Oct - STC Southwestern Ontario Chapter

The Newsletter for the Southwestern Ontario Chapter of the Society for
Technical Communication
The Quill
October 2001
Volume 13
Number 2
www.stc.waterloo.on.ca
Become a Sustaining Organization Member
Goldie, where are you when I need you?
Some organizations that have
invested in the future of the
profession and become
sustaining members:
by Ted Edwins, President
October is membership month and to celebrate, the Society will tack on the rest of 2001
to your 2002 membership for new members. Unlike a public television huckster, who teases
you with the upcoming conclusion to your favourite Monty Python episode, while attempting
to part you from some hard earned loonies, even though you know there isn't going to be
anything as good on the channel until the next pledge drive, by which time you'll have gone
as blind as a kat, staring at the boob tube while you eat your cold spam, spam, eggs, and
spam washed down with some warm Whatney's Red Barrel, I am not going to drone on and
on about the benefits of membership.
What I am going to do is encourage you to ask your organization to become a sustaining
member. By becoming a sustaining organization member, a company can support professional
activities in the field of technical communication while enjoying the benefits of a tax
deduction.
Sustaining organizations of the Society represent all facets of technical communication. Your
organization will have an active voice in the affairs of the Society through one of your
organization's employees. The sustaining organization representative has all the rights and
privileges of an individual member, including the right to run for elective office and vote in
elections.
The sustaining organization representative receives:
discounts on STC's annual conference
group rate insurance
Intercom -- STC's monthly magazine
mailings from the local chapter -- meeting
announcements and newsletters
­ Special Interest Groups
­ Technical Communication -- STC's quarterly
journal.
Your organization also receives a handsome,
individually struck plaque designating your
organization as a sustaining organization of the world's leading professional technical
communication group -- STC.
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What Are Sustaining Organization Dues?
An investment of $500 annually will bring your company the many benefits of sustaining
organization status in STC. Your contribution is tax deductible because STC is recognized
as an educational organization.
In addition, a portion of your annual sustaining organization contribution will be returned
to your local chapter and used to further technical communication in your area.
How to Become a Sustaining Organization
You can download the Sustaining Organization Brochure and Enrollment Form from the
Society website at http://www.stc.org/sustaining.html. If you have any questions about
membership, individual or sustaining, please contact our Membership Manager, Carrie
Spira, at [email protected]. ×
Algonquin College Tech.
Writer Program
Lexmark International, Inc.
Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.
Mobil Business Resources
Corporation
NEC Corporation
Australian Centre Unisys
Software (ACUS)
Novell Software Development
India, Ltd.
The Boeing Company
Novell, Inc., Developer
Information
Caterpillar Inc.
CYBERTEK Corp.
Federal Express Corp.
Ricoh Co., Ltd.
Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
Siemens AG, Amberg
Sony Corp.
Texas Instruments India Ltd.
Hitachi, Technical
Communication
IBM Corp., Thomas J.
Watson Research Center
J.D. Edwards
Contents
Adventures in Documentation ..... 2
October is Membership Month .... 3
November General Meeting ......... 3
Gordon & Gordon Workshops ..... 4
Volunteering the STC Way ........... 4
Mentoring the Mentors ................ 5
Low Cost Single Sourcing ............ 5
Putting Our Chapter on the Map . 6
Council Meeting Recap ............... 6
Word Puzzles ............................. 7
Adventures in Documentation
Arguments for a paperless environment
Body Parts – the 1940’s
Taken from From Flappers to
Rappers, by By Tom Dalzell
Jive-inspired youth slang of the
1940s had a prodigious vocabulary
to describe parts of the body (the
frame),
based on the function
STCmany
Membership
of the body part. No other decade
Directory
Onlineslang
can point to now
an anatomical
anywhere even vaguely as extensive
as that of the 1940s. Starting from
the head and working down to the
toes:
Hair
Hair: brush (a mustache), face lace
(whiskers), moss.
The head: biscuit, dome, idea pot,
noggin and think-box
The face: index, knob (an ugly
face), map, phiz, puss.
