STC Montreal

Join us at the STC Toronto’s Management Day on February 26 to learn three ways to work and communicate more effectively.

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The following are a series of workshops presented by the Quebec Writers’ Federation. Click the titles for more information about each workshop and workshop leader.

Eight-Week Evening Workshops

(Workshop fee: $170, $150 for QWF Members)

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Maya Assouad, marketing manager for Véhicule Press, will discuss the benefits of marketing on the web at the next event hosted by the Association of English-language Publishers of Quebec.

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For the first time, we will be broadcasting the Israeli FrameMaker User Group meeting (#27), for the benefit of members who are unable to attend in person, and in order to open the event to other users world-wide.

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The American Medical Writers Association invites you to an open roundtable discussion – Professional Uses of Social Media (6:30-8:30 pm, Thursday, January 28, Stash Café, Old Montreal)

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Microtype’s Shlmo Perets is presenting a series of free FrameMaker-to-Acrobat TimeSavers 1-hour webinars early in the new year. All webinars start at 10am PST/PDT:

• Better PDFs with FrameMaker-to-Acrobat TimeSavers, January 14
• Effective PDF Bookmarks with FM-to-Acrobat TimeSavers, January 28
• Form Assistant, February 11
• Navigation Assistant, February 25
• Multimedia Assistant, March 11
• 3D Assistant, March 25
• Presentation Assistant, April 8
• Liven up your PDFs with FrameMaker-to-Acrobat TimeSavers/Assistants, April 22

For webinar description or to register, please visit http://www.microtype.com/ImprovePDF.html#TSwebinars

“Graphics & Video in PDFs” — 1-hour webinar (free)

Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Starting 1pm EST

Brief demonstration and discussion of graphics and video in PDFs and related aspects: livening up static documentation (software/hardware) and engaging readers through interactive graphics, displaying information on demand (popups/rollovers/layers), integrating multimedia (such as video simulations and demonstrations of software processes and functions) & interactive 3D.

Note: this presentation focuses on PDFs and Acrobat, and is not specific to any authoring tool

Register at https://student.gototraining.com/4b34y/register/5808052943743757771

Tuesday November 17
Lion d’Or: 1676 Rue Ontario Est, Papineau metro

Don’t miss English Montreal’s biggest literary party of the year! Witness the unveiling of this year’s QWF Award winners in the Fiction, Poetry, Translation, Children’s and Young Adult Literature, Non-Fiction, and First Book categories, as well as the QWF Community Award, the Quebec Writing Competition, and this year’s carte blanche Quebec prize!

Reception, 7-8pm: Music by Riverside Blues
8pm: Prize-giving, hosted by Stanley Péan

Tickets are $15 ($10 for full-time students), and are available at Argo, Babar en ville, Bibliophile, Clio, Paragraphe, and The Word bookstores as well as the QWF office.

2009 QWF Awards short list: qwf.org/awards/

Effectively managing a technical communication group involves a unique set of skills, such as: the ability to clearly communicate expectations for a project, effectively evaluate performance, develop and communicate a strategic vision for your group, make a business case for proposed projects, and sell the services of your group. STC offers a special certificate program that confirms what you may already be doing and helps you develop the necessary skills.

Noted speaker Saul Carliner promises: “The six sessions for this certificate program present a combination of discovery exercises, which leverage your existing knowledge; formal presentations, which describe the ‘must knows’; and action planning segments, which give you a chance to consider how you’ll apply what you learned back on the job.

“This course was designed specifically for technical communicators who have management responsibilities. It is anticipated that these learners will come from small- and medium-sized organizations, which are less likely to have formal management training than large organizations. The course content will develop the core skills needed for one of the key positions that technical communicators assume—and does so in a way that’s unique to technical communicators (not other professions).”

Comments from Previous Attendees:

“Probably the most immediately relevant and accessible (in terms of information) sessions I’ve attended in years.”

“This [course] provided the in-depth focus that I was looking for. Saul Carliner is an informative and effective instructor who is generous in the material he shares.”

