STC PMC Newsletter August/September 2003

1. August/September 2003 Vol. 38, No. 1
by Brian Winter, Marc Green, and Donn DeBoard
Online Competition
In This Issue…
Features
1 Online Competition
5 Dinner at the Diner
6 Introducing the New Web Site
8 Where Oh Where Can We Meet?
Columns
2 Editor’s Voice
3 President’s Podium
4 From the Director-Sponsor
9 Membership Update
10 Book Review
11 Member Spotlight
12 Meeting Calendar
continued page 8
STC-PMC 2003 Online Communication Competition
Just Around the Corner
hat is the Online
Communication
Competition?
STC’s annual
Online Communi-
cation Competi-
tion recognizes the outstanding
accomplishments and innovations of
technical communicators who design
and develop online information.
Online information development
presents a unique challenge to technical
communicators who employ quickly
changing technologies to deliver infor-
mation to their audience. This competi-
tion honors those technical
communicators whose online docu-
ments clearly fulfill the intended pur-
pose, possess superior quality,
successfully integrate and organize con-
tent, and use the available media and
technologies of the platform to the best
advantage.
A panel of judges reviews each entry
and determines whether the entry wins
one of three levels of award (or no
award):
❏ DISTINGUISHED: Clearly superior
in all areas—an outstanding entry that
anticipates and fulfills the needs of its
audience
❏ EXCELLENCE: Meets high stan-
dards in all areas—the entry demon-
strates an exceptional understanding
of technical communication principles
❏ MERIT: Meets high standards in
most areas—the entry applies technical
communication principles in a highly
proficient manner
Why Should I Enter?
You’ll obtain review comments on
your entry from a panel of experienced
online documentation, help, and train-
ing authors. This competition provides
a unique opportunity to get valuable
constructive feedback on your project
from fellow technical communication
professionals. The panel of judges in the
STC-PMC competition has included
local technical communication leaders,
STC Distinguished Award winning
authors, and internationally recognized
online help gurus.
Distinguished award winners go on
to represent STC-PMC in
the Society's Interna-
tional Online Communi-
cation Competition
(IOCC). Award winners
in the IOCC obtain
national exposure in STC’s Intercom
magazine and at the national STC Con-
ference.
Entering the Competition
Anyone is eligible to submit entries.
You do not need to be an STC member
to submit an entry. You may submit
work as an individual or group or on
behalf of a colleague or department.
The deadline for submitting entries is
October 1, 2003. The entry fee for each
submittal is $60 for STC members, $80
for non-STC members. Detailed
instructions and entry forms will be
available either at the STC-PMC web
site (www.stcpmc.org) or the national
STC site at (www.stc.org).
If you have any questions, send an
email to Donn DeBoard
(donn.deboard@vertexinc.com).

2. Editor’s Voice
NEWS & VIEWS 2 August/September 2003
by Lori Corbett
Newsletter Staff
Managing Editor
Lori Corbett (610) 382-8683
Layout Editor
Open ????
Associate Editors
Al Brown (856) 222-7427
Jill Cassidy Rolette (215) 590-9815
Open ????
Contributing to this Issue
JX Bell jx@jxconsulting.com
Cheryl Cherry (215) 723-8316
Submissions and Reprints
ISSN 1078-9952. News & Views, published six
times per year, is the official publication of the
Philadelphia Metro Chapter of STC. We
encourage letters, articles, and other items for
publication.
Note: By submitting an article, you implicitly
grant a license to this newsletter to run the
article and for other STC publications to reprint
it without permission. Unless otherwise noted,
copyrights for all newsletter articles belong to
the authors. The design and layout of this
newsletter are copyright STC, 2003.
Address submissions or comments to Lori Cor-
bett, Managing Editor, News & Views,
834 Westridge Drive, Phoenixville, PA, 19087,
phone (610) 382-8683;
email stcmember@comcast.net.
You may reprint original material appearing in
News & Views, as long as you acknowledge
the source and author and send us a copy of
the publication containing the reprint.
Toolbox
We produce News & Views with Frame-
Maker 6.0 and Adobe Acrobat 6.0 on various
Pentium computers.
News & Views
t has been quite a while
since News & Views was
last published. I’ve
attempted to remain
faithful to the excellent
layout design developed
by previous newsletter editorial teams.
Hopefully, the publication of this news-
letter will engender a reinvigorated
vitality for our chapter.
Introducing Me
Many of you probably don’t know
me, but I’ve been around the Society for
more than 15 years. When I first joined
STC in 1988, I was a fledgling technical
writer in Charlotte, NC. I quickly
became active in the Metrolina chapter,
serving in various capacities (including
newsletter editor, secretary, and trea-
surer) during the next 5
years. In 1994, I moved
to the Orlando area and
quickly got involved in
the local chapter there.
