Knowledge Management and Technical Writing

Overview

Knowledge Management is defined as the group of activities aimed at creating, capturing, distributing, and managing the tacit and implicit knowledge existing within an organization. Explicit knowledge can be transcribed and easily transferred from one person to another. For example, the process of making a cup of tea is a classic example of explicit knowledge. On the other hand, inexplicit or tacit knowledge is difficult to transfer as it cannot be transcribed or verbalised easily. For example, the process of making a piece of art, such as the smiling face of Mona Lisa, can be defined as tacit knowledge. Knowledge Management encompasses the management of both tacit and explicit knowledge at an individual, team, and organizational level.

Technical Writing is defined as a group of activities which relates to designing, creating, and maintaining technical documentation [Wikipedia]. Technical Writing is a subset of Technical Communication and involves creation of help files, user manuals, and installation guides.

Similarities between Knowledge Management and Technical Writing

• Technical Writers use Help Authoring Tools (HATs) such as Word, FrameMaker, RoboHelp, Flare etc. to develop technical documentation. On the other hand, Knowledge Management professionals use Content Management Systems (CMS) such as Wiki, Sharepoint, Drupal, Joomla etc. to manage knowledge in an organization.
• Tools used by Technical Writers are mostly desktop publishing tools that can be installed on a standalone computer. However, since CMS work with the entire organization, they have a software package that needs to be installed on a server rather than a standalone desktop.
• The definition of Knowledge Management and Technical Writing as a recognized discipline is very vague and depends highly on the context. Several industries employ technical writers and knowledge management and the expectation, designation, and work environment differs from industry to industry.
• Technical Writer create content in the form of Help Manuals, User’s Guides, FAQ, Knowledge Base entries, and Installation Manuals. Knowledge Management focus on providing infrastructure, processes, and community of Practices (COP) that allows creation, capturing and retrieval of knowledge. Technical Writing and Knowledge Management complement each other requirements.

My perspective on Knowledge Management as a Technical Writer

I always get surprised when I look back at my career as a technical writer and look at the documents I’ve published. The reason is that some, if not all, of the documents I’ve written can be classified as Knowledge Management deliverables. I believe this would be the case for most technical writers as the disciplines of knowledge management and technical writing are closely tied together.

When you create a knowledge base entry, or a manual for new software as a technical writer, you are transforming knowledge form tacit to explicit form and then storing that knowledge in written form. When you generate webhelp output of a user’s guide and publish it on internet, then you are creating and managing the infrastructure for sharing knowledge. In other words, the activities performed by technical writers are very similar to the tasks completed by a knowledge management professional.

My Technical Autobiography

 “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic“- Sir Arthur C. Clarke

Technology always appeared to me more as a magic and less as a mere application of science. The reference to the word ‘technology’ brings back sweet memories from my childhood when I received my first video game console, a Nintendo gaming box. I still vividly remember the excitement, adrenaline rush and happiness of the moment when I saw my gaming console for the first time. It seemed nothing short of a magician or a genie that could grant almost unworldly gratification in just push of a button.

A small game cassette used to go inside the box and a new world of excitement used to begin. Mario, Contra, Bomber-Man, Pack-Man were among hundreds of games available in each cassette.

I grew up in a small middle-class residential community located at the west end of New Delhi, the capital of India. My father was a businessman and had a small factory for making light bulbs. I used to work in my dad’s factory during my school breaks. I got exposed to several complex manufacturing machines in the plant which had the best technology of the time though my work area was strictly confined to testing of bulbs (QA), being the safest (and boring) section of the plant.

Later on, my brother joined the workforce and received a pager (text messaging device). Until then, salesmen could not remain in touch with their family and clients but everything changed with pagers. Mobile phones then superseded pagers as a communication device since meaningful conversation could not be successfully accomplished in a mere 240 characters (text message limit of pagers).

I really admire Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, ex-president of India as a technology literate person. Popularly known as the Missile Man, he was instrumental in developing the space programs for India. Born in a poor family, Kalam’s father was a poor fisherman who worked hard to make both ends meet. Kalam used to walk several miles to reach school (he never had the money to take a bus) and even worked as a newspaper delivery man to support his school expenses. Later on, he became one of the most famous presidents of India and was popularly known as People’s president.

I love technology and recently bought an android phone. On my first day of school, I found my class using an android satellite navigation application. I’d love to have more useful applications on my phone.

Technology moves at a fast pace and it is difficult to keep track about many of its aspects. I usually attend seminars, read blogs and listen to eBooks to keep track of the latest happenings in the world of technology.

I love interactive online documentation that can provide useful help based on the correct context. Reading 500 pages of text to discover a five line procedure is overwhelming. Online, context driven and modular help makes life easy!

