These days, business speak surrounds us. It doesn’t discriminate against company size or position status. College interns and CEOs alike find themselves dropping buzz words in conversation. But to what end? When is enough, enough? The next time you want to move forward, deliver, or buy-in by all means go for it. But don’t expect people to know what you’re talking about. The more time your employees spend guessing the meaning behind your jargon, the less productive they are. Ben Franklin sums it up best: “Time is money.”
Category: Business
Why do people use the passive voice? Engineers, scholars and business people alike use the passive voice on a daily basis – probably without even realizing it. So then, why is passive voice frowned upon and what exactly is it?
Simply put, passive voice is a style of writing that makes the object of the sentence the subject of the sentence. Sentences written in passive voice are structured so that the noun who performs the action is not the subject. Confused? Consider this illustration.
Sentence 1: I made a mistake (Active)
Sentence 2: Mistakes were made. (Passive)
In an earlier article (http://www.shoap.com/rfp-responses-go-technical), we discussed the importance of responding to RFPs with correct, easy to read and understand responses. Several of our readers wondered if there were any tools that could help them address the arduous task of responding to RFPs. This article is for them.
Unquestionably, there are more onerous tasks than responding to a big, fat request for proposal (RFP). Unfortunately, I just can’t think of anything. People who have to do this for a living spend countless (and thankless) hours, ensuring the response is correct and flawless. These responses can go for hundreds of pages, require inputs from various and sundry departments within the organization, and are under tremendous time constraints. It’s stressful just thinking about it. Many companies, however, are facing this nightmare head-on by investing in software that automates the process. Leave the copy/paste method behind.
After an eighteen year career in technology, I have one thing in common with many of my colleagues: we have children. Eating lunch or grabbing a coffee I am frequently asked “What should my child do to get a job in technology” and “What did you major in?” and “I heard about a computer camp where kids make games. Is this a good idea?”
By the time you enter the 3rd grade, you know what summer is. It’s that time of year when you don’t have to go to school or do homework. Instead, you can just play all day with your friends, go on vacations, watch TV, or anything else you’d like to do. Summer is always a time of relaxation, an unwinding from all the busyness and tension of the school year—even at the age of 7. It’s exactly what summer should be—lazy and carefree. Summer break is a break for a reason, right?
Categories
eBooks
At some point, you’ve probably developed documentation to attract clients, educate customers, or provide instruction on the products or services you offer. Considering the effort put into creating the material, as well as the pool of expertise behind it, you might think about re-working some of your content to produce a general release eBook.
You may have heard the term “gamification” floating around and wondered, “What is that?” The answer: Gamification is the new buzz word representing the idea of incorporating gaming concepts and techniques into non-game activities in order to drive a desired behavior. Marketing campaigns can use game mechanics to drive customers to their websites, sales agents can participate in games to drive competition and increase sales, and in our industry, documentation and training groups can build game-like training materials to fully engage the learner.
I used to take Microsoft Paint for granted. I saw it every once in a while in the Accessories folder when I was looking for the Calculator or Notepad but never really used it. Then I starting using screen capture programs at work to take screenshots for user guides, manuals, online helps, etc. When I was on my personal computer, I had no idea how to take a screenshot without a fancy program, and then I finally remembered Paint. Since then, I’ve used it for screenshots, creating and editing pictures/photos, and testing.
Technical writing is an often misunderstood (and too-often maligned) field. Those who believe the myths about technical writing may not see its value and therefore miss its bottom-line benefits. Let’s look at those myths and then you decide the truth about technical writing for yourself.
Take a look at this picture of the keyboard on my Dell Studio 1558 laptop (shown above). Notice anything odd?
Well, where’s Number Lock? What happened to the numeric pad (usually shares keys with the 7, 8, 9, U, I, O, J, K, L and M)? These keys are typically used to type alt code combinations for characters not represented in the English keyboard. A Spanish speaker like yours truly would use them to type the letter “ñ”, accented vowels, and the “upside-down” exclamation and question marks.
The first time I tried to use alt codes with the laptop I thought: “I must be missing something. They must have come up with some hip new way to do it.” But how?
It turns out that in their infinite wisdom, computer hardware OEMs have decided to start eliminating features that customers “don’t want” (specifically, the Number Lock and Scroll Lock keys) in order to replace them with things that we just can’t live without, like the Windows key, a disk ejection key, or a right-click menu key. Fortunately, my manufacturer’s support staff offered some ‘helpful’ alternatives like using the Character Map or changing my keyboard language anytime I wish to type a non-standard character. Alternatively, they offered to return my ability to type accented characters in exchange for a ransom payment of $18.99 for a Targus USB numeric pad.
I still haven’t been able to decide if I’m more frustrated by the removal of a feature that I ‘don’t want,’ the support staff’s absurd ‘solutions’ to the problem that the removal of this feature has created, or the manufacturer’s complete lack of awareness of the message that it sends: “typing in any language other than English on your U.S.-market laptop will not be tolerated.”
So let this be a lesson: if you or your employees value the ability to type special characters quickly (whatever the reason may be), make sure you add the Number Lock Key to your list of features to consider for hardware purchases. It doesn’t come standard anymore.