Orange County STC Newsletter

www.stc.org May 2012 Vol. 51, No. 5This Issue:

Business English for Technical Communicators 1

President’s Message 2

Next Meeting 3

May Meeting Information 3

Editor’s Desk 4

March Meeting Review 5

April Meeting Review 6

Member Profile— Jennifer Lares 9

Orange Slice: Calendar of Events 11

OCSTC Council! 11

Sponsor Corner 12

Society Pages 13

OCSTC Employment Information 13

Business English for Technical CommunicatorsBy Rebecca Feinstein and Shauna McGee Kinney, STC Members

My friend Shauna and I were discussing the topic of getting technical people to understand business writing. As we were trading war stories,

we realized that we’ve both experienced great frustration in trying to get technical people to not overburden non-technical people with overly techni-cal information while trying to get their points across.

Technical people don’t realize that giving too much information just blows the average business professional away. Business writing covers so much more than just the technical writing part of a project. Business writing needs to cover topic highlights with brief summaries or pertinent bullets about a topic.

A computer programmer I knew always insisted on giving detailed infor-mation to his listeners, inundating them with the minutest detail. What he didn’t notice were his audience’s attempts to get away from him or the glazed eyes of those who gave up trying to escape his diatribe. He failed to realize that not everyone is a programmer, analyst, or other type of techni-cal person. In fact, nontechnical people make up about 85% of the overall population.

In most cases, a single topic should be distilled into two to six keywords per bullet, three to five bullet points. You can gather ideas for keywords and bullet points by asking yourself a few questions:

• What is your primary product or service?

• What are your product or service benefits or unique qualities?

• What price or value should you attach to your product or service?

• Where could your product be used and who could use it?

Techies need detailed information because, as much as it is part of their profession, most of them are just hardwired for this information. Business people need the highlights and some of the information. This is the infor-mation that’s usually presented to investors, customers, and other members who have a financial stake in the company.

By way of answering the questions we asked earlier, we’ll frame a scenario for business writing.

• Create web sites for technology and engineering companies

• Works with existing or new web sites

• Organizes and writes text for your web site

• Loads text, pictures and files onto your web site

• Less expensive than using your full-time staff

Continued on Page 11 >

2 • May 2012

President’s MessageBy Michael Opsteegh, OCSTC Immediate Past President

If you’re going to be at the STC Summit in Chicago this

month, please find me and say hi. It’s always nice to see familiar faces in unfamiliar places. The Summit is a wild experience, and if you’ve never been, I can help you get oriented. Also, be sure to catch my presentation, Goodbye, Arial and Verdana. Hello, Web Fonts!, on Monday

afternoon. I’ll be demonstrating how web font technol-ogy and a little CSS3 can spruce up your web content. (Sorry for the shameless self-promotion there.)

The time has come for me to pass the presidential gavel to Betsy Malone, whom you have elected presi-dent of the chapter for the 2012–13 term. As such, this is a last time you will see my smiling mug next to this column. Over the last two years, the administra-tive council has undertaken several initiatives. Some, like the new chapter web site and the formation of a sponsorship committee, were started under Betsy’s presidency. Still others, like adopting Google Apps for communication and document retention, leverag-ing VerticalResponse to communicate with members and track email campaigns, and realigning our bylaws with STC’s, were undertaken and completed within the last year. Still other initiatives, like a regional salary survey and a new job and résumé board have been initiated, but not yet completed. Your chapter council members have been hard at work to ensure that chapter business is conducted efficiently and that we continue to make your chapter dues stretch as far as possible to bring you top-notch programs and professional services.

I have been extremely fortunate to have worked with such a talented and dedicated group of volunteers as those who serve on the council and supporting com-mittees. They have made it possible for me to be the genial figurehead president. I cannot be lavish enough in my praise for the following individuals (in alpha-betical order, of course).

Jolynn AtkinsI don’t think I have ever seen Jolynn have a bad day. Her positive, can-do attitude has been a breath of fresh air on the council. Not only has Jolynn excelled at planning chapter programs and putting together a career workshop, but she has dem-

onstrated creativity and thoughtfulness when plan-ning activities restricted by meager resources. Jolynn’s

Chapter Contacts

OCSTC P.O. Box 28751 Santa Ana, CA 92799-8751

Web site: http://www.ocstc.org

Administrative CouncilPresident, Betsy Malone, president@ocstc.org

Past President, Michael Opsteegh, pastpresident@ocstc.org

1st Vice President, Programs, Roger Hunnicutt, programs@ocstc.org

2nd Vice President, Membership, Jennifer Lares and Jennifer Myers, membership@ocstc.org

Treasurer, Miriam Whitman, treasurer@ocstc.org

Secretary, Rebecca Feinstein, secretary@ocstc.org

AppointeesTechniScribe Managing Editor, Sima Staav, techniscribe@ocstc.org

Public Relations Chair, Betsy Malone, pastpresident@ocstc.org

Scholarship Chair, Carrie Chambers, scholarship@ocstc.org

Employment Manager, Betsy Malone, jobs@ocstc.org

Committees Nominating Committee:

Carrie Chambers, Bruce Giddens, and Jim Marchant nominating@ocstc.org

Continued on Page 7 >

May 2012 • 3

Next MeetingTopic: eLearning Development: A Comparison

of Adobe Captivate and Adobe Pre-senter

When: Tuesday, May 15, 6-9 p.m.