Eyes
Eyes: blinkers, lamps, pies,
shutters (eye-lids), slanters,
spotters.
Ears: flippers, flops, lugs (large
ears), mikes, sails.
The nose: handle (a large nose),
horn, schnozz, sneezer.
The mouth and environs: bone
box (mouth), chewers (teeth), chops
(jaws), choppers (teeth), crumb
crunchers (teeth), snags (tonsils).
The neck: stretcher.
Shoulders and arms: brace o’
broads (shoulders), brace o’
hookers (arms), floppers (arms),
hinges (elbows).
Hands: dukes (fists), grabbers,
meat hooks, paddlers, paws.
Fingers: feelers, fish hooks, forks,
hooks, pickers, stealers, wigglers.
The chest, abdomen and
contents: bread basket (stomach),
clocker (heart), pail (stomach),
pump (heart), ticker (heart).
Legs: drumsticks, pillars, prayer
dukes (knees), splits, stems, stumps,
uprights.
Feet: hocks, plates.
Toes: ten (as in-it’s good to have
ten).
2
by Opal Gamble
Over the next few months we will be featuring a serialized article on the benefits of online
documentation. Opal’s argument against paper considers intertexuality, delivery and update cycles,
costs, the ‘wow’ factor, resistance, waste, and technology. Opal has had a lot of experience designing,
and implementing online documentation solutions for several local companies.
The great paper debate has raged for years.
Paper is tangible. Solid. There’s something about
it that makes you feel like you’ve gotten your
money’s worth. You can make notes in the
margins; dog-ear pages you use frequently;
highlight important information. There’s
something reassuring about having that two-inch
thick Windows manual perched on your shelf,
even if you do go out of your way to avoid
reading it.
And even in our
pixel-based
world, paper still
rules. According
to an article in
National Post
BUSINESS,
paper
consumption
has grown
significantly in
our
“paperless”
work
environment: paper sales increase at 4—5% a
year. (Phelps 21)
So, considering our society’s obvious obsession
with paper and the clear advantages of paper
documentation, why are technical communicators
moving away from hard copy manuals? It just
seems to go against the target market’s
preferences and against the predictions of many
STC bigwigs.
All in Favour Say Aye
The shift makes much more sense in relation to
the Internet’s growing influence. When even the
most technically uninspired employee can hook
up a modem and wheel-and-deal on eBay, the
advantages of point and click online help become
more apparent. Online help systems:
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ease intertextuality
speed up the delivery cycle
speed up the update cycle
cost less—eventually
possess inherent ‘wow’ appeal.
Let’s take a closer look at the advantages of
online help in relation to hardcopy
documentation.
Intertextuality
Traditional manuals often contain references to
other manuals or to other sections within that
manual.
The Quill 13:2 Oct 01
The reader has to flip through several pages to
get to the table of contents for a chapter, and then
another 40 pages to get to the actual topic. It’s
not really a good way to encourage your reader
to continue to the next step. It is nightmarish task
for the writer, even with the functionality built into
Microsoft Word to ease the process.
This is where online help has a distinct advantage.
One click puts readers at the next step, regardless
of the actual distance between the two topics in
the table of contents. If readers decide that the
topic is not what they want to read, one click of
the browser’s Back button returns them to the
previous topic.
Maintenance of an online system is very, very
simple for the writer. As long as the HTML page
name and file structure remains the same, the link
stays valid. And many HTML help authoring
systems automatically update the links if you
change the file name. Assuming, of course, that
you change the name within the authoring
environment.
Delivery and Update Cycles
The time it takes to write a manual is pretty
consistent. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing an
online help system or a plain vanilla manual.
What counts is the time that elapses from the time
the manual leaves your computer and arrives,
finally, on the user’s desk.
Printing takes time. A manual needs to be sent
carefully to a printer (don’t forget your fonts!),
set, approved, printed, bound, and shipped. And
then you’ve still got to send it to your user.
The same 1000 page manual takes less than 3
minutes to compile into a customer-ready online
help system.
