Elections for officers and board of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) are open. Today on Twitter, Peggy Harvey (@paharvey) said she wishes students could vote. I retweeted and replied, “Taxation without representation? If a student cares enough to vote, shouldn’t he/she be able to?” This allusion to the American Revolution was branded later as absurd. I admit that I was using some hyperbole here by making that comparison. I was not in any way suggesting that I think STC is run by tyrants who don’t care about the common man and are interested only in getting money out of us. (No offense to any readers from the United Kingdom.)

What I was highlighting was that student members of STC are paying members and therefore have invested in STC. They are interested in the future of STC, which is directly affected by which officers and board members are elected. I think that if a student member cares enough to vote, he or she should have the ability to do so.

Benefit Number One

I admit that when I was a student member five years ago, I didn’t care enough about happenings at the Society level to vote even if I had had the ability to. But just as in national politics, at least in the United States, many people who have the ability to vote in STC elections don’t take the opportunity to. If STC wants as much participation in the international elections as possible, permitting student members to vote is a way to accomplish that.

Benefit Number Two

Giving student members the ability to vote has another benefit: These members will likely feel more loyalty for STC because they haven’t just paid money into the Society; they’ve also helped select its leadership. STC giving student members a vote shows that they care what the students think. They will be more likely to renew next year, possibly as full members. I think STC could be making a big mistake by continuing to not allow student members to vote. As a chapter president, I’d like for student members within my chapter to vote in chapter elections.

Ignorance Alert

Now, I say all of this without knowing why STC leaders have made the decision to exclude student members from elections. Part of the rationale may be that 1) if students get a significant discount, their benefits should be limited somehow, and 2) by limiting the benefits student members receive, we prevent use of this membership level by people who aren’t actually students. (I don’t mean to doubt the ethics of any STC members or would-be members, but you never know what some people will do to save a few bucks.) STC could verify the enrollment of student members at the educational establishments they name when joining, but that’s extra overhead that we don’t need, particularly right now when STC is trying to reduce overhead.

If you have any insight as to why student members can’t vote or would like to otherwise voice your opinion on the matter, please comment.

And if you’re a member of the STC Ideas Ning network, you can see Bill Swallow’s proposal regarding student member voting.

If you’re a technical communicator who’s involved in a software development project from its early stages—the way I think it should be—then you may have some input on error messages and other system feedback that users see in the interface. I spent some time last week editing about 1000 messages for another project, and in doing so I came up with a few guidelines for writing them:

1. Give enough information for the user to know what to do next.
2. Use terms that the user understands.
3. Don’t skimp on words. It’s more important that the message be clear than for it to save space. This even includes articles and related adjectives, like “a,” “the,” and “this.”
4. Be consistent with wording and structure. Don’t say “Employee ID can’t be blank” in one place and “The effective date is required” somewhere else.

Blogger’s note: A few months after starting my blog, I thought about doing a series of slightly animated videos about me interviewing Gryp, a cartoon gryphon. I based the gryphon image on my site on that idea. Here’s that first interview with Gryp (only slightly edited for this posting). Who knows, maybe there will be more of this in the future.

Ben: Today’s discussion is with Gryp. He’s a gryphon. You don’t see them every day. So, Gryp, just what does a gryphon have to do with technical communication? Is there a connection, or are we just chasing shadows and pixies?

Gryp: I like chasing shadows and pixies. So we can take this in a whole different direction if you want.

Ben: Just answer the question.

Gryp: All right. Take a look at me, and after you’re done admiring my majestically good looks, you’ll notice that I’m half eagle, half lion. You geneticists out there, don’t overanalyze what you see—I am a mythological creature.

Wait… I just realized that raises all kinds of questions about the fact that I’m here right now. But if you want to chase that pixie, find a philosophy blog or a copy of Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” soliloquy.

Anyway, I think you technical communicators usually combine different roles in your work. You’re not just one thing or the other. You’re a writer one hour, an editor the next, then a trainer. The next day, you’re giving input on interaction design and talking about usability. You may be a manager on top of all that.

Ben: So what you’re saying is that a gryphon resembles a technical writer because there is a blending of identities. Do you think that being parts of different things makes you less of each of those things? You’re not entirely a lion, and you’re not entirely an eagle.

Gryp: It doesn’t have to mean that. I’m versatile.

Ben: How so?

Gryp: I can catch prey by chasing it down or dive-bombing it from the air. For you technical communicators, substitute “developer” or “subject matter expert” for prey, and you can see my point.

Ben: Most developers or subject-matter experts would rather not be dive-bombed.

Gryp: Have you ever tried it?

Ben: Can’t say that I have.

Gryp: Shows what you know. Look, you can be very good at the various roles you perform. Some could be minor roles, but others you perform every day. The more versatile you are, the more value you have.

Ben: I have to admit, this blog wouldn’t be the same without you. [To the audience] Thanks for tuning in and listening to a gryphon’s thoughts on technical communication. I’m sure you will never be the same. Until next time!

I’ve discovered that I write more conversationally when I’m putting together a script for live training or a tutorial than when I’m writing help or other documentation.

Lately, when I’m writing for training, I’m thinking of actually having a conversation, of talking to a real person. When I write other documents, for some reason I’m not thinking this way. It’s a problem because my user assistance content probably comes out dry as a desert in summer. In addition to not being as conscious of users as I should, perhaps there are a couple of organizational factors affecting my mindset.

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For the two years between the time I got married and I graduated from Utah State University, my wife and I lived in a 400-square-foot apartment that we fondly refer to as “The Shoebox.”

Every so often, we’d get in the mood to rearrange the furniture. You wouldn’t think that 400 square feet gave us many options, but we managed it. The funniest part is that we’d both get in the mood to rearrange things on the same night—at about 11:00.

So I have the urge to rearrange things occasionally and to try something new. This is one of those times. In about a week, I’ll have been blogging for two years. Last year on my first anniversary of blogging, I started Gryphon Mountain Tales, “the more mythological side of the Mountain.” This year, I’ve redesigned my site visually. (If you attended my STC webinar on February 10, you got a bit of a preview in the designs of my slides.)

Wanting a change of scenery isn’t the only reason I’ve done this. A better reason is that I think the original design didn’t really fit me anymore; it didn’t fit what I’m trying to convey about myself. The new design, with its header image, tells more about me than the last one did. I’ve got a professional side, but I don’t mind acting like a cartoon character sometimes.

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