Where: DoubleTree Club Hotel 7 Hutton Centre Drive Santa Ana, CA 92707 714.751.2400

Cost: Members with reservations . . . . . . . . . . . $26

Students with reservations . . . . . . . . . . . . $20

STC member, speaker-only . . . . . . . . . . . $12

Nonmembers with reservations . . . . . . . $31

Nonmember, speaker-only . . . . . . . . . . . . $15

Walk-ins, or those registering after the deadline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $35

Walk-ins, or those registering after the deadline, speaker only . . . . . . . . . . . . $16

No-shows billed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $26

Reservations:

Due by 9 p.m., Sunday, May 13

Registration:

Online at http://www.ocstc.org/events

Directions to the DoubleTree Club HotelMap of the I-405 and SR-55 area. The star below indi-cates the hotel location. Parking is FREE.

If you would like to receive email notifications about upcoming OCSTC meetings, visit www.ocstc.org and sign up for our mailing list.

This list broadcasts only meeting notices and STC announcements

May Meeting InformationAbout the PresentationMatt Sullivan, roundpeg’s director of training, will show you the strengths of Adobe Captivate and of Capti-vate’s little brother, Adobe Presenter. Matt will discuss both the similarities and differences of the two pro-grams and outline strategies to make the most of each.

Adobe Captivate is a great product for creating software demos and simulations, but what if you’re not docu-menting software?? Quizzing, LMS integration, skins, and more are also available in Adobe Presenter. The difference is in the focus of the content. While Captivate makes it easy to explain software, Presenter makes it easy to develop “soft skills” material (material traditionally delivered as PowerPoint presentations)

About the PresenterMatt Sullivan is the director of training for roundpeg, Inc. Matt’s background in digital prepress prepared him for his current job, helping companies and individuals produce content with both the Adobe Technical Com-munication Suite and Adobe Creative Suite.

He regularly trains groups in all related applications and also consults in document conversion and template design for both structured and unstructured documents. He is an Adobe beta tester and regular Adobe repre-sentative at industry conferences.

You can reach Matt at his permanent email, matt@grafixtraining.com, or by searching his social media ID, mattrsullivan.

4 • May 2012

Publication PoliciesTechniScribe is published 11 to 12 times a year as a benefit to the members of the Orange County Chapter of the Society for Technical Communi-cation. The goal of the publication is to reflect the interests, needs, and objectives of OCSTC members. TechniScribe strives to be an advocate for, and an inspiration to, technical communicators by keeping them connected to each other and to opportunities for professional growth.

Articles published in this newsletter may be re-printed in other STC publications if permission is obtained from the author, credit is properly given, and one copy of the reprint is sent to the Techni­Scribe managing editor.

Submission InformationThe editorial team retains and exercises the right to edit submitted and requested material for clar-ity, length, and appropriateness.

When submitting material, please remember to:

Include a 25-word biography about yourself.

Send articles in Word (doc, docx), Rich-Text For-mat (RTF), ASCII (txt), or in the body of an email message.

Send material to the managing editor (techni­scribe@ocstc.org) five weeks before the date it will be published.

Editorial StaffManaging Editor Jennifer Gardelle Copyeditor Anne Stratford Copyeditor Barbara Young Proofreader Michael Opsteegh Proofreader Suzanne Madison

Monthly Advertising Rates

1/4 page $40 1/3 page $45 1/2 page $60 Full page $80

Editor’s DeskBy Jennifer Gardelle, TechniScribe Managing Editor

This month, I have the great pleasure of introducing to

you Sima Staav, TechniScribe’s incoming managing editor. She will officially take over beginning with the June issue.

I have really enjoyed being managing editor for the past three years, and I’m very happy I had the opportunity. However, three years is a long

time, and I feel it’s time for me to move on. Also, and most importantly, Sima will bring a fresh perspective to the newsletter and I’m sure some exciting changes. I’ve provided her bio below.

Sima Staav launched her com-munication career in 1985 as a systems analyst in the aero-space industry after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a bachelor’s degree in business with a concentration in manage-ment information systems. Since completing her technical writing certificate at Cal State Fullerton in 2002, Sima has been involved in various projects within the insurance, electronics, utility, medical, banking, and software development indus-tries as a technical writer. A proud STC member since 2002, Sima greatly values her membership. STC is the only group that provides such an effective venue for technical communicators to network, learn, promote, and advance within their field.

