June 2012 - What do Technical Communicators Need to Know?

After wrapping up warm and venturing out on a dark, rainy night to Streamliners, it was heartening to hear that TCANZ is working on improving professional development and recognition for you and me as Technical Communicators.
Dr Chris Dorsey presented information on recent TCANZ activities, and explained that a working group has been formed between TCANZ, ASTC (NSW), and ASTC (Vic) in response to recent STC (US) and tekom (Germany) initiatives.
The aim of the working group is to examine various options for professional development, including the development of our own technical communication body of knowledge (TCBoK). TCANZ hopes to use this to inform and support training efforts.  This should hopefully help to alleviate some of the current problems facing our industry.
After taking us through a background presentation, Chris lead a lively discussion session around the topic ‘What do technical communicators need to know?’
We discussed:

• The type of roles we work in
• What we produce
• The skills required to be good at our job

The information gathered on the night will be combined with ideas from identical brainstorming sessions in Auckland and Wellington. This knowledge will go directly into helping to define what it means to be a Technical Communicator in New Zealand, as well as developing the TCBok.

The Christchurch Branch Coordination Team

 

Megan, Meredith, Ian and Em