 

A week in a Technical Communicator’s life

The interesting thing about technical writing is that technical communicators enjoy a multitude of roles and responsibilities, which includes delivering documentation for a plethora of products while meeting stricter deadlines. Thus, no two work-weeks are alike. Each new week starts with a fresh set of challenges. These challenges make the week and the life of a technical communicator all the more exciting.

I work as a Technical Communicator in the hi-tech Semiconductor domain, and develop documentation for a wide array of commercial EDA (Electronic Design Automation) software.  Technical writers in our organization are referred to as Learning Product Engineers (LP Engineers).

All days in my week start with a morning scrum meeting. Each meeting usually lasts for 15 minutes. During the meeting, each team member reports about what they accomplished on the previous day, issues or major showstoppers, and the plan for the day of the meeting. These meetings are also called as stand-up meetings, because the objective of these meetings is to keep them brief and productive. Hence, all members attend these meetings standing instead of sitting.

Every Monday, we have a longer weekly meeting with our manager to discuss the status of projects, issues, challenges, and so on. Team meetings also provide a forum to discuss team-specific internal documents. For example, the Style Guide. Discussions regarding purchasing new tools also take place during these meetings.

Monday also happens to be the planning day when we set plans for the week including meetings with subject matter experts (SMEs) (blocking time in their MS Outlook calendar is essential!), training calendar for self, and scheduling meetings related to various internal and external projects.

Rest of the week is usually a good mix of long write-edit review cycles, meetings, and training.

A typical day in my work life looks somewhat like this:

• Check corporate emails with a cup of hot Cappuccino: I receive most of the emails from my R&D team based in Santa Clara, California. Due to the time zone difference, they are 12 hours behind us (my night is their day). So, while I’m having a sound sleep, my colleagues continue to develop new features during their day, and send me various documentation requests.
• Listen to voicemails: Few of the SMEs I work with hate writing long emails. Hence, they leave voicemails for me, which may include information about a new feature. Works great!
• Attend documentation meeting: As a mentor, I attend documentation meetings to troubleshoot any issues faced by junior writers, or to redirect them to a specific group/person.
• Moderate Wiki pages: We use Confluence Wiki to author, review, collaborate, and publish technical documentation. A nightly build generates chm, html, and pdfs, directly using the content from Wiki. The beauty of this system is that SMEs (R&D, QA, Sales, Marketing, and Management) can directly edit and add content, instead of routing every request to a LP Engineer. I edit the updated or the newly added Wiki pages for grammatical mistakes, accuracy, and adherence to our internal writing style sheet.
• Install new software build: Every morning a fresh software build is made available in the repository. After installing, I usually play around with the application to check if there are new enhancements/fixes that are displayed in the GUI. Though, I often get documentation requests in form of emails or bugs logged in Bugzilla, it is not uncommon to detect a new setting popping in the new build.
• Close documentation bugs/New Feature documentation: Every day I run a query in Bugzilla to check new documentation bugs/requests filed for me (New feature documentation requests are also filed as bugs). Some bugs require 5 minutes of effort while others (majority) may require an effort of couple of hours. Occasionally, I have bugs (enhancement requests) that might take a few weeks to get completed. Zero bug report is what my eyes dream of seeing everyday.
• Lunch: Home cooked food with a few friends in the office cafeteria: A major stress buster for my day!
• Research using internal/external networks: My work involves documenting extremely technical products for an audience that comprises Engineers and Scientists (who prefer no-nonsense technical documentation). Thus, I try to learn as much as I can about a new feature before I write about it.
• Check the Doc Project Schedule: Since I work on multiple projects, I keep a tab on all the deadlines (daily/weekly) and try to make sure that everything runs smoothly. In case of a slippage in the schedule, I schedule a meeting with the project manager to mitigate any impact by lowering the scope, or by requesting a fresh deadline.
• Conduct Trainings: I often get requests from various teams/groups within my organization to conduct training on Wiki, writing, presentation skills, and Lean/Six-Sigma topics.
• Conduct Lean Meetings: As a Lean/Six-Sigma champion for my team, I lead few internal projects to reduce technical writing process timelines, reduce documentation defects, and improve productivity, and to find areas of automation with our technical writing tools or processes.
• Coffee Break: Catching up with an old friend with a hot cup of coffee is nothing less than having an apartment in the heavens!
• Conduct Toastmasters Sessions: Being the president of our Corporate Toast-masters Club, I often conduct the toastmasters session that help our club members (from various departments and placed at different levels in the hierarchy) to develop their presentation, public speaking, and leadership skills. I’m an award winning humorous speaker!
• Conduct Peer Review: Every documentation project in my team has an author and a peer reviewer. The peer reviewer acts as a dummy user and tries to validate documentation for usability and functional errors, which are often unnoticed by the author. I review two projects in my team. Similarly, my own projects get reviewed by two different authors. I always get amazed by the fact that how easily others can catch errors in our work, which we fail to see, even after several cycles of internal testing.