As you can no doubt see from her bio, Sima will bring a wealth of experience, knowledge, and caring to TechniScribe, and I know I’m leaving the newsletter in good hands. Thanks for your support!

Did you know that shopping at Amazon.com is not only a great place to find books and other items, it’s also a great way to give back to the OCSTC! The next time you shop at Amazon, please access the site via OCSTC.org. Amazon donates a percentage of your purchase to the chapter.

Thank you!

May 2012 • 5

March Meeting ReviewBy Jennifer McIlwee Myers, OCSTC Member

Meetings of the OCSTC are generally well worth attending; also, OCSTC meetings are generally

fairly predictable. The dinner varies, the topic varies, but it is reasonable to fully expect a presentation that is geared towards providing data on techniques that directly affect the process of producing technical communication documents of some sort. And then there was the March 2012 meeting.

StyleLaughter is a local improve group that provided us with an enlightening, entertaining, and energetic meeting. Robin McNatt, founder of StyleLaughter, and group member Christopher Veal came and very quickly got all of the meetings attendees involved

and laughing by engaging us in improv games. Very capable improvisers and comedians, both brought a new energy to the meeting.

But why have two members of an improv group as presenters? No matter how engaging, they are not what you would call experts in technical writing and communicating. Are they?

No, they are not. But that doesn’t mean this meeting wasn’t both useful and memo-rable. This was a new and

different take on technical communication, one that explored ways and means of communicating that fall far outside our usual areas of training and knowl-edge. And boy, did we all communicate!

For starters, we were asked to discuss the problem of having to “think on your feet” amongst ourselves at each table. Right away, we were grappling with a vital problem in communications: how do you react when you are suddenly on deck and have to effec-tively provide data or other input without warning. In my experience, this happens to technical commu-nicators all the time.

Once we had focused a bit on the problem of “instant communication,” we were given a game to play: each person in the group had to introduce him or herself as a character in a small town, giving an occupation and a bit of information before passing the spotlight on to the next person at the table, who had to pro-vide information about how that character related to the new one they were creating in that moment.

All of a sudden, we were in the position of having to really listen to each other and make our own state-ments meaningfully match those of our tablemates.

It was a surprisingly challenging exercise learning to communicate in a small group.

As an aside, I would like to point out that if Michael had not started our “town” exercise by announcing that he was the local manufacturer of urinal cakes, I would never have gone on to explain that I was in charge of the town’s annual urinal cake parade cel-ebrating local industry through floats made entirely of said product. In other words, I intend to pin the blame for any and all silliness at our table on Michael, even though the whole group was hilarious.

One of the points made in this game was that we can communicate best when we know our role in bringing about the desired goal. Not only did we focus strong-ly on what others were saying, we realized that only by focusing on what others were saying could we con-tribute meaningfully. This truth often gets overlooked in meetings at work, but just a little game that lasted a few minutes clarified dramatically the importance of listening.

Robin briefly went over the things we can learn from doing improv: learning to listen with-out prejudgment, trust-ing the group to solve a problem, letting go of the need to control a situation, and thinking quickly while acting under pressure to gain momentum.

More than that, she covered the specific benefits of doing improv as a means of communica-tion with others at work or at home. Doing improv provides a way to speak extemporaneously, generate new ideas without constraints, promote collaboration and trust at work, and sharpen our wits. Also, it’s fun.

While it was nice to know how to use improv both as a learning tool and as a direct way of getting results, that was only a tiny part of the meeting. What hap-pened next is a bit of a blur, but we were swept up into a varied and challenging set of improv games that got the room rocking with laughter.

Members of the OCSTC were carried away, defining nonexistent words (and using them in sentences!) in a rousing game of “Dictionary.” Many deep questions were asked and (questionably) answered during a game called “Three Headed Genius.” And there was

Christopher Veal

Robin McNatt

Continued on Page 10 >

6 • May 2012

April Meeting ReviewBy Virginia Butler, OCSTC Senior Member

At our April meeting, five career development and HR experts provided us with the opportunity to

polish our résumé, skills, and online presence. The meeting was a lower-cost, Saturday breakfast meet-ing with progression format providing five 20-minute round table breakout discussions.

The meeting started with OCSTC’s annual business, during which we bid farewell to the outgoing council before the installation of the 2012 OCSTC officers.

