Archive

Archive for the ‘Features’ Category

STC’s Globalization Audit Report now available

May 26th, 2011

Please review the extensive STC_GATF_report by STC’s Globalization Audit Committee.

From the Executive Summary:
“As one of the largest international associations for technical communicators, STC has a unique opportunity to lead the way toward a more globally aware and culturally considerate workforce. In the past several years, STC has come a long way in this regard, and having a global approach is one of the behaviors we highlight in our strategic plan. However, we have never formally assessed how we are doing in regard to globalization, but rather have reacted to issues as they have arisen. The results of this audit will help us prioritize and become more proactive in our approach to globalization, particularly as it relates to member communication.”

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Tim O’Reilly: Honorary Fellow and Keynote Speaker for the 2011 Technical Communication Summit

February 3rd, 2011

STC is pleased to announce Tim O’Reilly as the Honorary Fellow and Keynote Speaker for the 2011 Technical Communication Summit in Sacramento, CA.

For a longer article about this news, link to http://summit.stc.org/program-info/honorary-fellow-and-keynote/

Features, STC News, Summit News

Lively Discussion, Valuable Information

June 7th, 2010

For lively discussion and valuable information about localization, join the Localization Professional Linkedin group, http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=44105&trk=anet_ug_hm

Today’s discussion yields extensive information about the meaning of color in various cultures, to build on the chart in “Color Meanings by Culture” posted at http://www.globalization-group.com/edge/resources/color-meanings-by-culture/

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Avoiding Ambiguity: Understanding the Need for a Controlled Vocabulary

June 5th, 2010

The article “Avoiding Ambiguity:  Understanding the Need for a Controlled Vocabulary”  by Scott Abel reflects some of the conversations of  ITC members at the SIG business meeting in May at the 2010 STC Summit.

Link: http://www.enewsbuilder.net/techcommanager/e_article001771573.cfm?x=b11,0,w

Features

Fonts Evoke Emotions, According to Study

May 10th, 2010

Emotional and persuasive perception of fonts
Juni S, Gross JS.  New York University, Department of Applied Psychology, NY 10003-6674, USA. sam.juni@nyu.edu

Journal: Percept Mot Skills. 2008 Feb;106(1):35-42.
Abstract:
The aim of this study was to explore the latent affective and persuasive meaning attributed to text when appearing in two commonly used fonts. Two satirical readings were selected from the New York Times. These readings (one addressing government issues, the other education policy) were each printed in Times New Roman and Arial fonts of the same size and presented in randomized order to 102 university students, who ranked the readings on a number of adjective descriptors. Analysis showed that satirical readings in Times New Roman were perceived as more funny and angry than those in Arial, the combination of emotional perception which is congruent with the definition of satire. This apparent interaction of font type with emotional qualities of text has implications for marketing, advertising, and the persuasive literature.

Features

Style Guide for English Worldwide

April 23rd, 2010

For guidelines on using English effectively worlwide, consult Kohl’s Global English Style Guide, which has been reviewed.

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ASD Simplified Technical English

April 23rd, 2010

The AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe publishes “ASD Simplified Technical English,” Specification ASD-STE100, European Community Trade Mark No. 004901195, International specification for the preparation of maintenance documentation in a controlled language.  A consulting firm has assembled resources on this standard and offers training in many locations.

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Publishing Stories Internationally

April 20th, 2010

The challenges of selling stories for youth in many parts of the world and successsful techniques are the subject of an April 14, 2010 feature in Publishing Perspectives, “Selling Amanda Abroad.” This is a series of books and an interactive website.

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Global User Research Handbook Available

April 16th, 2010

The Handbook of Global User Research is described on the User Centric website at  http://www.usercentric.com/handbook-global-user-research. You can view the table of contents at http://www.globaluserresearch.com/book/table-of-contents.

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Book Publishing in China

April 2nd, 2010

A two-part series covers the book publishing industry in China today. Part one discusses how Chinese books are sold in the Western world and provides insight into writing in China. The second article discusses how books from the Western world fare in the Chinese market.

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Adventures in Translation Management

March 30th, 2010

Read about Lonie Goldsberry’s adventures in “Becoming a Successful Translation Manager,” a two-part article in Galaxy, the newsletter of GALA, in the fourth quarter 2009 and first quarter 2010 issues.

Features

Archive of “Technical Japanese Translation” Newsletter Available

March 26th, 2010

From early 1983  to November 1984, Don Philippi published a newsletter about translating Japanese to English. Take a look at how translation was thought about a quarter century ago.

An archive of these newsletters is available, as well as an article by Steve Vlasta about the newsletter and the man behind it. In Steve’s words, “Compared to the situation (in technical Japanese translaction) 25 years ago, some things have changed for better, some for worse, and some remain the same.’

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Design for those who are Color Blind

March 25th, 2010

There is a great article posted on the Colour Lovers blog about designing software interfaces and graphics with an awareness for color blindness. The article is written by Chris Campbell. As with most accessibility considerations, designing for those who are color blind makes graphics more effective for all users. In designing for international users, it’s also important to remember there are cultural differences in how people react to different colors.

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Tips from Google on Multilingual Sites

March 22nd, 2010

“If you’re going to localize, make it visible in the search results,” advises Google in the March 19 post on the company’s Webmaster Central Blog. The post is “Working with multilingual websites.”

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International Variations in Address Form Fields

March 17th, 2010

When you are creating a form, it’s necessary to consider users in countries other than your own. The UXmatters blog has a post about setting up address fields to accomodate international differences.

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