Fixing a typo or a technical mistake that slipped
by your SME is often a major chore for hardcopy
documentation; major mistakes might go
uncorrected because a manual has gone to print.
Online documentation enables a quick fix, even
if the manual has already shipped to the customer.
How? Well, with a hardcopy manual, you have
to have the manual reprinted, and rebound. An
online system, however, enables you to make
changes to a single page.
Continued on Page 7.
STC SIGs
October is Membership Month
The Southwestern Ontario Chapter Welcomes You
The Flapper Intoxicated
by Carrie Spira, Membership Manager
If you’re not already a member of the STC,
consider becoming a member NOW!
When you join the STC on or after October 1st,
you receive the rest of this year free.
Membership has its privileges, including:
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discounts on the STC’s annual
conference
Intercom — the STC’s monthly magazine
association group rate insurance
mailings from our local chapter such as
our award-winning newsletter, The Quill
special Interest groups
online competition entry fee discounts
employment help with resumes and
cover letters
local professional development
workshop entry fee discounts.
To learn more about the many membership
benefits available and download (or fill out
online) a membership application form, visit the
STC website at www.stc.org.
Renewing Your STC Membership
Your STC membership runs from January 1st to
December 31st. Annual membership fees are
due and payable on January 31st.
The STC office will send renewal notices in late
November to all current STC members. All
unpaid members receive reminder notices in
early February, and then final notices if they
have not renewed by February 28th. Members
can still renew their memberships after February
28th, however, these memberships are only
good through December 31st of that year.
For instance, if an inactive member did not
renew by February but renewed in August, the
membership is only good through December 31
and the member is listed as a renewed member,
not a reinstated member.
If you joined the STC on or after July 1st and
before October 1st of this year, you will receive
a 50% credit toward next year’s dues.
Help Spread the Word
You can help build our chapter’s membership
base by spreading the word about the STC and
our chapter. You can:
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Invite potential members to our monthly
general meetings. General meetings are
always free and open to everyone. There
is no obligation to join the STC by
attending general meetings.
Share a copy of The Quill with a
colleague, coworker, or friend. Pass The
Quill around work by leaving it in a
lunchroom, meeting room, or Reception
area.
Talk to people about the STC, its
mission, and its function.
Invite potential members or people
interested in the STC to our chapter
website: www.stc.waterloo.on.ca and to
the main STC website: www.stc.org.
For more information, or to share ideas on
how to attract new members, contact Carrie
Spira at [email protected]. ×
November General Meeting
Learning from experience
by Shannon Hilker, Program Manager
Plan to attend the next general meeting
November 6th, when we’ll have Jeff Roach
speaking with us. Jeff Roach has aggressively
pursued digital design communications as an ebusiness consultant with Canadian
communications firms including Harvest Design
and JWA. He is also a Certified Advertising
Agency Practioner through the Institute of
Canadian Advertising.
Jeff is the President and Creative Director of
Build Interactive where he concentrates on
helping corporations develop integrated brand
marketing strategies via the Web.
Jeff has been involved in Internet design and
development since 1994 and has acted as a
consultant and project manager of over 1,000
internet marketing projects in the past seven
years. Jeff’s experience as a marketer as well as
his past positions as Graphic Designer, Internet
Designer, Art Director, Copywriter, Production
Manager, Media Director and Account Planner
allow him to fully understand every element of
developing an effective e-marketing strategy and
deploying e-marketing tactics that work.
Bar none, no adjective has
commanded more slang
synonyms over the ages than
“intoxicated.” Despite the 18th
Amendment and its novel
approach of augmenting the
Constitution to limit, not
protect, a right, the consumption
of alcohol to the point of
inebriation as a quest of the
young was alive and well in the
1920s.