The qualities that each officer brings to the OCSTC admin council were compared to the ingredients in a cookie recipe: the president was flour; the first VP of programs was salt; the second VP of membership was baking powder; the treasurer was shortening; the secretary was eggs; the nominating committee mem-bers were sugar; and the TechniScribe managing editor was vanilla. Each outgoing and incoming officer was then given a cookie to memorialize the occasion. The incoming officers are: president Betsy Malone, 1st VP of programs Roger Hunnicutt, 2nd VP of membership Jennifer Lares, treasurer Miriam Whitman, secretary

Rebecca Feinstein, TechniScribe managing editor Sima Staav, and nominating committee members Carrie Chambers, Bruce Giddens, Jim Marchant, and Jennifer Myers. (At the May 1 council meeting, Jennifer My-ers volunteered to be co-2nd VP of Membership and recused herself from the nominating committee.)

Then the progression began. The first table I sat at was with Dr. Stephanie Lyncheski, who is a Com-munications Consultant at Blue Gecko Communica-tions and an Adjunct Instructor. She holds a masters of education in educational psychology, a masters of arts in communication, and a doctor of management in organizational psychology. The way Dr. Lyncheski approached her topic of Interviewing & Network-ing—Being Your Authentic Self was to ask us to ana-lyze the way we present ourselves while interviewing and networking using the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) approach. She emphasized that networking is not a passive activity, and that in order to form effective relationships, you need to be proactive.

The next table I met up with Kelly Blokdijk, SPHR, Talent Optimization Coach & Consultant at Talent Talks. Kelly’s expertise is producing and sharing career management, employment market, workplace, and job search-related content via LinkedIn, Google-Plus, Facebook, and Twitter. The way Ms. Blokdijk approached her topic of Twitter for Job Hunting was to show us her Twitter bio and explain how to use keywords and hash tags to narrow the tweets we read to our professional interests. She also told us that the best way to find people to follow on Twitter is to do a search on LinkedIn and see who has a Twitter ac-count, and then follow those people in Twitter as well as the people whom that person follows.

At the third table, I had the pleasure of meeting Denise Mills, recruiting branch manager at The Plus Group. Ms. Mills has worked in the recruiting and staffing industry for over 15 years. Her background includes providing temporary and direct hire solu-tions to local small, medium, and large business part-ners, as well as nationwide or global organizations. The way Ms. Mills approached her topic of Successful Partnerships with Recruiters/Consulting was to ex-plain the criteria to use when selecting a recruiter and how to evaluate whether the recruiter you are work-ing with is a good fit. She advised each of us to create our own wish list of top 10 companies where I want to work and give it to our recruiters. She indicated that niche recruiters, such as Escoe Bliss, Creative Circle, and Aquent (Vitamin T division), provide a more tightly focused job search tool.

Continued on Page 10 >

OCSTC’s incoming council (l-r): Rebecca Feinstein, Roger Hunnicutt, Betsy Malone, Miriam Whitman, Jim March-ant, Jennifer Myers. Not shown: Carrie Chambers, Bruce Giddens, Jennifer Lares, and Sima Staav.

OCSTC’s outgoing council (back row, l-r): Michael Op-steegh, Roger Hunnicutt, Len Poché, Jim Marchant; (front row, l-r): Pat Olsen, Jolynn Atkins, Suzanne Madison, Jennifer Gardelle, Judy Jones, Betsy Malone.

May 2012 • 7

cheerful attitude and expertise have made her a valu-able resource over the last two years.

Jane BakerJane has served the chapter in a variety of capacities, including vice-president of membership, nominating committee member, and most recently as vice-president of programs. As VP of programs, Jane crafted a well-rounded series of presentations that

achieved a perfect balance between hard skills, like tools, and soft skills, like interpersonal communica-tions. Jane also tirelessly tracked down the best speak-ers in the region to present these topics, often reaching far outside of STC circles to find them. The meetings that Jane planed were some of the most well attended in recent history.

Carrie ChambersCarrie is another long-time volun-teer who has served the chapter in a variety of ways, including two years as TechniScribe editor and two years on the nominating committee. Al-though, Carrie has had little to do as scholarship chair since the council

has not funded the scholarship in a few years, she has made herself available to assist the chapter with special projects. For example, Carrie setup the chapter SurveyMonkey account and facilitated the election. Carrie has also helped promote the chapter to techni-cal communication students at Cal State Long Beach.

Bill DarnallBill Darnall has been a pillar of the chapter for many years. He cochaired and chaired the education commit-tee for several years. Within the last five years, he has also served on the nominating committee and assisted with planning programs. I admire Bill for his longtime dedication to serving

the chapter in a variety of capacities. During his many years of service, he attended every council meeting, even when he held positions that did not grant him a vote. His wisdom and sage advice have guided the chapter through many precarious and disparate issues from preparing taxes to adhering to 501c(3) requirements and from selecting audio equipment to web hosting. Bill was also instrumental in procuring a grant from STC to purchase our new audio equip-ment. Bill’s selfless devotion to the betterment of the profession in Orange County is worthy of the admira-tion and appreciation of all the members of OCSTC past and present.

