The 2014 Summit Program Committee has opened a Call for Proposals for a student-only progression that will feature research and give the reasons behind—or challenge—our conventional wisdom. For example:
- Do we need to concern ourselves with serif versus sans serif type?
- What is the ideal text width on paper or online? Does text width matter?
- What is the deal with lists? Once we were told that should be 7 items, +/- 2. Is that still the case?
- Have any rules for writing changed as technology has changed?
About Progressions
Progressions feature 6–8 presenters and Summit attendees pick two presenters to visit in the session. The presentations take place at tables, with 8–10 people (and the presenter) seated. While you may want to use the research paper for class credit, your focus for the Summit should be on preparing a short presentation to support that paper. Progression presentations are 20 minutes and repeated twice. In that 20-minute period, plan to speak for 10 minutes and allow 10 minutes for discussion.
About the Call for Proposals
Complete the submission form with information about your idea for the progression session. This is not a formal project proposal, but we do want to see that you have given this topic some thought. Talk to a teacher or advisor if you need help crafting your ideas.
The Call for Proposals will be open from 8 November–6 December. The program committee will review all proposals and notify students in mid-to-late December. Students whose sessions are selected will be asked to sign the speaker agreement and provide some additional information about their session. The 2014 Technical Communication Summit will be held 18–21 May in Phoenix, AZ.
Why should you submit a proposal?
This is an excellent opportunity to learn more about the rules and origins of technical communication, language, and design, as well as gain presentation experience and publish conference papers. Attending the Summit will give you the opportunity to network with other students and meet people currently working in the field who can give you advice on your career choices.
For more information about the 2014 Summit, visit http://summit.stc.org. If you have questions, please contact the Summit Program Committee.
I think it’s a great idea to have a student progression at #stc14! It’s high time we get students to challenge our ways of thinking and working.
Unfortunately, one of the examples given doesn’t need research, but simply debunking. 7 +/- 2 list items refers to human working memory, not web sites, not technical communications. It’s a constraint of human memory, not of design. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magical_Number_Seven,_Plus_or_Minus_Two and http://uxmyths.com/post/931925744/myth-23-choices-should-always-be-limited-to-seven
But I’m sure students can find more worthwhile and more urgent issues to talk about… 🙂