To the Flapper, alcohol was
hooch, a
giggle water or hooch
consciously slangy word (derived
from the name of an Alaskan
Indian tribe, the Hoochinoo,
involved in the production and
transportation of bootleg liquor)
that was not confined in usage to
the Flapper; to lap was to drink,
most often at a gin mill
(speakeasy). To be half-cut or
soaked with a bar rag was to
be pleasantly tipsy, while Flapper
slang to describe the state of fullblown alcohol intoxication
included barreled,
bolognied, canned, crocked,
fried, jammed, jiggered,
juiced, oiled, ossified, out
like a light, pie-eyed,
piffled, plastered, polluted,
potted, shellacked, shot,
splifficated, stewed to the
hat, and tanked
tanked. A Flapper who
could hold her liquor was a nonskid
skid; a hip hound was a serious
drinker; a drunken goof was a
flask
flask, and an apple alley was a
drunk sailor.
If you know someone who would make a great
speaker at one of our general meetins, contact
Shannon Hilker at [email protected]. ×
The Quill 13:2 Oct 01
3
New Yuppie Words
Gordon & Gordon Workshops
Hosted by STC Montreal
Fat or Slim?
The Healthy Weight Journal and
the National Council Against
Health Fraud announce their tenth
annual Slim Chance Awards today.
The Slim Chance Awards are
designed to draw attention to what
the two groups consider the worst
fad diets and weight loss gimmicks.
As you probably know, not an awful
lot separates a slim chance and a fat
chance. A slim chance is small or
scanty, while a fat chance is
practically nonexistent. That slang
sense of fat is one of the word’s few
senses that doesn’t have a close
relationship to largeness or heft.
Inveterate wordlovers know that our
lexicon is fat with faddish synonyms
for food. It’s easy to see where eats
comes from, while it’s difficult to
stomach the idea that the food-grub
is related to the same grub that
names the short, thick, wormlike larva
of an insect.
Victuals, spelled either “victuals” or
“vittles,” comes from the Latin term
for “nourishment” or “sustenance”
(and which itself comes from the
Latin verb meaning “to live”). The
idea of tucking into a good meal
inspired the noun tuck meaning
“food,” especially “sweet foods,”
such as pastry, jam, and candy. But
the verb chowing down came after
the noun chow. That word was
cooked up (or should we say it’s a
reduction?) from the longer
chowchow . In Chinese Pidgin
English chowchow means “food”; in
English, chowchow refers to either a
Chinese preserve with heavy syrup
or a relish with mustard sauce.
by Howard Kiewe
STC Montreal invites you to participate in the
following exciting workshops presented by
Gordon & Gordon in October:
Writing Brochures and White Papers
Documenting APIs and SDKs
Just about every high-tech company needs
brochures and white papers. They need glossy
brochures to create interest in their products,
along with white papers that explain their
technology.
Speaker: Manuel Gordon
Documenting SDKs isn’t easy, and it’s not for
everyone. But it is a highly sought-after skill. It’s
work that will earn you respect, both from other
writers and from programmers. And it’s one of the
best-paying gigs in our industry.
Sure, it’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it.
Why not you? Or if you’re a publications manager,
why not that hotshot in your department?
At this revealing 2-day workshop you will learn
how to work with software developers to create
useful documentation for application programming
interfaces and software development kits.
When? Monday, October 22 and Tuesday,
October 23, 2001from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM
So there’s lots of work out there writing these
materials. The only problem is: there are no rules
to follow and no standards to refer to.
This workshop introduces these two common
marketing materials, with real-world examples
and guidelines on how to create each type. The
exercises involve analyzing, planning, and writing
sample brochures and white papers.
When? Friday, October 26, 2001 from 8:30
AM to 4:30 PM
Where? At the Maritime Plaza Hotel, Montreal
1155 Guy (corner of René-Lévesque
STC members receive a 10% discount, and an
additional early registration discount of 5% if they
sign up before September 21.
For more information or to register, visit www.gordonandgordon.com. You can also contact the
workshop coordinator, Lysanne Gagnon, through email at [email protected] or phone
at 450-628-7540. ×
Where? At the Maritime Plaza Hotel, Montrea
1155 Guy (corner of René-Lévesque)
Volunteering the STC Way
Your time and skills can make a difference
by Lori Shantz
The STC Southwestern Ontario Volunteer
Committee is looking to match skilled
volunteers to community organizations
that need the expertise of technical
communicators in the following areas:
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Writing
Editing
Design and graphics
Database management
Web design and management
Community Benefits
With very little resources available, community
organizations rely on volunteers to help with
everything from creating brochures, newsletters,
and marketing materials, to providing advice for
design and web issues. They benefit
considerably from the contributions of
knowledgeable professionals, and the free help
is greatly appreciated!