Jennifer GardelleJennifer has been managing editor of TechniScribe for three years. Managing the newsletter is a huge responsibility, and there are a lot of moving parts one has to coordinate to produce a stellar publication each month. Jennifer has faced this responsibility and managed TechniScribe with grace and style, and, to my knowledge, three continuous years is the longest any-one has held the position of managing editor. Having served as managing editor for only two years, I bow to Jennifer for her dedication and perseverance.

Roger HunnicuttSince Roger took over manag-ing programs last year, he has not ceased to impress me. He started from what was a rather small professional network, which he nurtured and cultivated into a sub-stantial network, to find speakers who were experts in the topics that interested our members most. Roger

approached program development in a methodical and meaningful way. His surveys of both the mem-bership at large and the attendees of our meeting have informed his programming decisions. His tenacity in seeking high-caliber speakers and his attention to detail have resulted in meetings that were not only well attended, but also came in under budget. I’m glad Roger is continuing to serve as the vice-president of programs for another year.

Judy JonesJudy has diligently served as secretary for two years. Judy’s dedication to the role of secretary has been vital to the continuity and efficiency of managing the council meetings and the chapter’s day-to-day business. Not only did Judy record the minutes of each meeting

and the passage of motions, but she also managed an archive of the last several years’ meeting minutes. As president, I relied heavily on Judy’s attention to detail.

Suzanne MadisonSuzanne has served our chapter in a variety of ways. She has held a num-ber of positions in the chapter council including secretary, newsletter editor, proofreader, vice-president of pro-grams, nominating committee mem-ber, and most recently as nominating committee chair and member of the

public relations committee. Some of these positions

President’s Message< Continued from Page 2

Continued on Page 8>

8 • May 2012

President’s Message< Continued from Page 7

she held concurrently with others, devoting countless hours of her free time to the betterment of the chapter. She created and implemented our corporate sponsor-ship program, which has generated the income the chapter needed to make up for reduced funding from the society. Suzanne has been ruthlessly efficient in ensuring that the chapter had the volunteers needed to continue operating. I can say, without a shred of hyperbole, that without Suzanne, the chapter would have fallen apart in the last two years.

Betsy MaloneBetsy has served the chapter continuously since 2004 by faithfully executing the duties of several offices, including secretary, treasurer, employment man-

ager, vice-president of membership, vice-president of programs, chapter president, and currently as public re-lations manager. She has held some of these positions concurrently. Betsy took the initiative to reach out to the local universities and has orches-trated several visits to Cal State Long

Beach. As immediate past president, I have relied on Betsy’s guidance and her steadfast determination to advance technical communication in Orange County and ensure the vitality of the chapter.

Jim MarchantJim is a long-time member of OCSTC who has volun-teered in the past as managing editor of TechniScribe.

In fact, Jim trained me to succeed him in the editorship, and, through his dedication to quality, he won an award of merit for the chapter in the newsletter competition. Most recently, Jim has served as chapter treasurer, which is one of the most important roles on the council. Jim’s ability to research society financial

requirements and compile information in a man-ner that can be discussed at a brief council meeting have been invaluable to the operation of the chapter. Jim has also been willing to meet outside of council meetings to develop budgets, which demonstrates his commitment to the chapter and his willingness to go the extra mile.

Pat OlsenAs a member of the nominating committee, Pat has done an excellent job of recruiting qualified members to fill positions on the chapter council. Although she isn’t required to, she attends council meetings regu-larly to find out what she can do to help the chapter

in other capacities. She has volun-teered to help with sponsorships, public relations, and resurrect-ing the welcoming committee at meetings. Pat’s commitment to the chapter has been a blessing, and her positive attitude has made her a joy to work with. I am very glad the chapter has a member like Pat

who goes above and beyond what is asked.

Len PochéLen has been an enthusiastic member of the OCSTC council. As the vice-president of membership Len has welcomed guests at our meetings, answered question about STC membership, and has worked with our public relations committee to reach out to the public to make them aware of the services STC and OCSTC offer. Len has also spoken to students at Cal State Long Beach about how the chapter can help them in their future careers. Due to Len’s diligence, the chap-ter’s drop in members after STC’s dues restructuring leveled off quickly.

Jeff RandolphNo one has carried the burden of the chapter on his

shoulders more than Jeff. As a past president with a whopping four consecutive terms under his belt and many more years of serving as the chapter’s webmaster, Jeff was instru-mental in helping transition from our legacy web site to our current site. Additionally, Jeff has been an inspi-ration to me during my two terms as president, and he has been essential

in tracing and recording our chapter’s history. Jeff’s expertise, leadership, and dedication are unparalleled in our profession.