• Say Sayonara to work and head back to home-sweet-home!

Wait: Meeting with the Santa Clara R&D team is at 11.30 pm, and it extends well past midnight: Another disadvantage of the global work environment. But hey, it is still fun to be a technical communicator working with global teams!

About the Article

This article originally appeared in 2011 summer edition of MITWA News, the newsletter of MITWA mailing list. It is reprinted here with slight modifications.

New Delhi STC Learning Session on 30 July 2011

What:  STC Learning Session

When: 30 July 2011

Where: Comviva, Gurgaon

The India chapter of Society for Technical Communication (STC) is pleased to announce the learning session in Delhi (NCR) on July 30, 2011 (Saturday). Please visit http://www.stc-india.orgfor more details on STC India Chapter.

 

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 Agenda

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09:00 A.M. to 09:15 A.M. – Registration

09:15 A.M. to 10:00 A.M. – Documentation Practices in Agile Life Cycle – Pankaj Sharma

10:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M. – Editing Workshop – Vikram S

11:00 A.M. to 11:15 A.M. – Tea/Coffee break

11:15 A.M. to 12:15 P.M. – Editing Workshop – Continued – Vikram S

12:15 P.M. to 01:00 P.M. – Lean Six Sigma – Gurpreet Singh

01:00 P.M. to 01:30 P.M. – Discussion on Leveraging the Benefits of STC

About the Session & Speakers

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Gurpreet Singh

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Session: Lean Documentation Presentation

 Lean documentation development is a translation of Lean manufacturing and Lean IT practices to the technical writing domain.  Six Sigma is another related term that seeks to improve the quality of process outputs, and can be applied in technical writing processes as well.

The session explains the theoretical and practical concepts of Lean and Six Sigma, and provides real world case studies of application of these improvement techniques in real life documentation teams and processes.

About the Speaker

Gurpreet Singh is a technical writer, trainer, and a versatile public speaker based in New Delhi. He has over eight years of professional writing experience in all genres of Technical Writing, Business Writing (MarCom), and Web-Copy writing. He is a Lean champion, White Belt certified in Six-Sigma, and have received a Lean-Six Sigma Excellence award from Symbiosis for his Lean documentation project. He has applied Lean principles in several different real life documentation processes and achieved great success in his Lean initiatives. Comments, criticism and feedback about this session is highly appreciated and can be directed at gurpreetwrites_at_gmail.”

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Vikram S

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Session: Editing Workshop

About the Speaker

Vikram S is a Senior Technical Writer with Cadence Design Systems, with 12 years of experience in technical communication and instructional design. He’s a Post Graduate in Management.

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Sponsor – Comviva

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Comviva is sponsoring the venue for the Delhi (NCR) STC Learning Session.

Comviva adds value to the mobile service provider’s business and operational environment, creating subscriber stickiness via innovative products, applications and service offerings that cater to every aspect of the subscriber wish list, whilst addressing critical operational issues confronting the mobile service provider today.

With an extensive portfolio of solutions that drives content, commerce and community-focused services and revenues for operators, Comviva enables mobile users to interact and access infotainment easily.

Operator goals of improving performance and enhancing the user service experience are supported with solutions that enable rapid and profitable service extension to new and existing subscriber segments, whilst enabling end-to-end service and customer lifecycle management.

A global leader, Comviva’s solutions power value added services for operator customers in over 80 countries worldwide. Visit http://www.comviva.com for further details.

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Address

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 A-26, Info City, Sector 34,

Gurgaon-122001, Haryana.

India.

Tel:  +91 124 481 9000

Landmark: Near Hero Honda Chowk

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Registration Details:

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Complete the following form to register for this session:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dDM0eExiRUtweUlWOFpPMXFZVlNJa0E6MA#gid=0

- If you need help with transportation, please let me know.

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Registration Fees:

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Free for All

 

Have a great day.

Thanks and Regards,

Manisha Khurana

Delhi NCR City Representative

STC India Chapter

STC Regional Conference in New Delhi on July 24, 2010

Posting this on the behalf of Manisha, STC city representative for NCR (New Delhi and Suburbs)

The India chapter of Society for Technical Communication (STC) is pleased to announce the first STC regional conference in Delhi (NCR) on July 24, 2010 (Saturday) at Oracle Noida. Please visit http://www.stc-india.org for more details on STC India Chapter.