My involvement was
even more extensive in
the Orlando Chapter, as
I served as newsletter
editor, vice president/
programs manager, and president.
Finally, in 1990, I was the support com-
mittee manager for the 47th Annual
STC Conference, held at DisneyWorld
in Orlando.
In August, 2000, I moved to New
Jersey on a temporary basis to fulfill a
contract assignment at Telcordia Tele-
communications in Piscataway. After
that contract, I developed a training
class for Computer Associates, based
out of Princeton.
The events on September 11, 2001,
affected my world when all contractors
were terminated at Computer Associ-
ates by the middle of October. Yes,
there definitely was a recession out
there. For the first time in my working
career, I had difficulty finding employ-
ment.
I was extremely happy to start work
at PFPC, Inc. in King of Prussia on May
20, 2002. I had never even considered
moving to Pennsylvania, but since I’ve
been here, I’ve enjoyed the work, loca-
tion, and people I’ve met.
Whether I’ve been working as a con-
tractor/consultant or a direct
employee, STC helps me expand my
network, learn new tools, and become
aware of industry trends. I truly feel
that I’ve received more from STC than
I’ve given to it.
Consider Volunteering to Work on
News & Views
Publishing a newsletter is quite a
large task. I hope
you’ve noticed the
open positions in the
column to the left Even
more importantly, I
hope you’re moved to
volunteer for one of
these positions.
First and foremost,
we need a Layout Edi-
tor. This task involves approximately
12-16 hours of work every other
month. Although I used to be a typeset-
ter, my skills in this arena have gotten
extremely rusty. If you could possible
bail me out by taking on this responsi-
bility, I will be extremely grateful.
Can’t contribute quite that much
time? How about becoming a Column
Editor? Maybe you’d like to write an
article for inclusion in the newsletter as
a Contributor. Any topic related to
technical communication is acceptable.
I look forward to working with
YOU to help make the Philadelphia
Metro chapter shine! ■
A New Editor

3. President’s Podium
August/September 2003 3 NEWS & VIEWS
Chapter Officers
President
Nad Rosenberg (856) 848-6593
Vice President
Sheila Marshall (610) 933-9573
Treasurer
Steve Lungren (267) 620-2421
Secretary
Jill Cassidy Rolette (215) 590-9815
Immediate Past President
Jeff Stein (856) 728-1254
Region 1 Director/Sponsor
Jon Baker (978) 443-3049
Chapter Committee Managers
Employment
Giacomo DeAnnuntis (215) 482-1255
Hayden Rochester (856) 429-7512
Programs
Gloria Reisman (610) 660-5118
Julia Margulies (610) 397-2448
Membership
Mike Sharp (856) 854-2141
News & Views
Lori Corbett (610) 382-8683
Nominating
Mike Sharp (856) 854-2141
Web Site
Lois Shank lbshank@ptd.net
Online Competition
Donn DeBoard (484) 595-6216
Marc Green (610) 358-0631
Brian Winter (610) 640-4200
Address correspondence for the
Philadelphia Metro chapter of STC to
STC-PMC, P.O. Box 60069,
Philadelphia, PA 19102-0069.
by Nad Rosenberg
Mission Statement: Designing the Future of
Technical Communication.
The Society for Technical Communication
(STC) is an organization dedicated to advanc-
ing technical communication. Membership is
open to those employed in, interested in, or
concerned with the profession of technical
writing, publishing, or associated disciplines.
Contact STC at 901 N. Stuart St., Suite 904,
Arlington, VA 22203, (703) 522-4114 or http://
www.stc.org.
STC-PMC Leadership
Society for Technical
Communication
About Goals
ne of my goals for
2003 was to become
more active in the
local STC. I thought I
could start with some-
thing sort of non-tax-
ing, like working on
one of the committees. Then Mike
Sharp pitched the idea of running for
president. After some hemming and
hawing (and the results of the election),
here I am writing from the President's
Podium. Now that I’m settling into the
role, I’m really excited about the things
we can do together this year.
For those of you who don’t know
me, I’ve been an STC member for more
years than I care to remember (some-
time in the mid-80s). Throughout the
years, I’ve given presentations at chap-
ter meetings and at national confer-
ences. And during this time, I’ve gone
from working as a technical writer to
managing technical writing depart-
ments to owning my own technical
writing company (techw.com). Basi-
cally I’ve experienced our craft from
many points on the professional com-
pass—and I’m now hoping to give back
a little of what I’ve learned to the orga-
nization. That’s why I find myself here,
today, writing this column.
