2015
November 2015 (View as PDF)
- From the Editor’s Desk. Ana Young
- Foreword. Emma Harding presents a work of satisfiction
- An Introduction to Single Sourcing. Neil Woolley gives us a practitioner’s view of the advantages of single-sourced content
- Video Captions Benefit Everyone. An extract of Morton Ann Gernsbacher’s paper explaining the benefits of video captions
- Accelerating Changes in Technical Communication: an Environment for Innovation. Tony Self takes a look into our future
- A Practical Guide to Information Architecture (2nd edition) by Donna Spencer. Book review by Dave Gardiner
- Who is a Better Technical Communicator? Carol Leahy discusses the role of gender in technical communications and asks “does gender make you a better technical communicator?”
- Before You Sign on the Dotted Line... A summary of the advice Dave Gardiner received about employment via an agency
- Correct English: Reality or Myth? Geoffrey Marnell questions Howard Silcock’s review of his book
- Writing for Science Journals by Geoff Hart. Book review by Dave Gardiner
- Usability Testing Essentials by Carol Barnum. Book review by Janet Taylor - everything you need to know about testing
July 2015 (View as PDF)
- From the Editor’s Desk. Sue Woolley gives us an outline of what we are to expect in this issue of Southern Communicator.
- Foreword. Steve Moss reflects on the imminent demise of contract technical communicators.
- Anyone can write, can’t they? Tom Johnson gives us the perfect response for the next time somebody says "but anyone can write".
- It's a MadWorld! Swapnil Ogale describes his experience of the MadWorld conference held in San Diego in April.
- Instructions not Included. Mark Svenvold examines what the disappearance of the common manual says about us.
- Response to MarkSvenvold's article from Jack [John] Carroll
- Tweaking Your Technical Writing Toolset. Martin Wojczys shares some of his favourite tools that make his writing life more productive.
- Online is not Paper. Tony Self points out some obvious and less obvious differences between paper and online documentation.
- Add a Shop to Your WordPress Website. Charlotte Brogden gives us step by step instructions to set up your own sales area on your WordPress web site.
- Correct English: Reality or Myth? by Geoffrey Marnell. Howard Silcock reviews Geoffrey Marnell’s new book.
February 2015 (View as PDF)
- Foreword. Ana Young gives an insight into her career as a technical communicator.
- Housekeeping
- Learning Keyboard Shortcuts. Jacques Raubenheimer gives us some handy tips for learning and remembering useful keyboard shortcuts.
- Writing for Software Developers. Swapnil Ogale describes his first experiences of writing documentation for software developers.
- tekom Technical Communication Training and Certification. Dave Gardiner shares his experiences studying for certification through an internationally recognised technical communication training organisation.
- In Praise of Scientific Rigour in Plain English Guidelines. Judy Knighton replies to Geoffrey Marnell’s article, The Word Count Myth, published in the October 2014 issue of Southern Communicator.
- Geoffrey Marnell replies.
- Ubuntu: Is it your Favourite OS Yet? Alex Timanyuk follows up his article about Ubuntu in the October 2014 Southern Communicator with information on some of the useful apps he has found.
- Metrics that 'Click' with Management. Maxwell Hoffmann from Adobe shares strategies on how to cost-justify time-saving authoring in terms that management can relate to.
- Just my type by Simon Garfield. A book review by Rhonda Bracey.
- Bug trackers are not just for Bugs. David Stephensen shows us how to use a simple issue tracker for, well, keeping track of issues.
- Head-up displays for Technical Communication. Tony Self challenges us to look to a potential future for technical communication.