The Lessons I Learned from SPAM Writers
© 2010 Ugur Akinci I receive a lot of SPAM. 99.9% is caught by my fantastic spam filter (Akismet). Before I delete SPAM messages, I read some of them and find the exercise very educational. I have no idea why these parties keep sending me tens of thousands of SPAM messages a year. But every…
Read MoreTechnical Writing – Anticipate Resistance. Eliminate it in Advance.
© 2010 Ugur Akinci Technical writing shares one very important structural feature with copy writing: anticipation of resistance. To write a good technical manual, you have to anticipate why the reader might doubt the veracity of your instructions; why they might resist it. Then, like a skilled bomb-removal expert, you have to defuse and remove…
Read MoreCCCC Outstanding Dissertation Award in Technical Communication
The CCCC Committee on Technical Communication presents the Outstanding Dissertation Award in Technical Communication annually during the Awards Session at the CCCC Convention. Dissertations are evaluated according to the following five criteria: originality of research, contribution the research makes to the field, methodological soundness of the approach used, awareness of the existing research in the…
Read MoreTexas Tech Offers Exemplary Program in Technical Communication
The number of colleges offering a technical communication degree or technical writing certificate is steadily increasing. Most of them are offered through the English departments. That’s also the case at Texas Tech but the depth of TT program is really admirable. Consider these facts: 1. Texas Tech offers not only a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree…
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