But enough about me and my goals,
how about the chapter and its goals?
I’ve put together a list of goals I feel
we should work toward in the upcom-
ing year. As usual, it’s difficult to prior-
itize these goals—I would like them all
to be “number one.” With that said,
here’s the list:
1) Improve meeting attendance and
participation. To implement this goal,
we can establish less expensive meet-
ings, ensure meeting communication is
handled effectively, reach out to mem-
bers to become involved, and to non-
members to join the organization. For
more on the task of establishing less
expensive meetings, see the article enti-
tled Where Oh Where Can We Meet?
2) Improve communications. This
means getting the new STCPMC web
site up and running and re-starting the
newsletter. I’m happy to report that
we’re making progress on both fronts.
We had a meeting in mid-July about
the new web site, and thanks to the
continued on page 6
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Reach more than 400 technical communicators through one of STC's top chapter
newsletters
Advertise to really get the word out!
Advertising Policy
News & Views accepts advertisements that promote products or
services of professional interest and/or benefit to professional
communicators. The editors reserve the right to reject any advertis-
ing that does not meet this standard.
For information, contact the Managing Editor, Lori Corbett, at (610)
382-8683 or stcmember@comcast.net.

4. From the Director-Sponsor
NEWS & VIEWS 4 August/September 2003
by Linda Oestreich, Director-Sponsor Region 5
Report on the Spring 2003 STC
Board of Directors Meeting
ow! What a confer-
ence, and what a
board meeting
(held on Saturday,
May 17, in Dallas,
Texas) to precede
it! The general topics of discussion
included the upcoming retirement of
STC executive director, Bill Stolgitis,
and the selection of Peter Herbst as his
successor, realignment of membership
dues and rebate structure, chapter loans
and grants, and the state of the Society
in relation to the changing world we
live in.
Ed See, our immediate past presi-
dent, shared his thoughts about the past
year and extended his heartfelt thanks
to the board for successfully navigating
a tough year that included budgetary
reductions, decreases in expected con-
ference attendance, and the selection of
a new executive director for the Society.
The following actions were taken at
the May board meeting:
❏ Approved the minutes from the pre-
vious two board meetings.
❏ Approved chapter rebates as fol-
lows: Each chapter will receive $30.00
USD per member for the first 150
members on their rosters; $20.00 USD
per member for each member over
150; $13.50 USD per member for stu-
dent members, and $100 USD per sus-
taining member.
❏ Approved membership dues as fol-
lows: regular membership per year will
be $140; student membership dues will
be 40% of regular membership dues;
and retired membership dues will be
50% of regular membership dues,
effective with the dues for the year
beginning January 1, 2004.
❏ Approved a chapter loan in the
amount of $3,000 to the Alberta chap-
ter for the 2003 Region 7 conference,
with repayment to begin no more than
60 days after the conference.
❏ Accepted the Society treasurer’s
financial report.
❏ Approved the formation of a special
committee to recommend to the board
a means of transforming STC’s opera-
tional model so that the Society can
better support its many communities
of practice, enable growth, and stabi-
lize revenue. This ad hoc “transforma-
tion committee” is managed by Mary
Jo Stark, STC treasurer.
❏ In addition, the board selected
recipients of Chapter of Distinction
and Chapter Pacesetter Awards.
The following items were discussed
at the board meeting:
❏ During the discussion that led to the
appointment of the transformation
committee, the board insisted that the
foremost principle of any new
approach to STC governance would be
to “do no harm” to current processes
and entities. Rather, the objective is to
look at ways to strengthen the commu-
nities of practice within STC and
explore how the Society can respond
to and support those communities,
including the geographical communi-
ties represented by STC chapters.
❏ Because of the present global econ-
omy and the importance of member-
ship growth to the Society’s strength
and stability, the Board discussed sev-
eral tactics for increasing member-
ship—both on the Society level and by
helping chapters work toward that
goal locally.
❏ If you have questions or comments
about the STC board of directors or
any of the items mentioned in this arti-
cle, please contact your director-spon-
sor or the STC office.■
Editor’s Note: The Philadelphia Metro
chapter is in Region 1. Our director-
sponsor is Jon Baker
(jbaker2525@earthlink.net).
September 18
Effective XML:
Leveraging Structure-
Based Markup at
Bentley Systems in
Exton, PA.
October 17
Usability Case
Studies: Turning Usability Findings into
Design Solutions
For location and reservation details see the
STCPMC website (www.stcpmc.org)
Aug 20. STC Telephone Seminar: Winning
New Business: Preparing the Proposal 101 to
be presented by
Judith Herr.
October 2-4.
