1. Perfecting the Technical
Communicator’s Hat Trick:
Why My Hair’s Messy
Liz Herman, PhD, PMP, CPTC
@dr_herman
lizherman.com

2. hat trick. noun
 Three successes in a series
 Hockey: three goal or points scored in one game by one player
 Tech Comm: three+ roles played simultaneously by one person
 A clever maneuver
 Practiced by technical communicators daily
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3. Sail Away with Me
 Now sit right back and you’ll hear a tale
 About grammar, and editing, and tech comm (oh my!)
 Making your way in the world today (as technical communicators) takes everything
you’ve got
 I’ll be here for you demonstrating the many hats we wear as technical communicators
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4. Ship Shape
 No, I’m not done with the sailor hat yet.
 But am I done with lyrics from TV shows.
 Look to your port side.
 Look to your starboard side.
 All of us wear different hats as technical communicators.
 Let’s toss the anchors away and see about those hats.
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5. Out in the Cold
 You’re the only one explaining
 why irregardless is not a word.
 that DITA is not Dita Von Teese.
 why you search and replace the second space after a period.
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6. Block and Tackle
 We’re on the gridiron every day defending our profession.
 There is no off-season. Technical communication is everywhere.
 See STC’s New Online Course: Project Management and the Technical Communicator. Starts
June 11!
 This is a team sport. Everyne benefits from an editor.
 Hash marks. Hash tags. Coincidence?
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7. Wild, Wild Westeros
 We were born to know how to herd, rope, and ‘wrassle’ errant writers, commas, widows,
and orphans.
 Gallop. Gallup. Galapagos.
 Googling ‘horse and technical communicator’ yields 8.6M results
 #gameofthrones
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8. Married to our Work
 Can you read something without editing it?
 Do you get in trouble for correcting your mother-in-law’s grammar?
 Wait. Did you hear that? Was that my iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, Gmail, Hotmail,
AOL? Must. Stay. Connected.
 See also: Divas about our work.
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9. Fire Fighters
 Deadlines.
 People.
 Procrastination.
 Not for INTJs
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10. Cop to It
 So many sub-roles to play:
 Good cop
 Bad cop
 Traffic cop
 Detective cop
 With handcuffs
 Without handcuffs
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11. Searching
 how-to answers about the tools we use
 Information to include in your Summit presentation
 horse and technical communicator
 different kinds of cops
 how to change hyperlink text in PowerPoint
 Lanyrd
 find search history in Google Chrome
 STC proceedings
 From current location to Dunkin’ Donuts
 Images of hot firemen
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12. The Big Easy
 Tools can make our lives easier.
 Madcap
 Adobe
 SDL
 Webworks
 easyDITA
 Net-Translators
 Acrolinx
 We are not tools.
 See also: I am Not a Tool blog on STC’s Notebook
 Information Mapping
 Kinetic
 single-sourcing solutions
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13. Luck o’ the Irish
 You take the good, you take the bad. You take them both. And there you have the Facts
of Life.
 Last TV song. Promise.
 Technical communicators are good researchers.
 Luck o’ the Irish is often misused to imply something good.
 Tenacious drive to discern fact from fiction.
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14. Across the Sea
 Worldwide
 Multi-national
 Multi-cultural
 Multi-AWESOME
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15. Green with Envy
 Would most of you here today agree that technical communication is a pretty great
profession?
 With a great annual conference – the SUMMIT –
 With great fellow technical communicators
 With great local chapters
 With our house band The Rough Drafts (see #stc15)
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16. Mean People Suck
 Our jobs are complex and complicated
 Working with people isn’t always the big easy.
 Sometimes we use wizardry to get the job done.
 Repurpose, reuse, recycle.
 Ask for help.
 Manage your content.
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17. Groovy
 Overall, we’re a peaceful bunch
 Minus head-exploding issues when people write car’s versus cars
 Insert your grammar/technical communication pet peeve here
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18. Don’t Jest
 We can’t all fit in a clown car
 Responsibility to sustain the profession so that doesn’t happen
 Continued involvement in STC
 Networking
 Share the story of the hat you’re wearing
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19. Let’s Talk Turkey
 Missing glaring errors in your own work
 Explaining what you do
 Giving thanks to STC and you
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20. At the End of the Day
 Congratulations on the perfecting the technical communicator’s hat trick.
 Now kick back and relax!
 See you at tonight’s Summit Tweetup! #stc14party
 I will have extra hats to share!
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21. Thank you!
 @dr_herman
 liz@lizherman.com
 www.lizherman.com
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