Shannon SummersShannon is amazing. She served as chapter treasurer during two of the darkest years in STC’s financial

history. In the wake of STC’s nearly going bust and the new financial requirements on chapters, as well as a new zero-based budgeting model, Shannon was there to navigate the chapter past the turmoil. When I was treasurer, the job was pretty simple. During Shannon’s tenure,

the new requirements made the job much more com-plicated than it needed to be. Shannon was able to sort through the quagmire and set up a system that the chapter still uses today. Without someone as smart

Continued on Page 10 >

May 2012 • 9

Member Profile—Jennifer LaresBy Len Poché, OCSTC 2nd VP Membership

It’s only fitting that the subject of my very last OCSTC mem-

ber profile is my successor. My term is over. It has been an im-mense pleasure serving you all. I couldn’t ask for a better way to meet and interact with all the wonderful members of this great chapter. Best wishes to the next vice president for membership

and to all of you in the coming months.

We introduce to you this month Jennifer Lares as our spotlight profile. Jennifer comes to us from the esteemed technical communication program at Cal State Long Beach. She found out about our chapter when OCSTC president Michael Opsteegh visited her class to speak.

Currently, Jennifer works as an academic evaluator for a university in Cypress. In the meantime, she is working on a certificate in technical writing at CSULB which should be completed next fall. Her specialty is technology in education, although she hasn’t had much experience in documentation yet. She does pride herself on her ability to write quality résumés and cover letters that have become the envy of her friends and associates.

While she makes her home Anaheim, Jennifer often finds herself to the south in San Diego. “It’s an op-portunity to hang out in familiar ter-ritory but is far enough away from home. It’s also a laid back city full of many events and places to go and just recharge your batteries.” Jenni-fer became acquainted with the city after living there for five years while she completed her undergraduate degree.

Southern California isn’t her only favorite haunt. She’s also visited far-away Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa. If she had a choice of any place in the world to visit, she says, “I’d love to try going to Greece or Ireland. I have a fascination with these two areas because of the culture I’ve read about from here. I think to travel there would be an experience that extends beyond the pages I’ve read.”

When she’s closer to home, Jennifer is about as busy as can be. “When I’m not at work, the gym or school, I tend to spend time with my nieces and nephews, checking out food truck events in the LA area, going to museums or other tourist areas all over LA and Orange County.”

Jennifer was born in Artesia and is the youngest of four kids. She also has three nephews, two nieces and a mixed Bichon/Chihuahua dog named Bailey to complement her family. “My parents are sweethearts from rival schools. My family is also third-generation of Mexicans living in the U.S.” Because of her Los Angeles roots, she grew up a Dodger fan.

As for her other interests, Jennifer enjoys reading San-dra Cisneros, “She’s a popular Chicana writer and I haven’t seen another writer like her. She’s famous for writing vignettes which as a teenager, I thought were amazing! They were just short stories but there was so much depth to them and when connected together, there was a lot more to take away than you thought.”

Jennifer likes a wide range of music, depending on “what I’m doing and what mood I’m in. But typically, I listen to a lot of indie rock, alternative rock, pop and hip hop.” She counts herself a big fan of Foo Fighters and Adele.

In the visual arts, Jennifer really enjoys the Fast and Furious movies with Vin Diesel. She also admires films like Pan’s Labyrinth, American Beauty, Sandra Bullock movies, and anything with Elijah Wood. She also ad-mits to being addicted to the television show Chopped.

Jennifer has a strong drive and a vision to blaze a trail with technical documentation in the field of educa-tion. She is dedicated to the pursuit of “a career that challenges me and keeps me motivated, one that intertwines technology, education and writing with a company that values leadership, collaboration and professional development.” It is that goal she strives for while following her motto: “Walk with one hand forward and one hand back, pulling others along as you move forward.”

Jennifer Lares

10 • May 2012

and dedicated as Shannon in that position, the chapter would have been in big trouble.

Miriam WhitmanMiriam is one of the chapter’s newest volunteers.

In fact, she hadn’t even been a member long before she decided to run for the position of assis-tant treasurer. Her thoughtful comments at council meetings and her attention to detail soon proved her to be an insightful and creative volunteer. In addi-tion to serving as assistant trea-surer, Miriam also volunteered to speak to students at Cal State

Long Beach, where she impressed everyone wit her presentation skills and me with her dry sense of hu-mor. Miriam has shown the initiative needed to be a successful treasurer this next year, and the chapter is very lucky to have her.

EpilogueIt has been a pleasure and privilege to serve as presi-dent of one of the greatest STC chapters around. I appreciate the support you have given me over the last two years. The chapter’s success hinges on the dedication and participation of it members. In closing, I would like to say, “So long, and thanks for all the fish!” Just kidding. I’ll see you at the next meeting.

a game called “Pick a Line” that was hardly to be believed.

All of these were group efforts. Dictionary involved distributing the task of definition among four people who rotated so everyone had a shot at each step of the process. Three-Headed Genius required, of course, three heads, each belonging to a separate OCSTC at-tendee. Pick a Line was a fast-moving game for pairs, requiring otherwise sane people to insert prewritten lines at random into an improvised scene.

