Intercom: May 2010

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.

Nonmembers May Now Subscribe to Intercom

STC’s Board of Directors has authorized subscriptions to be sold to nonmembers beginning in 2010. The cost to subscribe is $195 for addresses within the United States. A postage differential fee is added to subscriptions to Canada ($205) and other countries ($230). Please complete the Intercom Subscription Form and email to Kevin Cuddihy.

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“I just love Intercom being online! I think I just read more in one issue in ten minutes than I have ever in a paper copy. . . . It was so easy to flick through, zoom in, and move around the page. Really great work.”
—Sonja McShane, Member

Feature Articles

Breaking into Government IT Contracting [ FREE! ]

By: David Dick, Fellow

For technical writers in the information technology field, government contracts offer varied, and often lucrative, options for employment. In this article, the author discusses the ins and outs of getting work as well as tips for developing skills that will make you stand out to recruiters, consulting firms, and project managers.

Career Opportunities in the Pharmaceutical Industry [ FREE! ]

By: Scott A. Mogull, Member

The drug development and commercialization processes in the pharmaceutical industry provide a number of options for technical writers and editors. In this article, the author talks about the roles technical communicators can play in the relationships between the FDA and the pharmaceutical companies, and between these companies, physicians, and patients.

Medical Communication: A Branch of the Technical Communication Tree

By: Lori Alexander and Lili Fox Velez

While medical and technical communications share similarities in history and work contexts, medical writing has some unique challenges and ethical concerns as it strives to meet the needs of expert and lay audiences, commercial development, and government regulation. The authors provide an overview of their discipline and how medical and technical writers can pool their knowledge toward the betterment and expansion of our technical communications.

Departments

F.Y.I.

F.Y.I. [ FREE! ]

Check here for upcoming events of interest to technical communicators.

My Job

Consensus Building in Team Environments

By: Ron Stanley, Member

Copyediting for an online textbook publisher turns out to involve far more than just copyediting, and Stanley discusses how he stepped out of his comfort zone to build a consensus in his team.

Note from the Editor

A Note from the Editor [ FREE! ]

By: Liz Pohland

Pohland discusses the recent announcements of certification and “Technical Writer“ getting its own chapter in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook.

Society Pages

Society Pages [ FREE! ]

Many of STC’s 2010 awards and honors are highlighted, including the Jay R. Gould Award, Ken Rainey Award, Community Achievement Award, Pacesetter Award, and the President’s Award.

Columns

The Academic Conversation

Communication is the Best Medicine

By: Thomas Barker, Fellow

Barker delves into the rhetorical nature of medical writing, what is accepted as medical fact, sources of good medical research, how to find methods to do research, and also the forms of medical discourse itself.

Information Design

Why Simple is Better [ FREE! ]

By: Geoffrey G. S. Hart, Fellow

Hart discusses the concept of working memory and how understanding its limits can help with your design tasks.

The XML Strategist

The PDF Landscape for DITA Content

By: Sarah O’Keefe, Associate Fellow

O’Keefe discusses multiple options for producing a PDF output from DITA content and the requirements they support best.