Monthly Archives: October 2011

What You Should Know as a Technical Communicator: Soft Skills

Posted on October 28, 2011 by

Greetings! While I was still in school, some of my grad school peers  were more concerned about getting the content right than anything else. Being a tech/space geek, I wasn’t worried about that as much. The big challenge for me–introverted, … Continue reading →

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Setting Up Your Resume

Posted on October 23, 2011 by

I know: you’re a writer. You don’t need help with writing or editing your resume. If that’s the case, skip this post. However, if you think your resume could bear some refreshing, bear with me for a bit. You might be … Continue reading →

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Setting Up Your Portfolio

Posted on October 22, 2011 by

Your portfolio is perhaps the third or fourth impression you give a prospective employer, after your resume, cover letter, and initial interview. It is the product you show an employer if they either haven’t seen any of your work samples before or they want … Continue reading →

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How to Get My Job

Posted on October 19, 2011 by

This entry is being written in response to a reader comment/question re: my recent post “For Love or Money.” The title is ripped off from Jerry Pournelle, a science fiction writer whose works I admire. The rest of it is … Continue reading →

Posted in careers, education | 2 Comments

Technical Marketing

Posted on October 15, 2011 by

As I’ve noted before, I’m not a technical writer in the purest sense. I do marketing (or, if I’m doing stuff for NASA, it’s “education and outreach”). Given the high cost of much of the work I do, advocating for … Continue reading →

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For Love or Money

Posted on October 13, 2011 by

I am one of those people who lives for my work. To make that work worth doing, and thus life worth living, I need to believe in my cause or company. It’s not that I will do a terrible job … Continue reading →

Posted in careers, personal, philosophy, technical writing | 1 Comment

Grammar Pet Peeves

Posted on October 13, 2011 by

If you’re a technical communicator, and odds are that if you’re reading this blog you are, then you already have your own personal list of spelling sins, grammar gripes, and punctuation pain points. If I ever decide to get into … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Interesting Development

Posted on October 12, 2011 by

Your Humble Narrator has been asked to be a guest speaker as a technical communications professional for a tech comm class in Houston. Interesting world, the internet: the professor found me via Google, and I’ll be chiming in for the … Continue reading →

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Metrics As a Side Project

Posted on October 11, 2011 by

In a couple of jobs I’ve had, I’ve ended up volunteering for work and finding myself getting a somewhat thankless task: collecting departmental metrics. I also got a chance to cowrite a class on training evaluation, which included more metrics. … Continue reading →

Posted in metrics, technical writing, Uncategorized, workplace | 1 Comment

Science or Engineering?

Posted on October 6, 2011 by

The nature of NASA technical writing is that if you hang around long enough, you usually end up writing for scientists and engineers. One thing became clear to me, at least regarding NASA people: scientists and engineers are NOT the … Continue reading →

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