Intercom: July/August 2008

Intercom, the magazine of the Society for Technical Communication, is published to provide examples and applications of technical communication that will promote its readers' professional development.

No theme this issue.

Feature Articles

How to Build a Business Case [ FREE! ]: Learn how to convince your company to grant your purchase request through tips on building an effective business case.
Adventures in Screencasting: How do you best assist users whose learning styles are more visual than verbal? Tietjen discusses the benefits and the how-to of screencasting, a mixture of visuals, audio, and complementary text.
Two Views on STC Certification: The ongoing discussion of certification continues with these concurrent articles, each arguing a different side of the coin.
Is Lone Writing Becoming a Team Sport?: Larbi discusses the transition—including advantages—that many lone writers face as globalization becomes more prevalent and individual consultants transform into lone writer teams.
Long-distance Editing: Have you ever had problems communicating with your editor? Have you ever been in the editor position and found it difficult to communicate with your writers? For writers and editors working in different locales, Crognale outlines some tips to create a more productive and mutually beneficial relationship.
Be Productive When a Project Stalls: Check out seven tips that will help you and your team remain busy and useful when you have extra time or gaps between projects.

Departments

Cut & Paste
Cut & Paste: This month's topics include a brief history of the beginnings of DITA, the difference grammar made to a cabbie in England, Facebook tackling the problem of noun-pronoun disagreement, and a CIA wiki site for spies.
F.Y.I.
F.Y.I.: Check here for upcoming events of interest to technical communicators.
Off Hours
Acting Out: There's much more to STC members than just their passion for technical communication. Read about Paul Lockwood's passion for the stage.

Society Pages

STC Technical Communication Competitions: How to enter one of the many technical communication competitions within the Society.
STC Awards: Read about the Gould, Rainey, and Smith awards given each year to STC members who have contributed in different ways to the field of technical communication.
So You Want to Be a Summit Speaker: Have you ever wanted to present a topic to your peers and fellow STC members? Houser and Lim outline the process for becoming a speaker at STC's Annual Summit.
2007–2008 Community Award Winners: Check out which chapters and SIGs were honored with awards of Merit or Excellence, as well as which ones were the Communities of Distinction this year.
Exhibit Booths for 2009 Summit Selling Fast [ FREE! ]: Companies that want to reserve a booth at the 56th Annual Conference should act fast!

Columns

The XML Strategist
XML, Growing Up Fast: On the ten-year anniversary of XML, O'Keefe looks to the future and makes predictions about where this format is headed and how prevalent it will become.
Information Design
Typography 101A: The Role of White Space in Making Lines of Text Readable: Learn to read between the lines as Hart discusses the functionality and significance of white space in readability of text.
Quest for Quality
Providing Quick, Flexible Training on a Tight Budget: Sapio discusses his personal experience with the implementation of an experimental usability course in which the platform of the lessons were short, daily emails.