Technical Communication Manager Certificate

27 October–1 December
10:30 AM–Noon EDT/EST (GMT-4/GMT-5)

• Week 1: 27 October—Managing for Effective Performance—Part 1: Writing Job Descriptions, Hiring, and Establishing a Performance Plan
• Week 2: 3 November—Managing for Effective Performance—Part 2: Coaching and Evaluating Performance, and Providing Career Guidance
• Week 3: 10 November—Preparing and Presenting a Strategic Plan
• Week 4: 17 November—Preparing and Presenting a Business Case—Part 1
• Week 5: 24 November—Preparing and Presenting a Business Case—Part 2
• Week 6: 1 December—Marketing Your Group Internally
• Course objectives, session descriptions, and presenter biographies

http://www.stc.org/edu/technical-communication-manager-certificate.asp

REGISTER NOW

http://www.stc.org/edu/technical-communication-manager-certificate-courses.asp

To obtain the certificate, participants must log in for each of the six scheduled sessions. A discount is available for additional attendees from
the same company. For these special prices, please contact Lloyd Tucker.

$595 member / $995 nonmember
Student: $295 member / nonmember $995

Individual Sessions (without certificate):
$149 member / $259 nonmember
Student: $79 member / $259 nonmember

The Vermont Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication is pleased to present Rich Maggiani and his presentation: Cloud Computing and Communication on Wednesday, October 14, 2009.

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“God is in the details,” the old saying goes, though any editor who has agonized endlessly over a comma or a hyphen might argue that a far darker entity lurks there.

This seminar takes an unsurprisingly detailed look at punctuation and mechanics, including commas (what’s right, what’s wrong, what’s optional), semicolons, colons, quotation marks, apostrophes, dashes, hyphens, italics, and the ever-perplexing bullet points. We’ll discuss up-to-date rules and guidelines, examine how punctuation and mechanics affect meaning (for instance, the relationship between commas and modifiers), and note some of the most useful style guides available. There will be practice exercises throughout the day, and you’re encouraged to bring along troublesome editing samples for discussion.

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Date: September 24, 2009

Time: 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Place: Hotel Ruby Foo’s
7655 Decarie Boulevard
Montreal (Metro Namur)

Instructor: Christine Hastie

Cost:
$160 for members
$220 for non-members
There are no early bird discounts or student rates.

What you’ll learn

Web text should be concise, scannable, and written using simple language. Hundreds of studies have confirmed this. But your client’s draft is a long report and doesn’t look like a Web page at all. Or perhaps a client expects you to develop Web pages from a variety of materials. This presentation will help you identify your client’s needs so you can offer Web-appropriate text. We’ll share ideas on making fewer words do more as they become a vibrant source of energy that attracts readers and carries them through the information.

We’ll cover

• Understanding Web readers’ needs and expectations in various contexts
• Structure and other features of good Web writing
• Developing an approach to the project and steering through the challenges
• Adding value and ensuring quality

Note: This workshop can be helpful for editors looking to enhance their structural editing skills.

Your participation

Please submit your Web text problems and samples to the coordinator, Claire Sutton suttonc1 [at] yahoo [dot] ca especially if they can be shared with all participants. Handouts and exercises in Word format will be emailed in advance. Bring a laptop, arrange to share one, or use the paper copy supplied. (N.B. Laptop not required for this seminar.)

About the presenter

After living in a Cree and Métis community for several years, Christine Hastie established herself as a communications healer in Montréal in 1993. She freelanced for a number of years—creating her first Web page and a touch-screen interface in 1997—and joined the federal public service in 2002. Now working at Ste. Anne’s Hospital in Communications with Veterans Affairs Canada, she develops tools for a community of practice in mental health. Specializing in rewriting, she contributed an article to La révision professionnelle : processus, stratégies et pratiques (2007), edited by Jocelyne Bisaillon. Christine has a Master’s degree in English literature from the University of Western Ontario.

Note: The date and location of this event has changed. See the new details below.

You are cordially invited to “Tequila Mockingbird”: A Literary Salon and Auction of Curiosities to benefit the Quebec Writers’ Federation

Break out those dashing James Bond blazers and Zelda Fitzgerald party dresses and sample our cocktail du soir, the “Tequila Mockingbird!”

