The Language of Technical Communication

Ray Gallon

• Publisher: XML Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781937434489
• eBook ISBN: 9781492017240
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Computer Science General
• Index: Computer Science

The Language of Technical Communication has a dual objective: to define the terms that form the core of technical communication as it is practiced today, while predicting where the field will go in the future. The choice of terms defined in this book followed two overarching principles: include all aspects of the discipline of technical communication, not just technical writing, and select terms that will be relevant into the foreseeable future.The Language of Technical Communication is a collaborative effort with fifty-two expert contributors, all known for their depth of knowleEA Digital (delivered electronically)e. You will probably recognize many of their names, and you will probably want to learn more about the ones who are new to you. Each contributed term has a concise definition, an importance statement, and an essay that describes why technical communicators need to know that term. You will find well understood terms, such as content reuse and minimalist design, alongside new terms, such as the Internet of Things and augmented reality. They span the depth and breadth, as well as the past and future, of technical communication.

The Language

of Technical

Communication

Ray Gallon

This book is dedicated to the memory of Ellen Stewart, whose prophecy took thirty years to come true. If she were here, she’d be rocking back and forth in rhythm to her broom, sweeping the floor of her theatre, smiling an eldritch smile, and saying, “I told you so.”

eBook Introduction

Thank you for purchasing The Language of Technical Communication. I hope you enjoy the book and find it useful.

Best Regards,
Ray Gallon
May 2016

Foreword

The field of technical communication has been around as long as people have used processes, procedures, products, and services. But recently, the field has been evolving more and more quickly, as new technologies and new ways to reach our audiences have become available.

I recently said to my wife, “I linked our Nest with Alexa.” I didn’t need to explain that I had linked our Google Nest thermostat with our Amazon Echo voice-recognition device, allowing us to control our home temperature with voice commands. This sentence, which would have been complete nonsense five years ago, is perfectly meaningful now, because the Internet of Things has become ubiquitous in our daily lives.

We are continually reminded of the power of devices that sense and interpret context. My phone knows where I am. It knows when I’m leaving work to drive home and reports my expected commute time. It knows what sports teams I follow and what companies I like, and it knows when I’m traveling.

These technologies grant amazing new capabilities for understanding and reaching our audiences. The best customer experiences occur when documentation anticipates needs, context, and goals, and these technologies, many of which are discussed in this book, make it easier for us to create those kinds of customer experiences.

The terms defined in this book range from basic terminology that most of us know to the latest concepts pushing the boundaries of the discipline. Do you need a refresher in basic and invariant technical communication concepts? Consider the Core Concepts section. Want to dive deeper? The Technical Concepts section will ground you in approaches for creating, managing, and delivering your content using proven processes.

The Standards and Conventions section will bring you up-to-date on the latest standards-based approaches, which will help you manage your content more effectively, especially in the face of changing tools and technologies.

Would controlled language and structured authoring help to improve the consistency of your content and decrease translation costs? Would topic-based authoring help to improve the readability of your content? Are you collecting and making appropriate use of metadata? What is content? Why is localization not enough? Why should technical communicators also have business analysis skills?

How are you and your organization responding to changes in the outside world? Take a look at the Future Directions section, where you can read about topics such as wearables, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence.

How do you deliver content? The Deliverable Presentations section may provide new ideas for serving an increasingly mobile audience that expects information on demand, in the appropriate form, targeted for their situation, and available on any device. This audience also expects information to be more interactive, to actively respond to context, and, as always, to address their needs in the most concise, direct manner possible.

As technical communicators, we seek a user-centered approach that provides the right information, in the right way, at the right time to make someone’s life easier and more productive. Part of our tool kit for implementing a user-centered approach is the vocabulary we use with our colleagues.

If we have a common understanding of the language of technical communication, we can be more effective and efficient in our interactions with our colleagues. Whether you are a newly hired trainee or a seasoned professional, understanding the body of terms in this book will make it easier to work together.

While our methods and techniques may be changing, the mission of technical communication remains unchanged: explaining processes, procedures, products, and services. And helping make people successful. This book can help you be more effective in carrying out that mission.

Alan Houser
Group Wellesley, Inc.
Consultant and Trainer, Technical Publishing
http://groupwellesley.com

Preface

As I sat down to write this preface, I had an epiphany: here we have a book of technical communication terminology, and yet the term technical communication is nowhere defined in it! Then I had a second thought: isn’t that so like us? I’ve been in this profession for over 20 years, and I still have family who ask, “So, I’ve never been able to figure out exactly what you do, can you explain it?”

During my tenure on the board of directors of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) we made a decision to stop trying to define the profession and refer to technical communication as a discipline. I think this is the right course. So herewith, I present to you, dear readers, a selected list of terms pertinent to the discipline that we all practice, but that I am not going to define – I’ll leave it to you to answer your own families’ curiosity in your own way.

This book is an example of the joy and the terror of being a technical communicator. We are a varied, multi-talented lot, and we do a huge variety of things, many of which are not in our job descriptions. This means that any list of terms will necessarily contain some exotic notions, and leave out some terms that might be considered essential. Our choices were dictated by two overarching admonitions: that the list not be limited to technical writing, but include all aspects of technical communication; and that the list continue to be valid and applicable into the foreseeable future. Followin...

Table of contents

• The Language of Technical Communication