Steven Jong’s STC Blog

As I’ve campaigned, I’ve encountered confusion about the election. Members have told me they’d like to vote for me but they’re from a different region. One newsletter editor even refused to publish my candidacy article because only “candidates representing that region” could be covered.

Starting with last year’s STC election, in accordance with changes to the Bylaws, Director-Sponsors are being replaced with Directors at Large as their terms expire. This election will add three new Directors at Large.

To clear up the confusion: every member of the Society can vote for up to three Director candidates, and once elected, the three Directors will represent every member.

The first technical document I wrote, as a junior writer, was at Honeywell Information Systems (back when Honeywell was “The Other Computer Company”), under the supervision of a senior writer. I updated an operating-system utility manual–Sort, I think. I worked from an engineering change order that specified exactly what page and line numbers needed changing and what text changes were needed, and I marked up the pages in pen, with proper proofreading symbols. If I needed a larger block of text added, I typed it up on an electric typewriter (after all, we weren’t primitive) and placed the sheet into the three-ring binder.

When I was done and the change was edited, reviewed, and approved, the compositors took my work and made proof pages, which I believe we double-proofread (one person read the page out loud, the other compared it with the composed page). When we signed off on it, it went to the printer.

The production cycle, from the time the pages went to composition until the shrink-wrapped book was delivered, was 13 weeks.

Looking back on those days, it surprises me not only how slow the pace of work was, but how slowly new writers were brought along. In contrast, a technical writer today is expected to hit the ground running, and to be familiar with a whole range of tools and techniques. I am my own editor, illustrator, compositor, proofreader, and printer; on a bad day, I’m my own reviewer, too!

I don’t miss my typewriter, or those cramped page layouts. I do, however, look back fondly on those ECOs.