Our gregarious and charming salonnière, Madame À Bientôt will introduce newcomers & gently pluck wallflowers out of their seats and into the flow of conversation.

Everyone will get a short list of “Topics & Ideas You Might Be Inclined to Discuss (at Length)” at the beginning of the evening in order to stimulate conversation and to prevent that bane of parties everywhere – the awkward silence.

Round out the evening by bidding at our quirky Auction of Literary Curiosities! Items up for bid include:

• From Paul Auster, a empty cigar tin, with a signed note inside saying “I smoked the cigars that were once in this tin”
• From Claire Holden Rothman, a vial of holy water, collected by the author from the source of the Ganges
• From Yann Martel, a disposable camera with undeveloped photos taken by Yann Martel From Anne-Marie MacDonald, a signed hockey puck she scored with and many more eclectic items from literary luminaries including George Elliott Clarke, Christian Bök, Siri Hustvedt, Seth, Neil Smith, and Joel Yanofsky!

The host for the auction will be the inimitable Dave McGimpsey, author of Certifiable and Sitcom.

When and Where

Monday, October 5th, 2009, 7 p.m.

The Atwater Library’s top floor ballroom (otherwise known as “The Auditorium”)

Mainline Theatre
3997 St. Laurent Blvd. (just south of Duluth)

$12 admission includes one free drink.
$10 minimum bid on all auction items.

Reservations: 514-933-0878 or admin [at] qwf [dot] org.

Only cheques and cash will be accepted.

All proceeds from the evening go towards QWF programs.

Fancy attire, while not required, is greatly desired.

www.qwf.org

Thursday, September 10
Starting 10am PDT | 1pm EDT | 5pm UTC/GMT

Join Shlomo Perets for a free one-hour webinar on Framemaker and Acrobat.

Liven up static documentation (software/hardware) and engage readers through interactive graphics, information displayed on demand (popups/rollovers/layers), multimedia (such as video simulations and demonstrations of software processes and functions), interactive 3D, and more. All features demonstrated in the webinar are specified in FrameMaker and are present automatically in the resulting PDFs, with no post-creation actions in Acrobat.

Register at https://student.gototraining.com/register/8019702938678710980

MicroType * http://www.microtype.com

Editors’ Association of Canada seminar, “Paper to Pixel: Editing for the Web” with Christine Hastie

Learn how to edit effectively for the Web, and network with other writers and editors at the next Editors’ Association of Canada (EAC) professional development seminar. The EAC is pleased to present “Paper to Pixel” with communications specialist Christine Hastie on September 24th, 2009 at Hotel Ruby Foo’s in Montreal. STC-Montreal members can register at the discounted EAC membership rate, so don’t miss out!

What You’ll Learn

Web text should be concise, scannable, and written using simple language. Hundreds of studies have confirmed this. But your client’s draft is a long report and doesn’t look like a Web page at all. Or perhaps a client expects you to develop Web pages from a variety of materials. This presentation will help you identify your client’s needs so you can offer Web-appropriate text. We’ll share ideas on making fewer words do more as they become a vibrant source of energy that attracts readers and carries them through the information.

What We’ll Cover

• Understanding Web readers’ needs and expectations in various contexts
• Structure and other features of good Web writing
• Developing an approach to the project and steering through the challenges
• Adding value and ensuring quality

Note: This workshop can be helpful for editors/writers looking to enhance their structural editing skills.

About the presenter

After living in a Cree and Métis community for several years, Christine Hastie established herself as a communications healer in Montréal in 1993. She freelanced for a number of years—creating her first Web page and a touch-screen interface in 1997—and joined the federal public service in 2002. Now working at Ste. Anne’s Hospital in Communications with Veterans Affairs Canada, she develops tools for a community of practice in mental health. Specializing in rewriting, she contributed an article to La révision professionnelle : processus, stratégies et pratiques (2007), edited by Jocelyne Bisaillon. Christine has a Master’s degree in English literature from the University of Western Ontario.