STC Member Benefits
For novice technical communicators,
volunteering provides valuable work experience
4
Speaker: Gordon Graham
The Quill 13:2 Oct 01
and portfolio material. For intermediate technical
communicators, it can provide the creative output
you’ve been longing for. And for senior technical
communicators, volunteering in a mentoring
capacity or editing the work of an inexperienced
technical communicator develops valuable
management skills. Regardless of experience,
volunteering looks good on your resume and
raises awareness of the STC!
The Volunteer Committee is looking for technical
communicators of all experience levels who are
willing to share their time and skills with a not-forprofit community organization. You don’t have to
commit to a huge amount of time, even a couple
of hours a month makes a difference.
For more information on volunteer possibilities
with the STC Southwestern Ontario, please send
an email expressing your interest to Lori Shantz
([email protected]). She’ll carefully match
your skills and interests with those needed by a
local organization. ×
Mentoring the Mentors
The Management SIG
by Catherine McNair
Pamela Rand, Documentation group manager at a large tech company, has to find ways to cut expenses.
Significantly cut expenses. She’d love to do it without layoffs—but is that possible?
Dominique Disario has had a good day. Her Documentation team not only met the deadline, but they did
it with time to spare, and with little overtime. Such an improvement over the chaos and stress of trying
to meet deadlines when she first became manager. She’d love to share what she has learned.
Robert Chomsky is at his wit’s end. The tension between the two other writers he works with reached a
head today, ending in tears. As senior writer of the group, he feels he should do something. But the whole
situation makes him so uncomfortable.
Need advice? Have advice?
If you’re an STC member who is also a manager or a senior writer, and you can relate
to the situations above (all fictitious), or others like them, the Management SIG might be
for you. Personnel, budgets, schedules, mentoring, work processes, office politics—these
sorts of issues all fall under the umbrella of what gets discussed at Management SIG
meetings.
To protect the privacy of those we work with, meeting minutes are never taken, and
participants avoid referring to specific individuals by name (or by other distinguishing characteristics).
Meetings are arranged via email, but discussions are not held that way.
Think you might be interested? Want to find out more? You can check out the Management SIG page at
www.stc.waterloo.on.ca/chapterinfo/managementsig.htm or get in touch with me at
[email protected]. No extra fee is required, and you can participate as much or as little as you
like. ×
Low Cost Single Sourcing
One company’s success story
by Susie Simon-Daniels
On Tuesday, September 4, the Southwestern
Ontario Chapter of the STC welcomed Tim
Grantham to speak on single-sourcing.
The goal of single-sourcing is to devise a method
where one piece of information or one set of
instructions is repurposed in various
documents—whether paper or online.
Tim, supervisor of documentation and training
for CRS Robotics Corporation, shared his
experiences of when his company adopted a
single-source approach to its documentation.
CRS manufactures various robotics including
robotic arms used in DNA research in science
labs.
CSR employs about 100 people and, at the
beginning of the project, just one technical
writer—Tim. While he lobbied for the importance
of single-source methodology, Tim faced the
usual challenges: not enough time, not enough
people, not enough money.
When he arrived on the job, Tim inherited
dozens of documents written in Microsoft Word
that were already out-of-date. He knew had to
find a better way because no one person could
manage that many rapidly changing documents.
After developing a business case, influencing the
stakeholders and at one point threatening to quit,
Tim succeeded in convincing CSR to adopt a
single-source methodology.
Tim and his team (as it blossomed from one to
more than one) chose to author in Adobe
FrameMaker, use Quadralay WebWorks
Publisher 2000 to produce HTML and WebHelp
and then Adobe Acrobat to produce PDFs.