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Delhi (NCR) STC Regional Conference on July 24, 2010 @ Oracle Noida

Sponsor: Oracle

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Agenda

09:45 AM to 10.00 AM Registration, Introduction, and Networking

10.00 AM to 11:30 AM Workshop on Single Sourcing Using the WebWorks ePublisher Platform – Selvakumar

11:30 AM to 11:45 AM Tea Break

11:45 AM to 12:45 PM Session on Power of Mentoring – Ms Aruna Chaba on behalf of Management SIG

12:45 AM to 1:30 PM Lunch and Networking Session

1:30 PM to 2:30 PM: Session on Generating Online and Print documentation using Wiki – Suman Lata Malik and Gurpreet Singh

2:30 PM to 4.00 PM Workshop on Advanced Presentation Skills & Positive Body Language – Gurpreet Singh (on behalf of STC Management SIG)

4.00 PM to 4:15 PM Tea Break

4:15 PM to 4:45 PM Open discussion

4:45 PM to 5.00 PM Certificate distribution and Vote of Thanks
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About the Session & Speakers

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Selvakumar

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Session: Single Sourcing Using the WebWorks ePublisher Platform

WebWorks ePublisher allows you to single source Adobe FrameMaker, Microsoft Word and DITA-XML content into web, PDF and online help deliverables.

This presentation will cover the following topics:

Overview of the WebWorks ePublisher platform and its architecture.
Overview of the WebWorks Help online help format.
Designing single sourcing templates using WebWorks ePublisher Pro.
This topic will be in the form of a demo that describes creating a single sourcing template to create online help in the WebWorks Help format.
Publishing content using the WebWorks ePublisher platform.
Integrating the WebWorks ePublisher platform with a content management system to create an enterprise-level single sourcing and content publishing environment.
Speaker:

Selvakumar T.S is a Technical Publications Consultant with Cadence Design Systems, NOIDA, India. He has around 15 years experience in Technical Writing.

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Session: The Power of Mentoring

Universal Evolution is natural phenomenon, in which every one of us is contributing, by playing different roles of absorber & contributor during our life spans.

To absorb, one has to be a keen learner with open mind, and to contribute through joint or individual actions, one has to be cautious, as every action has a reaction, which may have either positive or negative impact in universal evolution.
Mantee and Mentor are good examples of absorber and the contributor. In the present technological evolution era, when no one has time to give a pause, to look behind, there is a need to revamp the relationship between the two.

Let us all join together in this revamping process, to make this valuable relationship much strong, and contribute positively in the universal evolution.

Speaker:

Mrs. Aruna Chaba, M.Sc( Physics) from Rajasthan University, is Head of e-Governance Standards Division at National Informatics Centre, New Delhi, which is a premier Institution for e-Governance solutions under Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology.

Earlier, as a senior member of Training Division in NIC, she had been responsible for strategic planning and execution of Training of Government officials. She had been actively involved in preparation of easily understandable course material in technical topics, specially related to change management and processes transformation in e-Governance.

In the capacity of Welfare Officer in her organization, she has contributed significantly in building inter-personnel relationships among employees, and had been playing a role of mentor also.

She is a creative writer, especially in the area of spirituality.

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Session: Generating Online and Print documentation using Wiki

Technical Communicators have often worked in the comfortable realms of Framemaker, Webworks and RoboHelp authoring environment to create technical documentation in pdf, html and chm format. This session explores and demonstrates the benefits of using web 2.0 technology such as wiki to create technical documentation without using traditional help authoring environment. The session includes a real world case study of a Tech Pubs team movement from the traditional Frame/Webworks environment to Confluence wiki, a discussion on differences, benefits and drawbacks of using a wiki based authoring system as compared to traditional authoring environment, a live demo of a wiki based authoring environment and several web2.0 benefits that wiki provides to technical communicators.

Speaker:

Suman Malik is an independent consultant based in New Delhi with over 12 years of rich technical and marketing documentation experience. A post graduate in Information Science from NISCAIR, she started her career as Information Scientist in INSDOC (a constituent of CSIR), and then worked with several fortune 500 and startup companies including Agilent and McAfee to develop end user technical and marketing documentation for complex Electronics and IT products. She can be contacted at infotechwriter@gmail.com.

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Session: Advanced Presentation Skills & Positive Body Language

Technical Communicators often have to present information to clients, colleagues and senior management. And, fair or not, we are often judged more on how we say it than on what we say.
Come, join the workshop on Advance Presentation Skills and become far more effective in delivering your message to your key audience. Mastering the art of presenting may not make you rich but it will most certainly help you to succeed in anything you do. This workshop will provide participants with a practical advice on how to deliver presentations in front of an audience. Areas covered will include: Advance presentation skills, Anxiety removal, Positive gestures, Confident speaking posture, Positive body language, Non verbal communication and handling difficult questions.