Overall, it was an active, hilarious, and enjoyable meeting. Getting to learn a bit about how to do im-prov was wonderful; getting to engage with the many unknown wits of the OCSTC was amazing!

Seriously, Michael, urinal cake factory?

March Meeting Review< Continued from Page 5

The fourth table was where I connected with Jolynn Atkins, vice president, strategic operations & consult-ing solutions at Escoe Bliss Professional Resources. Ms. Atkins was responsible for recruiting the speak-ers and facilitating the program portion of the meet-ing. The way Ms. Atkins approached her topic of Using LinkedIn to Snag a New Career was to show us her LinkedIn profile and explained how to add search keywords under the Skills & Expertise section and how to add a link to a Word Press blog using a LinkedIn application. She recommended that we put our portfolios online using the LinkedIn SlideShare application. She also explained what a LinkedIn Open Networker (LION) was: a LinkedIn member with 500+ connections.

The fifth and final table was where I was introduced to Wendy Danbury, Sr. HR Generalist at Ricoh Elec-tronics, Inc. Her background includes a bachelor’s degree in English, an MBA with a Marketing empha-sis, and more than 20 years experience in HR and training. The way Ms. Danbury approached her topic of Résumés, Cover Letters, & Other Correspondence was to explain how she approaches her job responsi-bilities at Ricoh Electronics. She also provided every-one with a résumé template she created based on her HR experience. This template teaches how to write a successful résumé by encouraging the applicant to fill in the blanks in the format.

The meeting ended with gifts to the speakers of a framed certificate signed by the chapter president, an STC portfolio, and a Starbucks gift card. The meeting raffle winners were Miriam Whitman (a Starbucks gift card) and Tamar Bornstein (a gift bag of a dozen cookies).

April Meeting Review< Continued from Page 6

President’s Message< Continued from Page 8

OCSTC is seeking raffle items!

Do you have a book, a piece of software, or pro-motional items that can be raffled at our meet-ings? Please donate those items to OCSTC.

Contact a council member for more information (see page 2 for names and addresses).

May 2012 • 11

Orange Slice: Calendar of EventsDate Event Location TimeMay 1 OCSTC Council Meeting Airport Executive Suites, Irvine 6 p.m.–7 p.m.

May 15OCSTC Chapter MeetingMatt Sullivan, eLearning Development: A Comparison of Adobe Captivate and Adobe

DoubleTree Club Hotel, 7 Hutton Centre Dr., Santa Ana, CA, 92707, 714.751.2400

6 p.m.–9 p.m.

June 5 OCSTC Council Meeting Airport Executive Suites, Irvine 6 p.m.–7 p.m.

June 19OCSTC Chapter MeetingRichard Hamilton, Making Wikis Part of Your Development Process

DoubleTree Club Hotel, 7 Hutton Centre Dr., Santa Ana, CA, 92707, 714.751.2400

6 p.m.–9 p.m.

You can get into more detail on one of the pages inside your web site. For example, XYZ Company is developing a new product. The technical people conceptualize about the product and write about functionality, design, material specifications, opera-tional functions, and so on. All of this is done with great attention to detail and information regarding the development, manufacturing, and support of the product.

With regard to this same project, the business writ-ing covers items like cost testing (the cost of product materials from a variety of vendors) and consumer expectations regarding the product. The company’s marketing department would contribute to the busi-ness writing by creating user analysis groups and writing the findings on that to fine-tune the consum-er’s expectations of the product. Later, they would write a white paper on the new product that is usually presented to the industry.

Some business writing covers such topics as reports on manufacturing costs, material suppliers, project management reports, business plans, company poli-cies and procedures, marketing research, product research, user analysis, user testing, etc.

A very important distinction to make is that all writ-ing pertaining to the product is important, both the technical and business writing; each side’s contri-bution is important to the success of the business. Details are important to each area of the business that contributes to the whole. However, the audience that business writing caters to needs only to cover the highlights of each topic. If people want more informa-tion, they’ll usually ask for it. This reiterates the basic rule of technical and business writing, know your audience!

Business English for Technical Communicators< Continued from Page 1

OCSTC Council!By Suzanne Madison, OCSTC Nominating Committee

Our chapter election is complete and the results have been tallied. Congratulations and thank

you to our new council members! They have offered to lead our chapter for the coming year and to pro-vide the outstanding programs and benefits you have come to expect from OCSTC.

• President: Betsy Malone

• 1st Vice-President (Programs): Roger Hun-nicutt

• 2nd Vice-president (Membership): Jennifer Lares

• Secretary: Rebecca Feinstein

• Treasurer: Miriam Whitman

• Nominating committee: Carrie Chambers, Bruce Giddens, and Jim Marchant

• TechniScribe Managing Editor: Sima Staav

Thank you to all who voted in the chapter election. If you have ideas for future chapter programs or activi-ties, or would like to help, please contact one of these leaders. You’ll find their email addresses on page 2 of this issue.

