Hi, my dear readers. I’m sorry that I was unable to update this blog as often as I should. Last year, I started this blog to keep track of what I’ve learned and how I’ve developed in technical writing. One year later, I was eventually hired as a technical writer. I’m very excited at the opportunity to put what my unique skill set into real-world projects. That’s being said, I’m going to write more posts that are closely related to work practices in the future.

Education Background 

I’m an English major with a master degree in English Literature. For what I can tell, the majority of graduates from the English department in China seek employment in the fields of education, translation, office administration etc.

In my efforts to break into professional writing, I find that my language background is a neutral factor. At the current job market, some employers find a language major with swift technical aptitude to be a valid candidate, while others insist on a strong technical background, for example, a degree in engineering, telecommunications or computers science.

Professional technical communicators in the blogosphere have been debating over the value of a formal education in technical communication. Unfortunately, universities in China that offer courses in professional communication are few and far between. That’s why there is a gap between the employer’s expectation and what the potential employee can offer.

Career Path

I’ve kept my eyes on technical communication in China for a while now. I’ve known practitioners who are hired straight out of school. There are also late comers like myself who make deliberate yet thoughtful efforts in breaking into the field. However, it is not always an easy ride. My first shot at becoming a technical writer was not successful, but I didn’t give up.

In my previous position, I parlay my language skills into translation of technical documentation. However, planning, writing, editing, translating and publishing are all indispensable parts of the documentation life cycle. I firmly believe that my experience in technical translation has a very positive impact on my current job in the long run.

Technical Writing in China

From what I know, location is a decisive factor in seeking employment, even more so than in America. The need to recruit technical writers, be it staff writer, independent contractor or freelance writer is highly concentrated in tech hubs such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Shenzhen. If you’re serious about becoming a technical writer, relocating is a must.

The reality is that technical writing is still not a full-fledged professional in China. It’s worth noticing that the employers are most likely to be foreign companies who recognize the value to produce quality documentation in English.

Professional Development

In China, the professional support channel for technical writers is almost non-existent unless you’ve already landed a technical writer position in the first place. Thankfully, I can learn from many active professional communicators from America, UK, Canada, Germany and India.

I follow dozens of technical writing blogs closely, which are contributed by individual writers, help authoring tool vendors as well as professional associations. I also keep tabs on professional publications, podcasts and seminars. By getting myself emerged in best practices and industry trend, I hope that I can make a contribution to promote and develop technical communication in China.

Your Turn

What’s your impression on technical writing in China? Whether you are an ambitious new writer who’s also trying to break into the filed or a seasoned technical writer with years of experience, I would love to see you comments on this blog.

Nowadays, most people had multiple encounters with the bank(s) of their choice on a regular basis. Given the increased pace of economic development in China, the diversity of banking services are literally mushrooming. However, with the rise of demand, the quality of delivery seems to remain far from satisfying.

The most common complaint is the long average waiting time. If you ask an average Chinese person, you will find out that it is perfectly normal for someone to wait one to two hours before he or she is served at the bank. Admittedly, banks are taking measures to mitigate this pain point, such as the wide deployment of queuing management system and lots of conformable chairs at the bank lobby.

However, these measures are superficial, from my point of view, if you are willing to dig deeper into the entangled practices and customer-unfriendly procedures as I do. Recently, an incident that happened to me at Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (largest Bank of China’s ‘Big Four’ state-owned commercial banks) was, to say the least, very irritating.

The incident concerns the commonplace currency exchange service. If you had exchanged currency using the ATM machines, which is likely to be available at major international airports, you may wonder what could possible go wrong. The processes that I going to introduce may only be applicable to banks at China, so you should not be alarmed if the processes are different in your own country.

Well, in order to make my points conveyed more clearly, I will use flowchart to illustrate and compare the current scenario and the ideal scenario in terms of currency exchange service.

In Figure 1.1, I give a detailed account of what a customer will experience as a first-timer. Although the scenario is constructed based on my own experience, I have witness others go through very similar situations.

Figure 1.1 Current Scenario and Major Issues (click on the picture to expand)

In Figure 1.2, I create a streamlined flowchart, which will substantially reduce the time an average customer waste on delusive procedures and misleading messages from bank’s employees.

Figure 1.2 Ideal Scenario (click on the picture to expand)

Context in communication

As I dwell on the implication of this incident at the bank, the theory of high context and low context culture that I learned in a series of cross-communication seminars a couple of years ago reemerged. According to American anthropologist Edward T. Hall, culture differences can be categorized in to high context and low context.

