TechWhirl: Technical Communication Recap for June 13, 2013

[TechWhirl Admin <admin -at- techwhirl -dot- com>]

If anyone were to ask me what online references I use the most during the
course of a workday, they might be surprised to learn that
acronymfinder.com<http://www.acronymfinder.com/>ranks near the top
(after
TechWhirl.com <http://techwhirl.com/> and
Thesaurus.com<http://thesaurus.com/>of course). Maybe it’s just me or
an age factor, but I'm finding more and
more initialisms and acronyms creeping into what I read, what I write, and
what I edit. I think perhaps I didn't eat enough alphabet soup when I was a
kid.



Initialisms and acronyms are often the secret code of a profession or an
organization. And one of the best services a technical communicator can
offer to their employer is developing some sort of online glossary to walk
the newbies through translation of that secret code. It’s terribly
important, but rarely recognized organizational communication work.



My current work at one of the large US financial institutions involves
project communications on a large and rather complex infrastructure
project. I’m faced with financial industry initialisms, corporate
initialisms, technology initialisms, and project management initialisms.
The company has made it a bit easier by including a wiki on the enterprise
intranet home page of all sorts of initialisms. I’ve found a definition for
all but two of the ones I’ve run across. It’s a glossary project that
apparently anyone in the company can add to, and the current listings
include dozens of contributor names.



But if you were to ask the folks who contributed to this wiki what kind of
work they were doing, the likelihood that they would call it technical
communication or technical writing is practically nil, even though it’s a
perfectly legitimate label.



The lesson in all of this? Spend less time being offended or paranoid that
folks don’t label your profession the same way you do, and more time doing
good work in your chosen profession. Keeps your blood pressure down and
your satisfaction level up.



And after you’re done search acronymfinder.com for BRD or PDD or any other
kind of D, take some time to wander through the great content on TechWhirl
this week. Jacquie Samuels reads a few tea leaves and discovers that the future
of tech comm is being driven by user
experience<http://techwhirl.com/future-user-experience-drives-technical-communication/>(UX).
Special Writers Unit (SWU) newbie Peter Winninger debuts with some
good foundational information on the role of a technical
editor<http://techwhirl.com/foundations-the-role-of-the-technical-editor/>(I
guess that would be TE). We're curious to find out why
you visit a corporate
blog<http://techwhirl.com/technical-communication-poll-reasons-visit-company-blog/>,
and you can tell us in this week’s poll. Craig Cardimon offers a host of
curated content in Tech Writer This
Week<http://techwhirl.com/tech-writer-this-week-for-june-13-2013/>(TWTW)
on UX, content strategy and more. And don’t forget that even in the
summer, you can raise some heat but asking the right question on the email
discussion list <http://techwr-l.com/>.



HAGW!

-Connie and the gang at TechWhirl
In Case You Missed it: This Week @ TechWhirl

*New features and articles on http://TechWhirl.com <http://techwhirl.com/>**
:*


   - Tech Writer This Week for June 13, 2013, by Craig Cardimon |
   http://bit.ly/16hZuQj
   - Foundations: The Role of the Technical Editor, by Peter Winninger |
   http://bit.ly/1bud3g2
   - Technical Communication Poll: The Reasons You Visit a Company Blog |
   http://bit.ly/191m9S0
   - The Future Is Now: User Experience Drives Technical Communication, by
   Jacquie Samuels | http://bit.ly/161bNjQ

*Technical Communication News on
http://TechWhirl.com/news<http://techwhirl.com/news>
:*


   - Bridgeline Digital launches iAPPS 5.0 with Enhanced Content Editing
   and Authoring | http://ow.ly/2xwoQt
   - CXPA Launches Certification Program in Customer Experience Management
   | http://ow.ly/2xu0oK
   - SDL Launches Social Customer Analytics Framework for CXM |
   http://ow.ly/2xss1N

Social Media and the Chance to Follow TechWhirl:

   - Our Google Plus Page – what’s happening behind the scenes |
   http://goo.gl/SO0R4
   - Will you be our Friend? Please, you know you want to click |
   http://goo.gl/tDrW7
   - Want all this TechWhirl goodness a few characters @ a time |
   http://goo.gl/itjDg
   - Updates from TechWhirl delivered to your email in box |
   http://bit.ly/tjshxU
   - Or, try our RSS feed (great on Flipboard) | http://goo.gl/msLzu

SPONSOR-Luv

We want to send a very special “thank you” to our sponsors for their
support.



*Platinum*: Adobe Systems
Incorporated<http://www.runaware.com/clients/adobe/techsuite/>

*Gold: *ComponentOne Software <http://bit.ly/doc-to-help>,* *Madcap
Software<http://www.madcapsoftware.com/products/flare/overview.aspx#whatsnew>
**

*Silver*: Vancouver Island University <http://pr.viu.ca/techcomm/>

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