Region 7 Annual
Conference, hosted
by the Alberta
chapter at the Delta
Bow Valley in Calgary, Alberta. For
information, contact Brian O’Mally,
Conference Manager: manager@
region7conference. com or visit
www.region7conference.com.
October 9-12. Region 5 Conference, “Tech
Comm Stampede,” hosted by the Austin
Chapter at the Omni Austin Hotel. For more
information, contact Diana Barkley (512)
239-6642, dbarkley@tceq.state.tx.us, or visit
www. stcaustin.org/confregion5.
October 11-13. Region 5 Conference,
“Invention, Innovation, and Ingenuity.” In
Houston, TX. For information, contact
nicole@verb1.com or visit www.stc-
houston.org/r5conference.
May 9-12, 2004. 51st Annual Conference.
in Baltimore, MD.
STC-PMC 2003-2004
Calendar
STC Around the World

5. August/September 2003 5 NEWS & VIEWS
by Cheryl Cherry
COST: $599 for both days (includes 32
sessions, 2 keynotes, foot/receiption,
materials)
TRAVEL: Conference hotel rooms avail-
able at $99/night (register early)
DATES: October 6-7, 2003
WEB: www.doctrain.com
PDF: www.doctrain.com/pdf/
doctrain2003.pdf
Keynote Speaker
David Pogue:
New York Times
technology col-
umnist and one of
the world’s best-
selling technical
how-to authors, with over 2.5 million
books in print. David’s topic is “Interface
Design: The Last Stumbling Block.”
Vincent Flanders: Author of two best-
selling books on Web design. Vincent’s
topic is “Web Design for Online Learn-
ing and Training.”
Sessions:
❏ Content Management
❏ Content Design
❏ Content Development
❏ e-Learning
❏ Simulations
❏ Globalization
❏ Multimedia
❏ .NET
Documentation and Training
Conference at
Boston University
Allentown Dinner at the Diner
A subset of our chapter
meets occasionally at a
dinerneartheAllentown
exit of the NE extension
of the PA turnpike. We
eat dinner, network, and
discuss work-related topics.
Our next informal get-together is
Wednesday 24 September 2003. All tech
writers are welcome!
If you can’t join us on
the24thofSeptember,
but would like to be
added to
the list for future
emailed
announcements,
contactCherylCherry
(cacherry@
comcast.net).
What: Tech writers' informal get-
together over dinner
When: Wednesday 24 September 2003,
6:15 PM
Where: Chris's Family Restaurant, 5635
W. Tilghman St., Allentown (near exit
33 of PA Turnpike and the Route 22 exit
of Route 309)
Who: All tech writers are welcome. If
you have colleagues who are not mem-
bers of STC, bring them along!
Cost: We’ll order from the regular menu
(separate checks). Most entrees at
Chris’s are under $10.
RSVP: If you plan to attend, please email
or phone Cheryl Cherry by noon on the
24th of September . My email address is
cacherry@comcast.net and my phone
number is (215) 723-8316 For direc-
tions, go to http://www.stcpmc.org or
ask Cheryl.
Start Your Own Dinner at the Diner
If you live far from the sites of
monthly chapter meetings, but also far
from Allentown, consider starting your
own informal get-togethers with other
tech writers in your area. It is so easy to
get started. Just pick a date, time, and
casual restaurant at which to meet. Send
the info to the Lois Shank, the STC-
PMC Webmaster at lbshank@ptd.net-
and Lori Corbett, the News & Views
Editor at stcmember@comcast.net.
These sessions are a fun way to meet
your fellow writers who don’t have time
to travel to chapter meetings. Chatting
with a small group in an informal setting
gives everyone a chance to exchange
ideas with other local writers. ■
STC meeting event receipts, for all
events, are self-serve from the
chapter’s web site
http://www.stcpmc.org/pdf/
receipt.pdf

6. STC-PMC Technology Update
NEWS & VIEWS 6 August/September 2003
by JX Bell
arlier this year, the
STC-PMC leadership
met to discuss ways to
make our chapter
more vibrant and ful-
fill the needs of our
members. We decided a revamped web
site would better suit our needs. Not
only was the current design out of touch
with web navigation and user interface
standards of 2003, it required central
coordination and web development
knowledge to
add or delete
new articles or
calendar infor-
mation.
Although I
work full-time
as a technical
writer for
MapQuest, I
have experience
in web develop-
ment. I volun-
teered some
time to create a
web site for
STC-PMC.
Because of the
organization’s
use of articles
on different topics (such as from past
“newsletters”),events,announcements,
and a desire to add more information
quickly, I researched free content man-
agement systems that don't require
HTML and web development knowl-
edge to extend the site on a day-by-day
basis.