High-context (HC) communication or message is one in which most if the information is either in the physical context or internalized in the person, while little is in the coded, explicit, transmitted part of the message. A low-context (LC) communication is the just the opposite, i.e., the mass information is vested in the explicit code.

As it is noted by professor Linell Davis in her book Doing Culture: Cross-cultural Communication in Action, it is presumptuous to generalize about people from different cultures on their nationality and/or ethnicity, but there appear to be recurrent and underlying patterns that can shed some light on people’s comfort level with codes of communication.

Westerns, as low-context communicators, look for trust and user impersonal sources of information while communicators from more high-context cultures prefer personal sources of information.

In an interview between Melanie G Flanders and Tom Johnson dated back to 2007, Melanie argued that technical communion in China as it is known in the west is “non-existent”. From my conversation with Chinese technical writers, they all agree that the technical communication is a new and emerging field in China, but they can’t quite fathom the reason why technical communication has not taken off yet.

By comparing the current scenario the ideal scenario, I come to realize that the fundamental significance is not that the ideal scenario has a more streamlined workflow in place, but rather the ideal scenario reflects a completely different state of mind.

The Chinese, as high-context communicators, prefer verbal communication whenever possible.  As typical Chinese customers seeking services at a bank, we either turn to bank employees for help or they offer help to us. Compared to written communication, interpersonal communications feel more natural, warm and amiable to high-context communicators. That’s why it has become the default communication channel for most Chinese.

However, the problem is that this kind of communication is also highly vulnerable to human error.  These days, it’s very likely that employees at the bank of other public/private sectors are not as competent as they should be. That’s why I would argue that it’s also necessary to have a backup communication plan. In the ideal scenario, verbal communication may be reduced to the minimum. However, only by getting equipped with a well-written and up-to-date documentation can we guarantee the effectiveness and efficiency of business transactions.

Do you agree that cultural differences will have an implicit or explicit impact on the development of technical communication? Your comments are always welcome!

References

Linell Davis,  Doing Culture: Cross-cultural Communication in Action ( Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press,2001), 54,59.

With the New Year approaching, I decided to renovate my living room. When it comes to indoor decoration, IKEA is my favorite place to go. Not only because the relaxing shopping atmosphere there, but also because I actually like the idea of assembling pieces of furniture together by myself.

First thing you need to know if you’re not familiar with buying furniture the IKEA way is that you, as the buyer, are responsible for assembly and shipment of your purchase. If you prefer, you can ask for professional assembly and shipping services, which will lead to extra costs in addition to the original prices of the products.

Previously, I’d purchase lots of IKEA’s products, among which are kitchenware, two chairs, and a mini-bookshelf, etc. After hours of wandering around, I finally set my eyes on IKEA MALM chest of 4 drawers, which would provide an ideal storage space for my clothes. Since the grass weight was so overwhelming, I booked the shipping service, and four days later, viola a huge box were delivered to me.

When I opened the cardboard box, I was a little bit surprised, for I’d never expected there would be so many components, which could mainly be divided into two categories: two bags of screws of various shapes and a dozen or so pieces of wood.

I wondered if I had underestimated the complexity of the work at hand, so I asked my father to help me in this endeavor, since he has always been a handy craftsman in my mind. With the manual that came shipped with all the material, we ventured into uncharted water.

IKEA’S step-by-step visual manuals: friend or foe?

If you’re a devoted IKEA fan as I’m, you know all so well that IKEA’s manuals are notoriously or reputably known for their lack of textual instructions, depending on your comfort level dealing with visual cues. The differences among thinking styles may seem very subtle to the unobservant eyes, but if you look closely, you will find that some are distinctively more advantageous in deciphering visual cues than others.

In my copy of the IKEA MALM chest of 4 drawers manual, almost all the content are step-by-step instructions, except that at the very beginning there is an important warning message conveyed in 31 languages about the necessity of fixing the chest into the wall.

The problem with IKEA’s visual manuals is not so much that it demands a certain level of architectural understanding and mastery of craftsmanship, but a spirit of trial and error and a willingness to make informed guesses.

There are people who regard IKEA’s visual manual as a money-saving tactic to mitigate translation and localization fees. Even if IKEA is willing to give it a try, I doubt it will be easy to produce textual manuals in an expeditious manner, letting alone incurring a large amount of productions costs during the process.

Ultimately, it’s the customers who suffer the most, as indicated by the following comment from a desperate buyer of AKURUM 49″ base corner cabinet.

Instructions are worthless!!!!!

In fact until today I have been for the past 15 years a HUGE fan of Ikea. That ended with the absolute worst set of instructions I have ever encountered in my 53 years.