Next, they separated common content (such as
installation instructions, safety messages, the
glossary, and so on) from content that varied from
robot to robot (such as hardware diagrams and
maintenance information).
In very simple terms, Tim structured one document
with the common text and then, using FrameMaker’s
conditional text feature, inserted the appropriate text
and images depending on the equipment that Tim
was documenting. One model of a robotic arm had
essentially the same manual as another model of a
robotic except for those chunks of conditional text
and images. Once the document was assembled in
FrameMaker, Tim ported it to print, online
(Quadralay WebWorks Publisher) and PDF (Adobe
Acrobat).
Tim shares these lessons learned. Single-sourcing:
­ lowers on-going maintenance costs
­ allows for flexible output to multiple media
­ permits customized publishing
­ sets the stage for transition to XML/SGML
­ requires documents designed for different media
­ requires a good knowledge of all the tools in
use.
You can’t not like this...
A not unfunny anecdote about
teaching English grammar goes like
this: a teacher explains that two
negatives cancel each other out and
make a meaning positive, not
negative. For example, when a person
says I don’t have no money, he or she
is truly saying they do have money.
The teacher concludes the lesson by
noting that two positives don’t have
the same effect; that is, two positives
don’t make a negative. That’s when a
student in the back row pipes up with
a sardonic yeah, right.
Just as the student’s remark
illustrates that sometimes two
positives can make a negative, today
we offer a different (and more
positive) perspective on the place of
the double, or multiple, negative.
We begin by admitting that the
double negative is not a prestige
form. It won’t impress the boss or the
in-laws. But the construction does
serve two important functions: it can
be a weak affirmative, an
understatement in which an
affirmative is expressed by the
negative of the contrary (such as
when we termed our anecdote not
unfunny ).
And the multiple negative also acts
as an emphatic negative, as in our I
don’t have no money example.
Writers from William Shakespeare
to William Faulkner have applied the
multiple negative to great effect, and
the construction predates Chaucer.
But after grammarians began
applying the rules of Latin grammar
to English in the 18th century, the
disowned (and already disappearing)
usage became associated with the
speech of less-educated folks.
Taken from Merriam-Webster’s
Dictionary of English Usage.
Tim’s experience is proof that you need not invest
hundreds of thousands of dollars for an enterprise
solution to single-source. Anyone can do it with
careful planning, excellent knowledge of the tools
you use and a solid understanding of your content.
The meeting officially ended with Tim drawing a winner
for the door prize. However, many folks lingered for
refreshments and conversation while council members
drummed up support for the Technical Communications
Competition. ×
The Quill 13:2 Oct 01
5
Job Ad Translations
Putting Our Chapter on the Map
Please welcome our new council member
Can you translate the
following?
These are all common clichés, sayings
or other things you have heard before.
The answers are on the sidebar of
Pade 7.
1. Scintillate, scintillate, diminutive
luminous mass.
2. Members of an avian species of
identical plumage congregate.
3. Surveillance should preceded
saltation.
4. Pulchritude possesses solely
cutaneous profundity.
5. It is fruitless to become lachrymose over lacteal fluid that is
inadvertently flowing and hence
forfeited.
6. Freedom from incrustation of
grim is preceded in paramount only
by rectitude.
7. It is fatuous to attempt to
indoctrinate a superannuated canine
with innovative maneuvers.
8. All articles that coruscate with
resplendence are not truly auriferous.
9. Finicalness on the part of
mendicants is interdicted.
10. A plethora of those with culinary
expertise vitiated the potable
substance produced by decocting
certain comestibles.
11. Eleemosynary deeds have their
incipience intramurally.
by Debbie Kerr, Public Relations Manager
Hi everyone! My name is Debbie Kerr, and I am the
new Public Relations Manager for the Southwestern
Ontario Chapter.
e-mails, posters, and ads in newspapers, one of
the most effective methods will still be word of
mouth.