Introducing Postnuke
The new site is based on Postnuke, a
free web application framework. Post-
nuke displays all web pages and solicits
the help (when needed) of software
plug-ins called modules. Unlike most
traditional web sites, most of the data
(like articles and events) are stored in a
database, not in files. For those who are
familiar with web tools, I should men-
tion that Postnuke is built on top of the
PHP webdevelopmentlanguage. Check
out the Postnuke site at www.post-
nuke.org for more information.
Compared to other (free) competi-
tors that met STC-PMC’s needs, Post-
nuke has the most active developer
community and user community.
New Site Features
Thanks to the built-in rich content
editor in Windows Internet Explorer,
users can create rich content (HTML)
with no need for the chapter to have
multiple licenses to Dreamweaver or
other HTML editors. (Although you
could use such things if you want to.)
Here are some of the new features
you’ll find on our revamped web site:
❏ Basic site navigation (navigation
bar, appropriate links to the STC).
❏ The ability to post “articles” that
provide useful information and/or
show off the writing skills of members.
❏ The full-featured calendar lets you
browse events and automatically show
current and upcoming events. Events
that have already occurred are auto-
matically removed from the front page
when they are no longer relevant.
❏ News items appear on the front
page until more
current news
replaces it.
❏ The site is
upgradeable. In
the future, our
chapter will be
able to integrate
software that other
people (or other
STC chapters)
have written. Also
STC-PMC could
upgrade the fea-
ture set when the
next version of
Postnuke or its
modules are avail-
able.
❏ Site-wide search
engine.
❏ An optional
sophisticated privi-
leges model. For instance, we can
define user access so that many people
can create articles or events, but only
one person can approve things for
posting.
❏ Password-protected “Job Board” so
that only STC-PMC members can
access it.
❏ All the software is free!
Where Is the Data?
For the geeks who are interested, the
data is stored in the open source
MySQL database hosted by the same
Announcing the New STP-PMC Web Site
continued on page 7

7. August/September 2003 7 NEWS & VIEWS
web hosting ISP.
New Internet Service Provider
We’ve also changed Internet Service
Providers (ISP). Although it isn’t strictly
a web issue, the system at the new ISP
features a sophisticated mailing list
manager that enables us to provide our
mailing lists in the intuitive format
newsletter@stcpmc.org, as well as pro-
vide key officers or offices have their
own mailing address. The mailing list
server (called Mailman) has a nice web
interface and has been thoroughly
tested by thousands of web sites. The
STC-PMC leadership identified the
effective use of mailing lists as a require-
ment for the organization, which was
too expensive and awkward at our old
ISP. Stay tuned for more announce-
ments about STC-PMC mailing lists
during the next few months.
Volunteer Opportunity
Some chapter members have already
expressed a desire to help, and have
been partially trained on the system.
My personal interest is to get the system
up and running and then step aside so
that people could add articles, news,
FAQs, events, etc. If you would like to
help with the web site or add content to
it, contact Lois Shank at
lbshank@ptd.net.
By the time you read this article, the
revamped site should be live.
The STC-PMC leadership hopes you
enjoy the improved appearance and
new features as they are incorporated
into the site during the next few
months. Be sure to keep checking the
site (www.stcpmc.org) as we add to our
site! ■
STC-PMC Technology Update
continued from previous page

8. NEWS & VIEWS 8 August/September2003
President’s Podium
continued from page 3
hard work of JX Bell, we should be
making the cutover to the new site this
summer. As far as the newsletter goes,
you're probably reading this article in
the newsletter, which has just been re-
energized by Lori Corbett.
3) Manage the chapter more effec-
tively. This means holding monthly
“leaders” meetings before the “real”
meetings (and in the summer), evaluat-
ing decisions based on financial data,
and getting more people involved.
4) Improve professionalism. This
means re-establishing the pubs compe-
tition and expanding the roles of com-
mittees so that they interpret their
roles with a focus on this goal. For
example, Employment will now han-
dle more than just posting jobs-this
committee will now be responsible for
handling all career-related issues such
as: presenting at the chapter's annual
conference on employment-related
issues, providing outreach and support
for unemployed and underemployed
chapter members, etc.
What Do You Think?
I’d like to get your feedback-and,
hopefully, your involvement in meeting
these goals. If you would like to add to
or modify items on my list, please drop
me a line (twnad@techw.com). But
what’s more, I hope I can count on you
to help make this chapter a robust pro-
fessional resource for all of us during
the upcoming year. ■
Judging the competition
Being a judge is a great experience.
It’s a great chance to mingle with fellow
seasoned professionals and talk shop
about design and development con-
cerns. It’s also an excellent opportunity
to see a broad sampling of work being
done by your fellow professionals.