12 • May 2012

Sponsor Corner

Lightext is a provider of excep-tional consulting to its clients in the area of policy and procedure documentation and training development and delivery. Our professional staff is able to apply a wide range of learning solu-tions to any organization. Our proven strategy of exhibiting values and depth of knowledge while employing the right tools allows us to deliver the appro-priate solutions to our custom-ers.

Lightext also offers courses in procedural writing, curriculum design, and training delivery, utilizing our expert knowledge and profes-sional experience. As an Authorized Adobe Training Center, we merge real world procedure and curricu-lum writing skills with Adobe RoboHelp and Capti-vate product training. Learn how combining personal values and knowledge with some great tools can help you support your customer or employer as a learning professional at http://www.lightext.com.

Author-it Software Corporation (ASC) is a world leader in enterprise software for authoring, content manage-ment, publishing, and localization. Its flagship product, Author-it Enterprise Authoring Platform (EAP), is a user-friendly software solution providing everything you need to author, manage, publish, and deliver docu-mentation. ASC has offices in San Jose and Newport Beach, California; Dubai, UAE; Sydney, Australia; and Auckland, New Zealand. Learn more at http://www.author-it.com.

Special thanks to Author-it, Lightext, MadCap, and roundpeg, OCSTC’s sponsors! For information on sponsorship opportunities, send an email to sponsorship@ocstc.org.

roundpeg offers consulting, web development, and training services to both individuals and corporations, focused primarily on Adobe products. Started in San Francisco 15 years ago, roundpeg now offers classes in Newport Beach, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Santa Clara.

As Adobe’s largest training partner on the west coast, roundpeg sees training as not only a separate service, but strives to support the client through the entire lifecycle of a project. The firm prides itself on its small class sizes—often no more than six participants—in order to provide the kind of one-on-one training often needed when students are learning high-tech or complex software applications. In addition to on-site classes, instruction is available via eLearning. All instructors are Adobe certified. Learn more at http://training.roundpeg.com.

MadCap Software is a leading technical communica-tion software firm specializing in integrated applica-tions for end-to-end content development, delivery, and management. MadCap’s software products provide state-of-the-art content workflow solutions for multichannel publishing, including the Web, print, desktop, and mobile. Through its strategic partner Microsoft, MadCap delivers solutions optimized for Microsoft Windows, Visual Studio, and the .NET envi-ronment. Headquartered in La Jolla, California, Mad-Cap is home to some of the most experienced software architects and product experts in the documentation industry. Learn more at http://www.­madcapsoftware.com.

OCSTC Employment InformationGo to http://twitter.com/STCSoCal, where you’ll find employment and general information about the San Di-ego and Orange County chapters.

InquiriesIf you have an inquiry, email our employment manager, Betsy Malone, at betsybythebeach@gmail.com.

Society-Level Job ListingsSTC maintains job listings on the Internet. You can download the listings from the STC web site at http://jobs.

stc.org.

May 2012 • 13

Society Pages

STC Mission StatementSTC advances the theory and practice of technical communication across all user abilities and all media.

Positioning StatementSTC helps you design effective communication for a technical world through information sharing and industry leadership.

The Society for Technical Communication (STC) is the world’s largest organization for technical com-municators.

Its members include writers, editors, illustrators, printers, publishers, photographers, educators, and students.

Dues are $75–395 per year. Membership is open to anyone engaged in some phase of technical communi-cation, interested in the arts and sciences of technical communication, and in allied arts and sciences.

Society for Technical Communication 9401 Lee Highway, Suite 300 Fairfax, VA 22031-1803

703.522.4114 (voice); http://www.stc.org

TechniScribe Copyright and Trademark StatementOCSTC invites writers to submit articles that they wish to be considered for publication. Authors retain copyright to their work and implicitly grant a license to this newsletter to publish the work once online for an indefinite period of time. In your cover letter, please let the editor know if this article has appeared elsewhere, and if it has been submitted for consider-ation to other publications.

The design and layout of this newsletter are copy-righted as © STC, 2012.

Some articles might refer to companies or products whose names are covered by a trademark or regis-tered trademark. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Reference to a specific product does not constitute an endorsement of the product by OCSTC or by STC.

ColophonTechniScribe is written using Microsoft Word, and laid out using Adobe InDesign CS3 for Macintosh. Gill Sans and Palatino Linotype are used for heading and text fonts. PDFs are produced using Adobe Acrobat Professional 8.

TechniScribe relies on the following editorial refer-ences for style: American Heritage Dictionary, Chicago Manual of Style, and Words into Type.

OCSTC Employment Information