RSS 
Email 
Twitter
Facebook“Regular Sloggers Trying to Make a Living”
January 10th, 2008 | Posted in Blogging, Technical Writing 10 Comments »
Quite a few people stumble across my blog searching for information on technical writing. One recent stumbler, Nick, writes with the following question:
I’m studying tech writing and I happened upon this site (blog) and I’m asking myself what can I get from this thing called
“blog” and what can I give to it. It seems that most of the people who respond are lecturers or advisers in the field and not , per-se,
regular sloggers trying to make a living.It would be really refreshing to get advice and info, and give it through experience, without feeling that I am naive and perhaps even stupid beginner and without having to buy the book, or attend the lecture and then buy the book. I do appreciate the blog, it gives me an insight into the high-end world of Tech writing – but even digital watches and Ink cartridges need operating instructions.
Thanks for writing, Nick. Here’s a video that explains more about blogs:
I found the video from the Key Content blog. The video author is Common Craft.
A lot of tech comm bloggers are professional technical writers, but I’d hardly consider any of us lecturers. We’re full of advice, I’m sure. And blogs can sound like lectures. But we’re all sloggers trying to make a living. Eileen Brown, a UK technical evangelist for Microsoft, sums it up best:
“Social media has enabled ordinary people to connect with other ordinary people.”
(For the full context, see Anna Farmery’s The Engaging Brand podcast, “Blogging Within Microsoft,” 6 min)
Blogs are the thought journals of our [professional] lives. You’re invited to comment on others’ blogs and begin a blog of your own. Social media can be entirely free, and you do gain insights in the high-end world of technical writing.
Tags: Anna Farmery, Eileen Brown, reader questions, WordPress
Original post:“Regular Sloggers Trying to Make a Living”by at Google Blog Search: writing Blog tag: Writing Technorati tag: Writing
What phenomenal technical communication! The fast pace and concise descriptions are really easily absorbed. Thanks for posting the video!
Thanx for your informative and helpful reply, and thanx for not condescending!! From the video and your reply, I think I’m getting the idea. Whereby the internet is a giant library (you remember, those huge buildings filled with lots of books and people afraid to make a noise), a blog is a reading club for people with simalar interests. Nice idea, it kind of makes fun of the cynical everyday world by giving people the opportunity to share, or, for shared info, or absolutely for gratis. I’m sure people use this medium for advertising, but what the hell! I shall surely be contributing to this sites blogs in the future, in the mean time Well done and keep up the good work.
Thanks for your reply. Sorry it got trapped in the spam queue. I usually get 100+ or more spam messages a day and simply hit delete all, so thanks for letting me know you got a flag. I like the analogy you mentioned.
Ok, to business
Can someone recommend the best way to make a “screen capture”? Is there a handy little utility that does this. Can a screen capture be shaped, instead of being a square “chicklet” with out using an expensive graphics prog’. I’ve been recommended a util’ called screen hunter This is quite cool tho’ a bit basic.
Thanx.
I like SnagIt. An older version was free but not anymore. New it costs about $40. You can always create screenshots using your print screen key and mspaint.
The free version is still squirrelled away on a few websites including one of my favourites, OldApps.com. Here’s a link to SnagIt:
http://www.oldapps.com/SnagIT.php
In response to Nick, welcome to the tightrope walking of tech writing. We’re all alogging, really. It’s the nature of the job. We’re not really programmers, but are often called upon to write some code in the language du jour. We’re not really designers, but often have constructive advice on the UI. Likewise with usability. And we write, but within the tight constraints of technical documentation.
Blogging is freeing, really. All thos constraints get loosened and we can write prose that even includes the word “I” sometimes. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas.
Oh, and +1 on Snagit… Great program! Worth every penny.
Thanks, Tom for this blog, thanks Brian for your tip -I found Snagit”old” and am using it during some of my DTP exercises.
Anne, thanks for your “welcome”, I’m not sure whether you are being cynical about TC, I’m sure you must feel a little like you are in a prison, sometimes, Tech writing is very rigid. Then again most work environments are. We all find outlets for our creativity and excess energies (Like blogging, maybe?) I road-bike – Kilometer after kilometer, thats my Yoga; and I cook, thats my creative outlet.
Anyway, as we say here, Shabat shalom, have great weekends.
As a lawyer, I’m used to writing for a living, although blogging is much more conversational than legal writing. My biggest problem with planning my blog is that I want to include too much information- it seems like almost everything I see I want to blog about! This is why I have stepped back and spent some time looking into productivity addons (such as scribefire for firefox) to try to make blogging on the law as efficient as possible.