Being an online competition judge
requires a commitment of time and
energy, but it’s more than worthwhile
for the experience of coming together
with fellow authors, learning from their
collective wit and wisdom, and sharing
constructive feedback to help the
entrants and each other produce even
better work in the future.
If you’d like to join us, send an email
to Brian Winter (brian.winter@
vertexinc.com) by September 19, 2003
to let us know you’re interested. ■
Online Competition
continued from page 1
Where Oh Where Can We Meet?
his is a question for all Philadelphia Metro
STC members and nonmembers.
One of our goals this year is to lower the
cost of meetings in order to boost attendance
and participation. Essentially, we're looking
for free or inexpensive places to hold meetings.
As you know, we typically hold meetings at
hotels, which give us the room for free if we guarantee a cer-
tain number of dinners. These dinners tend be in the $25 to
$30 range. If we have the meetings at venues where we can
bring in our own food (for example, trays of cold cuts or
snacks), the cost of the meetings will be much lower ($5 to
$10), and hopefully more of you will be able to attend.
So the issue is ... do you know of any locations into that
fit into this category? Some possible options are: company
meeting rooms, educational institutions, public buildings, etc.
If you have any suggestions, please contact Sheila Marshall
(sheilam@mindspring.com) or Gloria Reisman
(greisman@netaxs.com). ■

9. August/September 2003 9 NEWS & VIEWS
Membership Update
September 18, 2003
Effective XML -- Leveraging Structure-Based Markup
Presented by Melissa Kenig, Building Documentation Manager, Bentley Systems, Inc., Exton, PA
Learn how to use XML effectively by creating new documentation deliverables without modifying content. XML is a highly
organized markup language that provides valuable metadata for documentation reuse. Melissa Kenig from Bentley Systems, Inc.
will show how her department enriched and embellished their documentation deliverables by manipulating existing content.
Melissa Kenig is the Building Documentation Manager for Bentley Systems, Inc. based in Exton, PA. During her nine years
there, Melissa has seen the department move from a desktop-based system to an advanced-markup system. Melissa was one of the
chief architects of their current XML system.
Location: Bentley, 685 Stockton Drive, Exton PA 19341
Fee: $15 for all
Directions: http://www.bentley.com
Times: Networking and Hors d’oevres: 6:30; Program: 7:30
October 16, 2003
Usability Case Studies: Turning Usability Findings into Design Solutions
Presented by Robert Tannen, Director Human Factors, Electronic Ink, Philadelphia, PA
The corporate web site of ISI was redesigned annually for three years. Usability studies conducted on each design produced
interesting insights into the ever-changing web world and the adaptation to these changes by our users. What were originally con-
sidered unacceptable “all the way back” in 1998 were simply non-issues in 1999. And by 2000, users had come full circle—
requesting features that users of the original site had wanted removed!
What can we glean from these studies? Are our users really that fickle? We find that as technology changes, so do our users and
their expectations. Come hear what our users thought worked, as well as what didn’t. You may be surprised by our findings.
Location: Doubletree Guest Suites, 640 West Germantown Pike, Plymouth Meeting PA 19462
Directions: http://www.doubletree.com/en/dt/hotels/directions.jhtml?ctyhocn=PHLGHDT
Fee: Member: Dinner and Program $20, Program Only $10 (remainder subsidized by chapter)
Nonmember: Dinner and Program $30, Program Only $15
Times: Networking and Dinner: 6:30; Program: 7:30 ■
September and October Meetings
ongratulations to the
following members of
the Philadelphia
Metro chapter, who
have achieved senior
membership status:
❏ Joe Dawson
❏ Marcia A. Jacquette
❏ Mark R. Myers
❏ Barbara R. Green
❏ Drew Knox
Welcome to our new members for
the month of July (and their employers
as available) are:
❏ Marian Hall
❏ Robert Christian Hudson
❏ Rick R. Miller, Verizon
❏ Anne L. Schier
❏ Emily M. Shoup
Also welcome the following mem-
bers who have transfered to our chapter
from other chapters:
❏ Susan E. DeSerio
❏ Criag E. Laird
❏ Natosha L. Morris. ■
Congratulations and Welcome

10. Book Review
NEWS & VIEWS 10 August/September 2003
by Al Brown
have to say up front that,
the titles aside, I’m partial
to the Dummies books.
Usuallythey’repragmatic
and objective, and serve
as a good place to start if
you want to find out about a topic. And
the touch of humor keeps things from
being too intimidating.
I’m not a snob: I’ll take good infor-
mation wherever I can find it, even with
a cover that pretends to insult my intel-
ligence.
