If you're a technical communicator, you almost certainly found 2009 to be a year full of challenges. As we enter 2010, what can you do to help yourself in your career? Here are four resolutions to get you started.

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One of the things I do is try to stay current with the trends in the industry. Content strategy has been getting more focus now than it has in the past, which is a good thing for all. However in examining recent information, including this knol by Jeffrey MacIntyre and Colleen Jones, I'm left scratching my head. I guess the thing that puzzles me t...

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DITA can be a great solution. But when its proponents make unrealistic claims about what it can do, we raise expectations to a level where they can't possibly be met. The image of DITA suffers as a result.

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The best writing isn't good just because it's good. It's good because it does something for the reader. Good technical writing doesn't just help a reader do a task, it evokes a reaction.

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At last week's RTP DITA User's Group meeting (which also includes  Boston and Rhode Island), we discussed topics for the coming year. In the course of the discussion, we touched upon the idea of doing a session about editors. In the discussion, one member stated that we should try to present as many different editors as we could beca...

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A recent project compels me to write down some thoughts about how to build a useful learning experience. Whether the delivery vehicle is online (eLearning) or in a traditional classroom setting, there are a few things that can help make the consumer of your learning materials more successful. List the learning objectives - Many moons ago, wh...

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Technical communicators, accustomed to knowing their audiences as real people with real needs and real concerns, can contribute a lot to an enterprise's content strategy, helping ensure the success of the overall marketing effort.

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