Rates

The Editors’ Association of Canada has made its Montreal seminars available to the STC at its discounted membership rate. The cost for members is $160, instead of $220 for non-members, and includes lunch and coffee breaks. The seminar is fully described on our website at www.editors.ca/branches/qac/pd/index.html.

Note: Those STC members who wish to attend must forward their membership ID numbers with their registration.

Third Wave Studios is launching an video-based training tool for technical writers who document software. The video was designed and presented by award-winning, 25-year veteran writer-programmer and long-time STC Montreal member Manuel Gordon. Full of illuminating advice, easy-to-follow examples and practical exercises, Just Enough Java: Workshop-on-a-DVD is based on his popular seminar of the same name.

The Just Enough Java: Workshop-on-a-DVD is just what the name implies, a live, full-day, technical writing workshop edited down to three hours and 40 minutes of professionally-filmed video. It provides technical writers with an understanding of “just enough Java” to decode a Java source file and make an educated guess about the purpose of each function. This will enable them to work with software developers to create useful documentation for Software Development Kits (SDK’s) and Application Programming Interfaces (API’s).

“Java is today’s most widely used programming language, and there is tremendous demand for technical writers who have a basic understanding of it,” said Gordon.

“That’s the central idea behind the Workshop-on-a-DVD series,” added Marc Proulx, head of Third Wave Studios. “Technical writers really need to know ‘just enough’ about these complex products and processes to read the source files and start documenting the functionality, without getting bogged down in the nitty-gritty.

“Moreover,” Proulx added, “you get all the benefits of going to a day-long workshop without the expense and inconvenience of travel.”
The Just Enough Java: Workshop-on-a-DVD, which includes a 173-page hard copy workbook containing slide printouts, exercises, a glossary and a bibliography, is available for order online at www.thirdwavestudios.com. A seven-minute video preview is also available on the site.

One-hour webinars (free), starting 1pm EDT

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Issue 9 of the Quebec Writers’ Federation’s literary journal carte blanche is now online at www.carte-blanche.org.

NEW: We launch our graphic fiction section with Entropy by Aaron Costain, and showcase literary translations by Alison Newall and Ann Diamond.

Also in this issue:

Kelly Norah Drukker writes a poem for Emile Nelligan,

Shayne Woodsmith rides his bicycle from Red Deer to Vancouver,

and Sarah Gilbert encounters the Tea Master.

Plus photography by Jim Royal; poetry from Gina Roitman, Branka Petrovic, and Julie Mahfood; nonfiction by Marianne Ackerman, Michael K. Gause, and Guido Romeo; and fiction from Andrea Dyck, Katharine O’Flynn, and Lindsey Emes.

For more information:

Visit carte blanche.

Lori Schubert
Executive Director
Quebec Writers’ Federation
1200 Atwater Avenue, Suite 3
Westmount, QC H3Z 1X4

During this time of cutbacks and belt-tightening, the Southwestern Ontario Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) is pleased to offer you two days of workshops from internationally renowned instructors for a bargain price.

Speakers and Topics

Peter Vogel from PH&V Information Services and Learning Tree International will present two half-day sessions: “Instructional Design: Introducing Interactivity to Technical Training”; and “Three Tutorial Styles: Making Tutorials Work for the Reader”.

Patrick Hofmann from Google will also present two half-day sessions: “Visual Literacy for Technical Communicators: Thinking and Expressing More Graphically”; and “Visualizing Your Information: Advanced Techniques to Make Your Documents More Graphical and Usable”.

Dates and Location

The workshops are on May 11 and 12, 2009, at the Holiday Inn Kitchener-Waterloo Hotel and Conference Centre.

Fees and Registration

Fees for two days are $375 for STC members or $575 for non-members. The fee for one day is $200 for STC members or $400 for non-members.

Space is limited to 25 people, so register early to avoid disappointment. Deadline for registration is April 25, 2009.

More Details

For more information about the workshops, speakers or venue, visit http://www.stc-soc.org/education/education_2009.php. If you have any questions, contact Fei Min Lorente, Education Manager, at the Southwestern Ontario STC chapter.

Shlomo Perets of Microtype is offering three free webinars of one hour each on topics relating to frameMaker and PDF.

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