Speaker:

Gurpreet Singh is a professional writer and a trainer based in New Delhi having a keen interest in Human Psychology. He works in the creative realms of Technical Writing, Business Writing (MarCom), Web-Copy Writing and Training and is having over seven years of professional writing and training experience. He won the title of ‘Best Humorous Speaker’ in the Toastmasters International Speech Contest and ‘Best Speech Evaluator’ in Agilent Toastmasters Club. He has completed Competent Communicator and Competent Leadership program from Toastmasters International and a certificate course on Presentation Skills from British Council, New Delhi. He works with Agilent Technologies as an Advance Technical Writer and maintains a personal blog on Technical Communication, Human Psychology and Public Speaking at http://gurpreetwrites.wordpress.com.

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Venue: Oracle

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Oracle is sponsoring the venue for the Delhi (NCR) STC Regional conference.

The Server Technologies Documentation team at Oracle India is a 40-member team, and it’s growing! The team manages a documentation set that contains 100 documents and includes Developer’s Guides, User’s Guides, and Online Help. To work on these documents, the team uses the latest authoring tools, such as Adobe FrameMaker (Structured), Macromedia Dreamweaver, Qarbon ViewletBuilder, and Robocop. Projects that the team works on offer writers the opportunity to learn about the latest Oracle products and interact with Oracle development teams around the world. The team works from Oracle offices in Bangalore and Noida.

Visit the Documentation section of the Oracle Web site at

http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/index.html

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Address
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Oracle India Pvt. Ltd.
Logix Technopark,
Tower D, Level 2, 6
Plot No. 5,
Sector 127, Noida 201301

Contact No:
Promila Chitkara 9811324317

How to get to the venue:
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Located 3 Kms. from the Toll Road crossing, situated next to the Lotus Valley School and 2 minutes drive from Amity University.

For exact map, refer here – Wikimapia

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Contact Details
**********************************************************************

Manisha Khurana ( manisha.khurana@gmail.com)
Delhi (NCR) City Representative
STC India Chapter
9810038992

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Registration Details
**********************************************************************

This conference is limited to 50 participants only.

To register for this event, please send an email (subject as: STC RegCon Registration) to Manisha Khurana (manisha.khurana@gmail.com) by 20th July with your details – participant’s name(s), company name (if employed), STC Membership ID (if you are an STC member) and Email ID(s). In addition, click the following link to register yourself:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dEJWcHdldl9pRWtNVWdUc3pQQkdFS0E6MQ

Participation Fee
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Free for All
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Additional Details
—————————-

- All participants (STC members or Non-STC members) have to register and get a confirmation mail from Manisha on or before July 20th, 2010.

- If you need help with transportation, please contact us.

We look forward to seeing you at this regional conference. Please note there are only limited seats. If you need any help/clarifications, do mail/call me.

Have a great day.

Thanks and Regards,
Manisha Khurana ( manisha.khurana [at] gmail [dott] com)
Delhi (NCR) City Representative
STC India Chapter

Presentation Slides: Linux Workshop for Technical Writers

A presentation on Linux for technical writers having none or very less experience with Linux and Linux application. Focused on basic commands, vnc server and taking screenshots of Linux applications. The slides and its text transcript is available in this post. It was conducted for Technical Writing team in Agilent Technologies, Gurgaon.