I am a senior member of the STC, and I wrote my
first manual in 1982 for the Ministry of Community
and Social Services. Since then, I have worked for
places like IBM Canada, Ministry of Revenue,
Ministry of Transportation, Liquor Control Board
of Ontario (LCBO), and Kmart Canada. For the
last five years, I have worked for MDR Switchview,
which produces the software and provides the
services that help companies to reduce their telecom
and data network costs.
In fact, you all can be public relations managers
for the STC, the Southwestern Ontario Chapter,
and the entire technical communication profession.
Talk about your profession to others. Include
Technical Communication as a career choice
when your children ask what they can be when they
grow up. Participate in career days or job
shadowing. Be proud of what you do!
In addition to my “paying job”, my job as our
chapter’s Public Relations Manager is to get the
word out. While some of this will be accomplished
using Web postings,
If you have any other ideas about how to get the
word out, you can either reach me at
[email protected] or at (519)
746-4460 ext. 725. ×
Council Meetings
Council 2
by Opal Gamble, Co-recorder
During a very efficient and prompt meeting at
Campana Systems, the council discussed:
Treasury
George has the chapter finances well contained,
and requests that all portfolio managers contact
him by the next council meeting to confirm his
Karen says that the competition planning is
going well; those interested in participating in estimated budget for this year. If you need a copy
the competition should submit entries to RIM by of the preliminary budget, contact George.
October 3, care of Yvonne. The judge training Miscellaneous
day date will be announced shortly (according
Ted raised some issues about advertising for a
to the chapter website, the training day is
company that currently provides Canadian STC
Saturday, October 27).
members with disability insurance. Council
members made a few suggestions about
Program
appropriate methods of advertising the service.
Shannon is working on a progression for a
general meeting. Anyone who is willing to be an
The council agreed to place a message on the
expert for the night and speak about an
chapter home page expressing our condolences to
authoring tool should contact Shannon.
those affected by the events of September 11.
Competition
Education
Heather and Janice have narrowed the speakers
down to two very tough choices. While the
contenders are top secret right now, expect
news about education day soon!
Join us on the council
And so wraps up another exciting council meeting. If
you are interested in volunteering for a committee, or
are willing to take on one of the remaining council
positions, contact Ted Edwins at [email protected].×
Get involved in the decision-making process at our monthly council meetings.
This year, meetings are being held at Campana Systems Inc.,
99 Randall Drive, Waterloo.
When you arrive, please enter from the rear of the building.
Getting there
Directions from Toronto:
From Hwy 401 West. take Hwy 7/8 North to Kitchener. Follow
Hwy 7 East, then exit north on Hwy 86 to Waterloo. Exit on
Northfield Drive and merge right. Then, turn right on Weber
Street (2nd set of lights).
Turn right on Randall Drive (1st street). The entrance to
Campana (99 Randall Drive)is on the right, just before the
railway tracks (in the Pressworks Technology Park).
6
The Quill 13:2 Oct 01
Resume
Translations
Word Puzzles - Test Your Vocabulary
by Meredith Ballaban
Are your friends and family intimidated by the words you use? Test your vocabulary
by choosing a definition below. Then see if you can work these words into casual
conversation.
1. Weir
5. Aegis
a. Oddball
a. difficulty
b. Groupie
b. duress
c. Flexed
c. religious
d. Small dam
d. sponsorship
2. Welter
a. To whip
6. Caldera
b. To wallow
a. a mall
c. To run away
b. a type of volcano
d. Primitive shelter
c. deadly spider
3. Whorl
d. eclipse
a. Coiled form
b. Wind
c. Whirlpool
d. Wig
4. Orismology
a. Science of defining technical terms
b. Branch of entomology that deals with
ants
c. Science of glaciers and ice caps
d. Study of human action and conduct
Translations
(from previous side pane)
1. Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
2. Birds of a feather flock together.
3. Look before leaping.
4. Beauty is only skin deep.
5. Don’t cry over spilled milk.
6. Cleanliness is next to Godliness.
7. You can‘t teach an old dog new
tricks.
8. All that glitters is not gold.
9. Beggars can’t be choosers.
10. Too many cooks spoil the soup.
11. Good deeds begin at home.
Answers to Word Puzzle: 1. dSmall dam, 2. b- To wallow, 3. aCoiled form, 4. a - Science of defining
technical terms. 5. d – sponsorship, 6.
b- volcano.