So we should be flattered, I suppose,
that our profession is considered impor-
tant enough to merit a new title in the
catalogue. Unfortunately, Sheryl Lind-
sell-Roberts’ Technical Writing for
Dummies will reinforce the prejudice of
those who refuse to go near any book in
this series.
Why read the book? “Learn about
the red-hot market of technical writing
and how masterful technical writing
will enhance your career....” It covers a
variety of document types, from user
manuals and specifications to presenta-
tions, in print and electronic formats.
Interestingly enough, Ms. Lindsell-
Roberts doesn’t seem too comfortable
with technology. Her section on presen-
tations doesn’t even mention Power
Point. The chapter on online help, argu-
ably the core of contemporary technical
communication, lacks coherence; it
doesn’t clarify the difference between
online help and online documentation,
and contains several misleading defini-
tions. And when was the last time you
were in a library with a card catalogue?
The author centers her method
around a two-page “Technical Brief,”
which itemizes the content require-
ments; audience information; and time,
budgetary, and production constraints.
The Dummies books
make effective use of
informal diction and
humor to take the
edge off of technical
complexity.
This is standard stuff—know your
audience, know your company, know
your SMEs—that’s more useful for an
engineer or a novice tech writer than for
a veteran. The chapter on style, “Going
In for a Tone Up,” has something useful
for everyone, regardless of experience.
This is one of the few books I’ve seen
that takes a realistic view of the passive
voice; the two appropriate uses are
when “you want to place the focus on
the action, not the actor,” and when
“you’re hiding something.”
The Dummies books make effective
use of informal diction and humor to
take the edge off of technical complex-
ity. As the chapter title cited above indi-
cates, this volume takes that idea over
the top. Even captions are all puns and
no information. The normally desirable
personal tone becomes self promotion.
Judging from her biography, Ms Lind-
sell-Roberts concentrates on writing
seminars and business writing. This
may explain why some of the analogies
are slightly off kilter. She introduces the
section on parallel constructions by
talking about parallel bars in gymnas-
tics. It doesn’t quite make sense, but in a
seminar the presenter is on to some-
thing else before you’ve had a chance to
think about it; on the page it’s another
matter.
Aside from the odd structure—and a
chapter on applying for patents that
seems to have wandered in from a dif-
ferent book—there’s nothing wrong
with the content in broad outline. It’s in
the details that the author goes astray,
with results ranging from misleading to
absurdly wrong. Lindsell-Roberts
traces the origins of technical writing all
the way back to World War II, for
example, and distinguishes serif from
sans serif type by the presence or
absence of ascenders and descenders.
These bits of trivia, along with a num-
ber of key typographical errors in
examples, this makes me wonder where
the editor was.
It may be unfair for an experienced
person (i.e., someone who’s belonged to
the STC for a year or more) to criticize a
book like this. Even so, the negatives of
Technical Writing for Dummies far out-
weigh the positives. There are too many
other good books aimed at different
skill levels to justify adding this one to
anyone’s library. ■
Lindsell-Roberts, Sheryl, Technical Writing for Dummies®.
New York: Hungry Minds, Inc., 2001. ISBN 0-7645-5308-
9 (paper). $19.99.
Technical Writing for Dummies®
by Sheryl Lindsell-Roberts

11. Member Spotlight
August/September 2003 11 NEWS & VIEWS
by Jill Cassidy Rolette
s we resume the activi-
ties associated with the
newsletter, we look for-
ward to the opportunity
to introduce you to
some more members of
our chapter. How do we decide on
whom to turn the “spotlight”? Well, it’s
not a very scientific selection process,
that is for certain! Often times the spot-
light tends to shine on those who return
my emails requesting an interview! If
you know someone that we should
introduce to the chapter through the
“Member Spotlight,” or if you would
be willing to play “Twenty Questions”
with me yourself, please contact me at
jcassidy@nbme.org. I thoroughly enjoy
the process of highlighting the achieve-
ments and aspirations of our members,
and I look forward to meeting many of
you as the result.
Meet Lois Shank
We begin this year by introducing
you to Lois Shank, our new website
administrator, as well as program and
brochure designer. While Lois has been
in the field of technical communication
for ten years, she has been an STC mem-
ber for three years, just long enough to
find her niche in the volunteer network
that keeps the chapter running
smoothly.
Lois found herself in the world of
technical communication after spend-
ing some time serving in support roles.
She was drawn to our field by a love of
learning new things and translating
them for others to learn. Not that she
views our field through rose-colored
glasses; Lois identifies her biggest fault
with the field as being “other depart-
ments ‘hoarding’ information and
access to new software for political rea-
sons.” A common complaint for all of
us at times!