Linux for Technical Writers-Presentation Transcript
1. Linux vs Windows
2. Contents
* Unix/Linux Overview
* Accessing Linux through Windows
* Basic Linux Commands
* Essential Linux Commands
* Working with VI Editor
* Linux Shell
* Taking Screenshots (GIMP/SnagIT/VNC)
* Linux Lab
3. UNIX
* Unix is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs.
* Unics for UNiplexed Information and Computing Service
* Unix was designed to be portable, multi-tasking and multi-user in a time-sharing configuration.
* Popular UNIX like System: Linux, IBM AIX, Sun Solaris, Mac OSX
4. Linux vs. Windows
* Development Model (Multi/Single User)
* User base in Desktop and Servers
* Cost
* Security
* Source (Closed/Open)
* OS Updates
* Command Line Vs Mouse
5. Unix File System
* Everything in UNIX is either a file or a process.
o A process is an executing program identified by a unique PID (process identifier).
o A file is a collection of data. They are created by users using text editors, running compilers etc.
6. Essential LINUX Commands
7. Basic Linux Commands
8. Accessing Linux through Windows
* Only Command Line
o Putty
* Normal Desktop (Similar to Windows Remote Desktop)
o VNCserver
9. VNC server
* http://www.realvnc.com
* Creating a VNC server
o Vncserver
o vncserver [: display# ] [ -name desktop-name ] [ -geometry width x height ] [ -depth depth ] [ -pixelformat format ]
* Deleting a VNC server
o vncserver -kill : display
10. Linux Basics
* The Kernel
o The kernel of UNIX is the hub of the operating system: it allocates time and memory to programs and handles the filestore and communications in response to system calls.
* The Shell
o The shell is a command line interpreter (CLI). It interprets the commands the user types in and arranges for them to be carried out.
11. Linux Shells
* Shell
o tcsh
+ C shell with file name completion and command line editing
o bash
+ GNU Bourne-Again SHell
12. Basic Linux Commands
13. Screenshots
* GIMP ( GNU Image Manipulation Program)
* SnagIT (through VNC)
14. Working with VI Editor
* Command Mode
* Insert Mode
* Refer to http://www.cs.colostate.edu/helpdocs/vi.html
15. Linux Lab
* Create a vnc server
o Size: 1000×800 pixels
o 24 bit depth
* Modify bit depth to 8 bit
* Delete the vncserver process
16. Thanks for attending! More tips and information available at: http://gurpreetwrites.wordpress.com G urpreet Singh is a professional writer and a trainer based in New Delhi having a keen interest in Human Psychology. He works in the creative realms of Technical Writing, Business Writing (MarCom), Web-Copy Writing and Training. He can be contacted at [email_address] .

Presentation Slides: ‘Presentation Skills’ workshop for STC India chapter

The presentation skills workshop conducted for STC India (New Delhi) chapter was warmly appreciated by the participants. The slides and its text transcript is available in this post.

Effective Presentation Skills – Presentation Transcript

1. Presentation Skills By Gurpreet Singh Saturday, May 22, 2010 New Delhi Learning Session, STC India
2. Contents
* MIPE: Purpose of a Presentation
* Rule of Three Vs
* The Three Ds of an Effective Presentation
o Data (Content)
o Design
o Delivery
* Removing Glossophobia (Stage Fright)
* Top Five Presentations Errors
* Question & Answers
3. MIPE: Purpose of an Effective Presentation
* To Motivate
* To Inform
* To Persuade
* To Entertain

4. Elements of an Effective Presentation What makes a presentation effective?
5. Rule of Three Vs
* Elements in face-to-face communication
o Words (Verbal): 7%
o Tone of voice (Vocal): 38%
o Body Language (Visual): 55%

6. Presentation Skills Exercise #1
* The presentation shown in the video is?
o Motivating
o Informative
o Persuasive
o Entertaining
o None of the above
* Does the rule of 7%, 38% and 55% applies?

7. DATA (Content)
* Audience Analysis
* Presentation Outline
* Presentation Flow

8. Audience Analysis
* The rule of five Ws and one H
o What?
o Why?
o Who?
o Where?
o When?
o How?
“ I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who. ” by Rudyard Kipling: "Just So Stories for little Children" (1902)
9. Audience Analysis
* A nalysis – Who are they? How many will be there?
* U nderstanding – What is their knowledge of the subject?
* D emographics – What is their age, sex, educational background?
* I nterest – Why are they there? Who asked them to be there?
* E nvironment – Where will I stand? Can they all see & hear me?
* N eeds – What are their needs? What are your needs as the speaker?
* C ustomized – What specific needs do you need to address?
* E xpectations – What do they expect to learn or hear from you?

10. Presentation Outline
11. Presentation Opening
* Outline of the presentation
* Startling question or a series of questions
* Quotation, illustration or a story
* Amazing Statistics
* Display of some object or picture
* Drama

12. Presentation Body
13. Presentation Body
* Chronological
o Reference to time
* Spatial
o Reference to space or arrangement in space
* Cause-Effect
o Showing Cause/Effect relationship

14. Presentation Body
* Comparative
o Showing comparison and contrast
* Topical
o Main topic divided into subtopics
* Problem-Solution
o Showing a problem and then its solution

15. Presentation Conclusion
* Sandwich effect: repeat your opening
* Summarize the main body
* Present a quotation
* Ask a question

16. Sample Outline
* Opening
o Capture audience attention
o Leads into speech topic
* Body
o Main Point #1
+ Subpoint
+ Support material
o Main Point #2
+ Subpoint
+ Support material
o Main Point #3
+ Subpoint
+ Support material
* Conclusion
o Review or Summary
o Call to action or memorable statement

17. Design (Visuals)
* Rule of Five x Five
* Consistent
o Fonts (size/type)
o Color
o Slide Layout
* Fewer (or perhaps no) Animation
o Use of Show/Hide Animation is OK!