Here’s the deal. I’m putting together the Akurum bas corner. IT goes OK as far as the instructions went… What is wrong is that the instructions DO NOT
give you a list of the other 9 pieces you need to build the cabinet. Granted the lazy susan baskets are a no brainer but…

What draw, what door, what draw front …how do you attach the cover panel… like which screws.. and through which holes…..??

TOTALLY USELESS INstructions…. what really irks me is I just laid out $7000 for my 20 some odd cabinets and with these instructions it will take a month just to build them.

Why doesn’t someone at IKEA get it right??? and at least list the parts you need so you can have the info.in the instructions for the base cabinet??

Its not like I’m a moron… I am a design engineer and I work with abstracts and abstract concepts every day…

HELP>>>>>>>>

Do IKEA’s step-by-step visual manuals manifest a lack of content strategy?

If you find yourself not in accordance with IKEA’s visual manuals despite how much effort you’ve invested in, what are your options?

1. Content IKEA’s technical support personnel for directions via telephone or its official website for clarification.
2. Hire an installation professional to accomplish the daunting task for you.
3. Post a question at ikeafans.com, which is an unaffiliated website run by IKEA fans worldwide to discuss topics regarding IKEA products. It also came as a surprise to me that it’s this fan-driven website, rather than the official website that provide many manuals in PDF, some of which can easily generate 10000+ page views, 1000+ download and threads of discussion.

According to Kristina Halvorson, author of Content Strategy for the Web, content includes “the text, graphics, video, and audio that make up an interactive experience” and content strategy means “the practice of planning for content creation, delivery, and governance”. In this sense, IKEA is obviously lacking a comprehensive content strategy.

My IKEA content strategy wish list

• Even if textual manuals cannot be put into practice soon, how about some numbered stickers that will make assembly a complex piece of furniture as if we were putting together a jigsaw puzzle.
• Launch an official customer forum and replenish individual product page with space for discussion.
• Encourage diversified format of assembly instructions, e.g. video, pictures, 3D modeling, etc.

In order to give you a glimpse of what a manual that is stripped of words is like, here is an online version of IKEA MALM chest of 3 drawers. (Sorry that I didn’t find the copy for 4 drawers.)

IKEA MALM Chest of 3 Drawers, posted with vodpod

Reference:

1. www.ikeafans.com/…/ikea-instructions/4018-akurum-49-corner-base-cabinet-instructions.html

2. http://knol.google.com/k/content-strategy#

A couple of days ago, I simulated a self-actuated website usability test, or more precisely, a real-time feedback session with its product manager. At first, I suppose that both sides are skeptical about usefulness of such interaction, but in all fairness, the outcome was quite enlightening, resulting in a revamped site design.

To avoid giving the impression of advertising endorsement, the commerciality of this website shall not be the focus of our attention. All you need to know is that this is a site that provides resume writing/consulting services.

In this post, I’m going to share with you what do I think of the site’s usability as a typical front-end user, and how the web design reflects its implicit information architecture.

Don’t Make Me Think

If there is anything I’ve learnt from Steve Krug’s best-selling book Don’t make me think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, is that the first law of usability is to be easy on users’ thinking process.

According to Steve, every visitor to your site brings with him/her a certain amount of goodwill. For instance, an accidental visitor to your website may want to solve a puzzling question, to explore a topic of personal interest, or better yet, to ponder over the possibility of purchasing a service or product that you happen to be providing or selling.

For small business owners and start-ups that don’t have a lot of money to burn, every single click counts. Even if you have invested a lot of money in online advertising that only accounts for a small fraction of your marketing budget, it’s still the web designer responsibility to ensure the best user experience of visiting your website.

If your visitors enjoy your site, they will probably spend more time on your site. If they happen to dislike it, no one is going to write you a letter complaining about how lost or unsatisfied they feel when they are clicking around. Chances are within a minute or so, you will lose a potential customer that could otherwise been won over.

Information Architecture Made Easy

When conceiving a web design, the designer can be tangled up in minute details easily and forget the bigger picture. In a very informative post Information Architecture 101: Techniques and Best Practices, Cameron Chapman argues that:

Every site should have a clear purpose, whether that’s to sell a product, inform people about a subject, provide entertainment and so forth. Without a clear purpose, it’s virtually impossible to create any kind of effective IA.

The way the information on a site is organized should be directly correlated to what the site’s purpose is. On a site where the end-goal is to get visitors to purchase something, the content should be set up in such a way that it funnels visitors toward that goal. On a site that’s meant to inform, the IA should lead people through the content in a way that one page builds on the last one.

You may have sub-goals within a site, requiring you to have subsets of content with different goals. That’s fine, as long as you understand how each piece of content fits in relation to the goals of a site.

