Learning Sessions

May 2005, Hyderabad

The world has turned into a global village. Software development and documentation have to be written for an international audience. Gurudutt R. Kamath, a telecommuting technical writer and trainer, spoke about the different dimensions of internationalization, such as the rationale for internationalization, writing for the international market, formats for internationalization, and writing for translation. This session attracted a lot of participants.

(With input from Vasant Vaidyanathan)

May 28, 2005, Pune

On May 28, 2005, Madhuri Maitra, a freelance content writer and corporate trainer in language and soft skills, conducted a comprehensive session on writtten and verbal communication. Her session was divided into three parts: understanding the spoken and written word, speaking and writing effectively, and non-verbal communication. In the first part, Madhuri discussed the nuances of communication and technical writing. She also discussed culture specificity and topical vocabulary. In the second part of her session, Madhuri discussed the basic rules of good communication. She also covered grammar and idioms during this session. In the last part of her session, Madhuri described how to use one's body language and gestures to communicate effectively.

(With input from Gururaj B.S.)

May 21, 2005, Bangalore

Amandeep Sandhu conducted a session on "Technical Writing vs. Fiction Writing: do the twain meet?" at EMC Corporation. He walked the audience through the lane of his thoughts and experiences. He highlighted that all prose writing has just one intent: to tell a story. He listed interesting differences between technical writing and fiction writing. In addition, he touched upon the different skills required for both the genres of writing. He kept the audience engaged all through his presentation by narrating interesting anecdotes. He closed the session with the following note: "Can the two (technical writing and fiction writing) meet? Within a day, can we switch roles?"

The next session was by Alfred PM (a.k.a. Percy) on "Getting Respect from Developers—Going further than just technical writing." He opened the session with the title of a great song by the R&B singer Aretha Franklin—Respect. He discussed how everyone craves for respect at some level, and technical writers are no different. He punctuated the session with his smart and funny lines, which sustained the audience's interest. He concluded the session with some advice on how to go beyond looking for respect.

(With input from Akash Dubey)

June 25, 2005, Bangalore

Pratima Thimmaiah, lead technical writer with EMC Corporation, conducted a presentation titled "Cheery-picking Epic Editor—A selective introduction to the world of Arbortext Epic Editor." She had packaged all the necessary ingredients to make the session informative. She covered the following topics in her presentation: single sourcing, structured documentation, using Epic Editor, Arbortext Command Language, XSL composition, and benefits of Enterprise e-content Engine (E3).

She used practical examples to explain the concepts. Therefore, the concepts could effortlessly seep into the comprehension of every participant. More such sessions are welcome!

(With input from Akash Dubey)

June 26, 2005, Pune

On June 26, 2005, Pradeep Akkunoor, a Technical Writer and Quality Assurance Engineer working at SunGard Offshore Services (India), conducted a 2-hour session on technical writing in the financial industry. In the first part of his session, Pradeep talked to the audience about the types of financial firms, different IT financial products, types of documentation, and emerging trends in the financial industry. In his second session, Pradeep explained the basics of equities and stock markets. In addition, session participants took a guided tour of the Infosys Pune facility.

(With input from Gururaj B.S.)

June 26, 2005, Mumbai

Rita Tharakan, a technical writer working at Synplicity, presented two topics: The Architecture of Information and A Single-Source Solution. In the first presentation, Rita spoke about information architecture, which is based on techniques and information distilled from various courses, talks and ensuing discussions, and readings of current research. A lot of participants liked the way Rita described the process of dividing information into manageable units. In the second presentation, Rita used a case history to show how one single source solution was implemented and to illustrate the pros and cons of using a single source to generate multiple output formats. Rita built on the ideas introduced in the previous presentation on information architecture.

(With input from Gururaj B.S.)

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