TCBOK TIME
By Deanne Levander | Fellow
This column features topics relevant to STC’s Technical Communication Body of Knowledge (TCBOK) project. A wealth of free content resources is available to you on a wide range of technical communication topics. Visit http://tcbok.org or select Body of Knowledge from the STC home page at http://www.stc.org. This feature focuses on how to use the TCBOK as one of the research tools you can use to improve the quality of your technical content and working projects.
What are Your Options?
A broad variety of writing tools are available for technical communicators. Do you still consult a dictionary, a style guide, or a thesaurus? Or are you more likely to try an online tool for results? Regardless of your preferences, the result is what counts in technical communication. Despite the Oxford English Dictionary being updated quarterly (yeet, anyone?), hard-copy dictionaries may soon become a thing of the past. For example, Merriam-Webster, Inc. produces a paperback version, but has far more users accessing its online version. The decline in demand for print dictionaries has led to the absence of updated dictionaries for sale in bookstores.
With the demise of these time-honored tools, we find ourselves looking for quality references and sources for our needs. We have become accustomed to a fast return of results when searching online. Enter the Technical Communication Body of Knowledge: content culled from practicing technical communicators, Intercom magazine, and other STC publications, previously edited and published. Content topics feature succinct definitions, descriptions, and examples on a wide range of subjects.
Create or Curate?
It is common to be asked to reuse what has already been created. Often, our task as technical communicators is to curate content from a variety of sources for a specific audience, and to reuse existing material and update it to reflect new features, processes, or regulations. For example, technical communicators in the highly regulated medical device industry must make use of materials that have already been approved by a notified body (for example, the FDA).
To illustrate how the TCBOK can be used to research the term content reuse or content development tools, consider the following extended example.
Begin with a Simple Keyword Search
Open the TCBOK (http://tcbok.org) and enter “content reuse” in the Google®-powered search box.
The search results bring up a broad range of topics related to content reuse.
Dig Deeper
To further investigate, search for a related term, such as content development.
You’ll find that the TCBOK includes content topics from peer-reviewed articles and well-edited material from other professional sources. Many content topics include reference lists that you might also find useful to expand your research for a particular topic.
Narrow Your Search to Accommodate Your Interest
As an example, search for the term certification and a broad range of related topics is at your fingertips.
The TCBOK team has been busy adding content that supports certification in addition to other salient topics. As technical communicators, the TCBOK team is adept at identifying useful topics to include in the TCBOK.
When exploring the topic, you might discover related terms to add to your list of research keywords. For example, you might use the following list of core competencies to aid your search for certification topics:
- Project Planning
- Project Analysis
- Content Development
- Organizational Design
- Written Communication
- Reviewing and Editing
- Visual Communication
- Content Management
- Production and Delivery.
Searching for the core competency term, project planning, returns a full-length article published in Intercom magazine.
Be efficient in how you search for content relevant to your interests. As the TCBOK becomes more mature and filled with relevant content, technical communicators will find more content to help them in their work or academic research.
Remember, the TCBOK is an Evolving Work in Progress
While the current TCBOK team has been adding new content from Intercom and editing existing TCBOK content, there remain gaps in the content, or material that needs more editing, or perhaps there is not enough solid content to help you achieve your immediate goals. As you explore articles and content topics, you may land on a page that obviously needs to be edited. This could be an opportunity to contribute suggestions or new content to a topic. A gentle email to the TCBOK team is all that is needed. Someone from the team will be happy to help out.
Consider using the TCBOK as a research tool. It is likely that you will find rich research material in addition to material needing more robust content. You are welcome to submit new content to the TCBOK, too. While supporting the TCBOK, you will be adding to your own professional portfolio! Do you have a recent term paper or blog that was well-received? Consider submitting it to a relevant topic area. Remember, however, that once content is published in the TCBOK, it falls under the Creative Commons license for publication and use.
Finally, use the TCBOK as a springboard to your academic or project work. As content from Intercom and Technical Communication is added to the body of knowledge, the TCBOK will become more and more robust. Individual contributions may be edited, but remember, the articles from STC publications are already edited and need nothing further.
How TCBOK Content is Evaluated and Vetted
Any submissions to the TCBOK must be checked against the heuristics that have been set for the group.
Heuristics for content (we select 3 out of 5):
- It is timely or contributes to STC’s history.
- It is relevant to the discipline of technical communication.
- It provides value to practitioners (for example, advance their knowledge) and academics (for example, it can contribute to a syllabus for a course in technical communication).
- It is original and not redundant TCBOK content.
- It aligns with one or more of the nine core competencies of professional certification.
Join Our Team!
We welcome new members! The TCBOK team has been busy, adding content and (at times) adjusting content that was already in the site. We are all volunteers, and the level of camaraderie and respect among members helps our cause. We technical writers know that it is very easy to not see problems in our own material (because we are too close to it), but it is very easy to see typos, grammatical errors, and more during our reviews of content that was added much earlier).
Deanne Levander is an STC Fellow whose STC history includes Society board member, TCBOK leader and volunteer, online and technical publication competition manager, chapter leader, student mentor, and SIG/COI leader. A tireless advocate for technical communication and technical communicators, she has been a technical writer in a broad range of industries including chemical manufacturing, food distribution, meteorology, agribusiness, life insurance, banking, and biomedical manufacturing. Deanne lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.