Continued from Page 2
(Adventures in Docuementation)
That HTML page can then be sent to
your customers, whether via email, a
patch CD, or as a download from the
corporate website.
This ability also enables writers to keep
manuals up to date at all times. If a
change is made to a piece of software,
the writer can update the appropriate
HTML topics and recompile the online
help system immediately. As a result,
whoever is responsible for distributing
the software and online help to
customers can ensure that the most up
to date version goes with the software.
Join us next month when we continue
this article, and uncover more interesting
tidbits about online documentation. ×
The Quill 13:2 Oct 01
7
What is the Quill?
The Quill is the official newsletter
of the Southwestern Ontario
chapter of the Society for Technical
Communication (STC). The Quill
is published in Waterloo, Ontario
monthly, except in January, July, and
August, and distributed free to all
local STC members. Material in this
publication may be reprinted,
provided the author and the
Southwestern Ontario chapter of
the STC are acknowledged. All
readers are welcome to submit short
articles, letters, and other interesting
items relevant to technical communication to the editor,
[email protected]. Please submit
items by one week prior to the date
of the general meeting.
STC Southwestern Ontario
Council Contacts PEOPLE
for 2001-2002
The council wants you! Contact council members
to volunteer now.
www.stc.waterloo.on.ca
President
Webmaster
Stephen Burke
[email protected]
519.748.4575 ext 266
Student Liaison (UW)
Ted Edwins
[email protected]
519.822.2417
Vice-President
E-mail List Manager
University of Waterloo
Liaison
Vacant
Past President
Who are the Quill?
Editor: Andrea Braniff
Copyeditor: Margie Yundt
Word Puzzles: Meredith Ballaban
Print manager: Andrea Braniff
Distribution: Barbara Girling
Contributor: Shannon Hilker
Comic Strip Artist: Vacant
Contributors
Ted Edwins, Opal Gamble,
Carrie Spira, Shannon
Hilker, Howard Kiewe, Lori
Shantz, Catherine McNair,
and Susie Simon-Daniels.
Advertising
To submit advertising, please consult
with the editor, [email protected].
Advertising combining text and
graphics must be supplied in graphic
format.
Business
1/4 page
($20 for 3
1/2 page
($30 for 3
Full page
($60 for 3
8
card $10
$30
or more issues)
$40
or more issues)
$80
or more issues)
Lynda Baxter
[email protected]
519.836.0834
Treasurer
George Zador
[email protected]
519.742.7984
Paul Kostiuk
[email protected]
519.748.4575 ext 258
Hospitality Manager
Leo Petipas
[email protected]
519.744.8449
Education Committee
Co-manager
Opal Gamble
[email protected]
519.883.0833
Paul Beam
[email protected]
[email protected]
Volunteer Co-ordinator
Lori Shantz
[email protected]
[email protected]
519.741.7824
Employment Manager
Membership Manager
Janice Hlinka
[email protected]
519.747.5222 ext 302
Public Relations Manager
Education Committee
Co-manager
Quill Editor
Debbie Kerr
[email protected]
519.746.4460 ext 725
Heather Martin
[email protected]
519.747.5222 ext 248
Andrea Braniff
[email protected]
519.747.5222 ext 277
Scholarship Manager
Co-recorder
Auxiliary Mailing List
Co-ordinator
Carrie Spira
[email protected]
Brian Gamble
[email protected]
519.884.1710
Opal Gamble
[email protected]
519.883.0833
Competition Manager
Co-recorder
STC Toronto
Program Manager
Shannon Hilker
[email protected]
519.747.5222 ext 263
Terry Shantz
[email protected]
519.722.4166
Student Liaison (WLU)
Terry Shantz
[email protected]
519.807.0710
Heidi Marr
[email protected]
519.886.8816
Barb Girling
[email protected]
519.893.1134
Canadian Issues
Committee Representative
Leanne Logan
[email protected]