18. Design (Colors)
* Sufficient contrast to enhance readability
o Black/Blue text on white background
o Yellow/White text on black/blue background
* Proper use of warm and cool colors

19. Presentation Skills Exercise #2
* Notice your feelings

20. Presentation Skills Exercise #2
* Notice your feelings

21. Design (Colors)
* Warm Colors
o Yellow, Red & Orange
o Relate with Sun, Blood & Fire

* Cool Colors
o Violet, Blue & Green
o Relate with Snow & Ice
22. Delivery
* Body Language
* Voice Modulation
* PowerPoint Slide Show Tips

23. Body Language
* Appropriate Eye Contact
* Positive Posture
* Informative Gestures
* Facial Expressions
* Movement

24. Voice Modulation
* Articulation (stressed part of speech)
o Presentation
o Presen TA tion
o Technology
o Tech NO logy
o Productivity
o Produc TI vity

25. Presentation Skills Exercise #3
* Read these lines aloud:
* I want to become successful
* I want to become successful and humble
* I want to become successful, humble and honest
* I want to become successful, humble, honest and passionate
* Which line ‘sounds’ different?
* And Why?

26. PowerPoint Slide Show Tips What How Move to any slide Slide # followed by [Enter] key Blank/Unblank B White/Unwhite , Move to first slide Hold left & right mouse button for 2 seconds All slides dialog Ctrl + S

27. Removing Glossophobia
* Reasons of Stage Fright
* I perceive or imagine the presence of significant others who are able to judge me
* I consider the possibility of my visible failure at a task
* I feel a need to do well to avoid failure
* I feel uncertain as to whether I will do well
* I focus on my own behavior and appearance

28. Top Five Presentation Errors
* PowerPointedness
* Reading everything written on slides
* Using jargon
* T.M.I
* Making slides complicated and unreadable

29. Error # 1 PowerPointedness- Extensive Use of Powerpoint " It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control. Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable. " – Gen. H. R. McMaster who banned PowerPoint presentations from US Army when he led the successful effort to secure the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar in 2005.

30. Error # 2 Reading EVERYTHING on Slides

31. Error # 3 Using Jargon

32. Error # 4 T.M.I (Too Much Information)

33. Error # 5 Making Slides Complicated and Unreadable Using se ve ral colors in the same slide can m ak e it u n r e a d a b l e . Using different fonts and font size can make things worse . Too Many Animations Avoid

34. More presentation tips and information available at: http://gurpreetwrites.wordpress.com Thanks for attending! G urpreet Singh is a professional writer and a trainer based in New Delhi having a keen interest in Human Psychology. He works in the creative realms of Technical Writing, Business Writing (MarCom), Web-Copy Writing and Training. He can be contacted at [email_address] .

Workshop on Presentation Skills for STC India Chapter

Which one is bigger: fear of death or fear of public speaking? According to studies, most people rank the fear of giving presentations much higher than the fear of death.

Irrespective of your designation, age or work domain, your job may involve presenting information to your customers and colleagues. And, fair or not, we are often judged more on how we say it than on what we say.

Mastering the art of presenting may not make you rich but it will most certainly help you to succeed in anything you do. Come, join the workshop on public speaking and become far more effective in delivering your message to your audience with a punch.

This workshop will provide participants with a practical advice on how to deliver presentations in front of an audience. Areas covered will include: presentation skills, body language and handling difficult questions.

Participation is free for all but you require to register and get confirmation due to limited seats.

For more information about the workshop (May 22′ 2010, GK-IV New Delhi), please contact me at gurpreetwrites (att) gmail (dott) com.

Delhi (NCR) STC Learning Session on 22nd May

The India chapter of Society for Technical Communication (STC) is organizing a learning session in Delhi on May 22, 2010 (Saturday). Please visit http://www.stc-india.org for more details on STC India Chapter.

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Delhi (NCR) STC Learning Session – 22nd May, 2010 @ B2C Systems New Delhi

Sponsors: B2C Systems

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Agenda

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09:45 AM to 10:00 AM – Registrations

10:00 AM to 11:30 AM – Presentation Skills for Technical Writers –

Gurpreet Singh

11:30 AM to 11:45 AM – Break

11:45 AM to 01:15 PM – Agile Documentation – Rajeev Jain

1:15 PM to 1:30 PM – Quiz and Announcement of Winners

About the Session & Speakers

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Gurpreet Singh

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Session: Presentation Skills for Technical Writers

About the session

Which one is bigger: fear of death or fear of public speaking?

According to studies, most people rank the fear of giving presentations much higher than the fear of death. Irrespective of your designation, age or work domain, your job may involve presenting information to your customers and colleagues. And, fair or not, we are often judged more on how we say it than on what we say.

