr/article/184129/Monde-L-emissaire-special-de-l-ONU-recoit-un-visa-pour-la-Birmanie.php

Swedish: http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/1.858431/robban-hjalper-dig-bli-av-med-telefonforsaljarna

Norvegian: http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks/article2018950.ece