June 2005 (Volume 16 Number 9) About the Quill

In This Issue

Persistence is Fruitful

With the new Star Wars movie out, I thought of Star Trek and the Borg, and other stuff that is not remotely related to Opal's topic; however, since Opal does mention the persistence of this year's council in achieving its goals, I used my editorial right to come up with the title. Click to read the Quill Article

Advancing Through Volunteering

June marks the end of the council year until September, so you'll have to find something else to do—like volunteer. Now, in addition to our job bank, we now have a place for you to look up organizations that are looking for volunteers to help them with their writing. Why not advance your career and help an organization in the process? Click to read the Quill Article

52nd Annual STC Conference: They just keep getting better!

Not everyone is able to attend the annual STC conference, which is why we are so fortunate that three of the attendees are members of our chapter. One of the attendees wrote this overview of the conference so that you could get a sense of what you missed...both during and after the sessions. Click to read the Quill Article

52nd Annual STC Conference:
These are a few of my favourite things

In a follow up to the first article, find out which sessions appealed the most to two of our attendees. There's nothing better than having two writers describe something for you—like the sessions that you missed at the conference. You'll see that the battle of Word versus FrameMaker is not finished yet. Click to read the Quill Article

Membership News

Not everyone has gone on vacation when it comes to joining the STC. Find out who is new to our chapter and find a link to a great article about getting the most out of your membership. Click to read the Quill Article

Cooking the Books: A Practical Guide to Documentation Design

Attendance was high at this general meeting, possibly because "cooking the books" sounded a little exciting and bad at the same time. Fortunately (or unfortunately) the presentation had no illegal element, but had everything to do with choosing the right type of book to match the product type. Click to read the Quill Article

Health Care: Which country has the right idea?

When you have a Canadian technical writer living in the United States, you have the opportunity to hear about both sides of the fence (border). Form your own opinions as you read some of the comments that were made from our American neighbours. Click to read the Quill Article

Building Brand into Your Product or Web Site

We all recognize symbols and sayings as belonging to a particular company, but sometimes we aren't aware of how they became so memorable. Understanding why a brand is recognizable helps us to understand how we can create a brand for our own product or company. Read the recap of our most recent telephone seminar. Click to read the Quill Article

Recap of the May Council Meeting

Your council meets monthly to keep the chapter running smoothly and to ensure that you get good value for your membership fee. Find out what your council members discussed, including the results of a brain-storming session for next year. Click to read the Quill Article

Upcoming Chapter Events

Just because the general meetings have stopped for the summer doesn't mean that there aren't still opportunities for you to learn. Find out what telephone seminars are available and find out how to cast your vote for the August seminar. Click to read the Quill Article

Freelance 101: The Fine Art of Cold Calling

For some people, making a cold call means a heart-pounding experience where they feel cold because the blood in their veins has turned to ice. Find out how to keep your cool so that you don't lose that potential lead. Click to read the Quill Article

Babel Not: Machine Translation for the Technical Communicator

Not all translations are created equal when it comes to deciding when to human translators versus machine translators. Find out what types of machine translation are available to you, when you should use it, and how you should write to make translations more accurate. Click to read the Quill Article

Becoming STC

The outgoing Director/Sponsor of Region 1 writes his last article of the year. Learn a bit about how this position of Director/Sponsor is evolving, the reaction to the transformation, and the financial status of the STC. Click to read the Quill Article

The Quill Wins "Best of Show"

Although "Best of Show" may sound like we went to the dogs, winning this award means we are top dog when it comes to producing newsletters. Read the judges' comments and look at some of the statistics that made the newsletter such a success. Click to read the Quill Article

View From the Other Side…the flip side of travelling in England

Even in England, people are going south, and like other travellers, sometimes the cost of accommodations can be high. However, in some cases, attending the Annual General Meeting (without children) can be priceless. Click to read the Quill Article

The Editor's Message

The saying, "Time flies when you are having fun," has never been more true than now. I can't believe that it was two years ago when I agreed to be The Quill's new editor. In my family, whenever someone wonders how long ago an event took place, my father ultimately says that it was about two years ago. Well, for once, that statement is true.

The Dark Side of Writing

As writers, we are our own worst critics. Over the years, I have received submissions from fellow writers who were not entirely happy with what they produced. Ironically, for the most part, these were the articles that required the least amount of editing.

I don't know what it is that makes writing articles so difficult:

  • writing on demand?
  • knowing that fellow writers will notice any mistake that you might make (or so you think)?
  • trying to sound learned when you would like to just write something creative for a change?
  • coming up with a topic that people might find interesting?
  • trying to hit a deadline when you have so much else to do?

The Benefits of Writing

Because good press means presenting both sides of the story, I thought I'd better talk about the benefits of writing. Writing articles enables you to:

  • share your knowledge with other people, even when you didn't think you knew as much as you did.
  • express yourself in a different way so that you are not restricted to writing about technical things all of the time.
  • find out that you are not alone. Sometimes when you share your story (or pain), it encourages others to share their stories too. In the end, you can pool your ideas and resolve common problems.

This Year's Winners

There are no losers associated with this year's newsletter. Just ask the people who reviewed our newsletter and upgraded our Distinguished award to Best of Show. Although, even if we hadn't won the top award, I would still have been very proud of the people who worked with me to make this newsletter something that I hope you enjoyed reading.

Our core newsletter team consisted of Opal Gamble (Technical Advisor), Margie Yundt (Copy Editor), and Martin Eisenloeffel (Illustrator). And from there, our team consisted of many people who either volunteered to write or who stepped up to the keyboard and wrote articles whenever asked.

A separate article provides details about the award and the people who helped to make the newsletter a success.

Your New Editor

Margie Yundt, the current copy editor for this newsletter, will be your new editor for the 2005 to 2006 year. So I have left you in very capable and somewhat familiar hands. I also won't be entirely off the newsletter committee. In addition to my new role as President of this chapter, I will also be doing some copy editing for Margie.

To print the entire Quill, click here!Don't be idle this summer. Send your articles, suggestions, and comments to Margie at quill@stc-soc.org.

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