March 2018
This month, in the spirit of Plain Language, Meredith attempts to write a report using what she learned in Shelly's excellent webinar series, Katie reviews Shelly's webinar series, we present the results of our latest Salary Survey, the Board announce their new initiative for helping students members get ahead, and Grant invites you to reintroduce yea, nay and thou to common usage...
From the President
Welcome to this, my short and sweet President's report for March. A huge thanks to wonderful Katie Haggath, who does a superb job of putting together TechCommWire each month, and chasing all the contributors down to get their reports in on time.
This month, in the spirit of Plain Language, I'll attempt to write this report using what I've learned from Shelly's excellent webinar series. Feel free to send your feedback and criticisms to president@techcommnz.com.
Here goes...
Plain Language Review
Shelly is engaging, cheerful, amusing and doesn’t take herself too seriously. I first heard her speak at TechCommNZ’s Collaborate conference and was delighted to find her webinars just as engaging, fast-paced and liberally peppered with pop-culture references.
Shelly’s Plain Language webinars were aimed at all levels, from Plain English Padawan to Jedi Master. The webinar series introduced tips and exercises for those new to plain language and reinforced what we already know for the plain English converts, with advice for how to get others on side, demonstrate the benefit and make the most of it.
Salary Survey
Thanks to the 174 TechCommNZ members and non-members who took the opportunity to complete the TechCommNZ Annual Salary Survey. Steve Moss, former TechCommNZ President, has kindly collated the raw data for us. The full survey is only available to TechCommNZ members, who need to log in to the site to access the Member Area and Survey.
Helping Students Get Ahead
We want to help our student members get ahead! In 2018, the President of TechCommNZ is giving a letter of reference to any student member who attends 6 branch events or webinars in a year.
Not many people know that professional development counts as experience. As a graduate with little industry experience, this is invaluable. Demonstrated dedication to your chosen career, along with the skills you will pick up, will bolster your CV and set you apart from the crowd.
Let's Tech Communicate
Forget Alexa, Bixby, Cortana, Google and Siri. The better class of technical communicator can now Ask Mercedes. This is a form of chatbot. This month we discover that chatbots are the new thing in technical documentation and then find out that, actually, they are not the new thing as they’re too stupid. Clever TCs use Emotion Amplifiers in their writing.
The founding fathers forgot to do this when writing the Declaration of Independence and this could explain The Rise and Fall of the English Sentence. Please feel free to compare the various Words of the Year, one of which references St Jacinda. Speaking of the government, the govt.nz style guide has been released. Lastly, I give you predictions for technical communication in 2018. I predict a call for yea, nay and thou to return to common usage. Plus, in 2018 you simply must stop saying simply.
Wanted: another Let’s Tech Communicator
Help still wanted for LTC! One or more volunteers is needed to assist Grant in composing a Let’s Tech Communicate (LTC) column every couple of months.
Wanted: TC Interviewer
Once again the TechCommWire team is looking for 1-2 volunteers to prepare the regular "Featured TC" article. This is a great opportunity to meet colleagues (even if only "virtually") and contribute to the collegial network that is TechCommNZ. The main purpose of this feature is to put faces to names and showcase the interesting and varied work our members do. We'd like to thank Jim Costello for his excellent work on these interviews over the past year.
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