Mastering the art of presenting may not make you rich but it will most certainly help you to succeed in anything you do. Come, join the workshop on public speaking and become far more effective in delivering your message to your audience with a punch.

This workshop will provide participants with a practical advice on how to deliver presentations in front of an audience. Areas covered will include: presentation skills, body language and handling difficult questions.

Profile of the Speaker

Gurpreet Singh is a prolific writer and a versatile public speaker with over seven years of professional writing and training experience. He won the title of ‘Best Humorous Speaker’ in the Toastmasters International Speech Contest and ‘Best Speech Evaluator’ in Agilent Toastmasters Club. He has completed Competent Communicator and Competent Leadership program from Toastmasters International and a certificate course on Presentation Skills from British Council, New Delhi. He works with Agilent Technologies and is currently serving as President of Agilent Toastmasters Club, a club dedicated to encourage public speaking.

Rajeev Jain

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Session: Agile Documentation

Profile of the Speaker

Rajeev is a published author with more than sixteen years of experience in IT field. He has managed teams spread across continents and geographies. He has presented papers in STC annual conferences of 2004 and 2006 along with many regional STC and MITWA events. He is working with Agilent Technologies as Expert Technical Writer. He is actively involved in promoting Technical Writing course in many Universities and Institutes. He moderates yahoo group APIWriters – http://groups.yahoo.com/group/APIWriters.

Sponsor – B2C Systems

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B2C Systems is sponsoring the venue for the Delhi (NCR) STC Learning Session. B2C Systems Limited, an ISO 9001:2000 Certified Company, is a leading provider of total IT solutions. Our innovative methods and processes, a strong belief in dedicated & specialized services and a strong desire to excel in our endeavors help us in staying ahead in the highly competitive market of the InfoTech Industry. Since its inception at IITF-2000, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, the company has scaled new horizons of IT solutions and services. As a professionally managed company comprising of young and livewire IT experts, we provide the most effective breed of services to our clients. Our in depth industry knowledge, and unmatched inheritance of talented professionals combined with the best ethics of business help us to propel the company to a bright future.

Address

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1, NRI Complex, Mandakini Enclave,

Greater Kailash – IV, New Delhi -110019 (INDIA)

Registration Details:

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To confirm your participation, please send a mail to me at manisha (dott) sardana (at) gmail.com and manisha (doTT) khurana (atttt) gmail.com. Please do not inquire about the session on this mailing list. Your participation is confirmed only if you receive a confirmation mail from me.

Participation Fee:

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Free for All

Please note the following:

- All participants (STC members or Non-STC members) have to register and get a confirmation mail because session is limited for 20 participants.

- If you need help with transportation, please let me know.

Have a great day.

Thanks and Regards,

Manisha

Delhi NCR Co-City Representative

STC India Chapter

The 19th New Delhi World Book Fair 2010

What: The 19th New Delhi World Book Fair 2010
When: 30 January to 7 February 2010 (Daily 11.00 a.m to 8.00 p.m)
Where: Hall No: 1 to 14, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi

Did you know that India publishes books in 37 different languages?

Did you know that India ranks third in the publication of English Books, only second to US and UK?

Did you know that more than 1,00,000 new books are published every year in India, a quarter of which are published in English?

If you answer the questions with a head shaking left to right and vica-versa (meaning No), or with a grinning mean smile then perhaps you must visit the 19th New Delhi World Book Fair 2010 organized by National Book Trust (NBT) to raise your knowledge about the world of books.

With publishers coming from all over the world to participate in the biggest book fair in the Afro-Asian Region, this event is a nothing short of a paradise for a book lover.

The last such event (The 18th New Delhi World Book Fair) was organized in 2008 which had 2172 stalls for 1343 exhibitors from 17 countries. Read my previous blog post about The 18th New Delhi World Book Fair to know more about the last held World Book Fair in New Delhi.

The theme of the upcoming Book Fair is “Reading for Common Wealth”, quite an interesting one. Isn’t it?

Special Facilities in the 19th New Delhi World Book Fair 2010

• Telephone and Posts Telegraph: Public telephone booths are located at convenient points throughout the Fair ground. A Post Office located in Hall No. 19 provides STD/ISD phone and fax services in addition to normal postal services.
• Banks: The State Bank of India, Central Bank of India and Canara Bank provide complete banking services at their branches in Hall No. 19. These banks also deal in foreign exchange.
• Restaurants and Cafeteria: There are restaurants, kiosks, snack counters and cafeteria all over the Fair ground.

Book Hunt with me!

I’d be going on a book hunt in the 19th New Delhi World  Book Fair. If you are interested to join me in this treasure hunt, just write a comment in this post.