Even after ten years, Lois is eager to
learn, and hopes to continue to take on
the new challenges of single-sourcing
and other new technology. She encour-
ages others in the field to never “stop
learning, even after you get your first
job. You never know when you might
have a chance to use it later. User assis-
tance is as important as the code itself.
The software is useless if no one can fig-
ure out how to use it.”
Lois defined some of the most signif-
icant changes in the dynamic world of
technical communication as both tech-
nical and non-technical. She sites the
technical changes as being the push to
be “more” than a technical writer and
knowing at least three different field-
specific tools. Non-technically she sees
the field “expanding in several different
directions. Many companies are look-
ing for writers with dual majors; (for
example, writers/QAers, writers/train-
ers, and writers/validation analysts.”
Along with the growing list of
responsibilities a technical writer now
has in the workplace, Lois notes that
the workplace itself appears to be shift-
ing. Her most recent job search yielded
more contract openings than perma-
nent job opportunities. She envisions
that the changing face of the technical
communicator’s job market to be a hall-
mark of how people desire to work in
the future.
Lois has extensive background in
technical communication, which has
made her an ideal volunteer within our
chapter. She identifies the benefits of
STC membership to include the access
to information and presentations by
writers on topics outside [her] experi-
ence. She also appreciates the opportu-
nity to tackle new responsibilities that
wouldn’t normally be a part of her daily
workload. She is excited about the
growth and changes our chapter has
experienced recently, and she encour-
ages other members to find a way to get
involved. She suggests “if you are an
expert at something, or even just know
something that might be useful, con-
sider doing a presentation to share your
knowledge, or write an article for the
newsletter.” Our chapter is beginning a
“new chapter” in its history and now is
one of the most exciting times to
become a part of the significant changes
and growth we will experience.
Just as Lois culti-
vates the many
(around 45!) different
varieties of old-fash-
ioned roses (many
with origins in Victo-
rian and Medieval gar-
dens), she has become a vital part of the
new growth of our chapter. Introduce
yourself to our website administrator at
our next chapter meeting…and ask
yourself how you can join our happy
team of volunteers.
It’s good to be back! ■
Lois Shank - Helping Us Grow

12. Newsletter Address
News & Views
Lori Corbett
834 Westridge Dr.
Phoenixville, PA 19460
stcmember@comcast.net
First Class Mail
NEWS & VIEWS 12 August/September 2003
Upcoming Meetings
DEADLINE FOR NEXT ISSUE:
September 15, 2003
The information in the following table was correct at the time News & Views was published. Be sure to check the web site
(www.stcpmc.org) for details and to check for late-breaking updates to the schedule. For all Thursday meetings, reservations are
due by the Monday before the meeting. Note that the Workshop and Conference in March will require special registrations.
Date Meeting Topic Location
September 18, 2003 Effective XML: Leveraging Structure-Based Markup (details on page 9) Bentley System, Exton PA
October 16, 2003 Usability Case Studies: Turning Usability Findings into Design Solutions
(details on page 9)
Doubletree, Plymouth Meeting, PA
November 20, 2003 Managing Remote Employees / Telecommuting /
Preview of Annual Conference in Baltimore
Siemens, Malvern, PA
January 15, 2004 eLearning TBD
February 19, 2004 Back to School: Local Area Technical Writing Programs Philadelphia University
March 19, 2004 Jared Spool Usability Workshop University of Pennsylvania,
Great Valley, PA
March 20, 2004 Second Annual Philadelphia Metro Conference University of Pennsylvania,
Great Valley, PA
April 15, 2004 Contracting Panel TBD
May 20, 2004 Content Management presented by Cheryl Lockett Zubak Doubletree, Plymouth Meeting, PA
A Look Inside...
❏ Get ready for the Online Communication
Competition. (p. 1)
❏ Managing editor Lori Corbett introduces
herself. (p. 2)
❏ Meet the chapter’s new president in Nad
Rosenberg’s first President’s Podium. (p. 3)
❏ Learn about the Board of Directors meet-
ing in the month’s Director-Sponsor article.
(p. 4)
❏ Cheryl Cherry discusses Dinner at the
Diner for members near Allentown (p. 5)
❏ Learn all about the revised STC-PMC web
site in JX Bell’s article. (p. 6)
❏ Do you know about a great place we can
meet? (p. 8)
❏ Meet our newest senior members and
newest members (p. 9)
❏ Get the scoop about the September and
October meetings (p. 9)
❏ Is the latest Dummies book on technical
writing worth your investment? Find out in Al
Brown’s review. (p. 10)
❏ Jill Rollette spotlights webmistress Lois
Shank in the Member Spotlight. (p. 11)