In other words, the information architecture of a website should be more than an aesthetic argument, but rather a means to an end.

Personal Preference vs. Bad Design Decision

If you really care about how visitors think about your website, then schedule a formal or informal usability test. I understand that the web designer can become quite defensive since he/she has spent hours or even days in prototyping and programming. Would you rather be end up with a user-unfriendly site that only suits your taste, or a site that can help to achieve your business goal even though you have to make some compromises in design?

I’ve inserted a screenshot of the revamped site with my comment on the design. Click on the picture to see a large version!

First, I notice is that the navigation bar lack pull-down sub-menus that outline the information architecture of the entire site. It so happens that the designer has more content under each category, but it’s completely hidden by the design. If a visitor wants to learn more about individual categories, they need to click back and forth among numerous links, which is quite a discouraging experience, to say the least.

Second, I notice that the most important information is not highlighted. In the original design, the Application Now button is put in the far right end corner of the page. Since the designer has gone through so much trouble convincing visitors of conducting a business transaction, wouldn’t it be a shame not to make it a smooth process for them to close the deal?

Third, it’s always good practice to follow the design patterns, because the average visitor is used to them. However, on the front page, certain elements, which appear to be clickable, turn out to be static text. Eventually, visitors will be overwhelmed by confusion and lose faith in your site as a whole.

Last but not least, take a look at your site from the users’ prospective and think about what information they may need. In this case, visitors are most likely concerned about billing issues, delivery method, refund policy and so on, which can be nicely integrated into a FAQ page.

Time Will Tell

During the usability test, one of hardest things to deal with is learning how to agree to disagree. While I’m glad to make contribution to the new design, I’m also eager to know if such changes will actually have a positive impact on user experience. Make sure to keep an eye on user behavior metrics using web analytics solution and make corresponding design or content tweaks if necessary.

A while back, I got another major interpretation gig. Compared with translation that deals with written words, interpretation is both exciting and a little nerve-racking, because situation can vary from client to client.

In this international conference on technology transfer, I was assigned as the consecutive interpreter in one of the afternoon sessions dedicated to biotechnology and new medicine. Seven keynote speakers from different universities, research institutes, or companies were allocated 30 minutes each for technology briefings respectively.

Almost all presentations were informative and extremely fast-paced. However, since the organizer did not schedule any break during the session, listeners worn out gradually. The irony was that eventually the interpreter became the most attentive listener.

Thus, it suffices to say that a close cooperation between speaker and interpreter is pivotal in getting your message across to the audiences. And that begs the question: now that you understand the importance of an interpreter’s role, what can you do to improve the cooperation? Here is a list of practical advice that you can adopt.

Provide Interpreters with Materials Ahead Of Time

Ideally, all trained interpreters should act as walking Wikipedia, but the truth is that most of professional interpreters have their unique field of expertise, and they may get uncomfortable working with unfamiliar subject matters.

What you can do to help interpreters up and running quickly is to provide background information as early as possible, while we also understand that in some cases the speakers may make changes at the last minute. Believe or not, most interpreters I know are very meticulous and diligent. As long as we get something to start with, i.e. draft/abstract/outline, we will go through all the troubles of being prepared ourselves.

Establish a Rapport with Your Interpreter during Initial Interaction

Despite all the argument about the role of interpreters, I believe that professional interpreters are not only messengers, but also coordinators between two cultures. In case you feel disoriented in a new setting or need any help getting ready before delivering a speech or participating in a discussion, it’s always a good idea to talk to your interpreter. It will also be helpful if you could introduce yourself and give a little background of what you’re going to say.

Keep an Eye on the Interpreter When You Go Along

If you’ve worked with an interpreter previously, you’ll know that the interpreter can only absorb a certain amount of information each time. Therefore, in consecutive interpretation session, it would be of tremendous help to us if you can:

• Divide your content  into small chunks of information, so that the interpreter will not leave out any important details due to information overload.
• Try to keep the pace, tone, and volume of your voice at a medium level, so that your interpreter can hear you clearly.
• Only start another session of conversation until your interpreter is complete with the precious one. Due to the syntactic differences among languages, some languages may take more time to translate than others, so try to restrain your urge to jump-start another conversation.
• In some situations where the interpreters may ask you to clarify certain terminologies or special usages, your cooperation will be highly valued.

In conclusion, as a professional interpreter, I welcome the challenges of working with different clients. I hope that by learning how interpreters work, you will also feel more conformable working with one in the future.

When iPad was first launched at the WWDC 2010, I was so amazed by Steve’s presentation. However, given some unpleasant experience of my first PDA back to 2003, I was hesitant to jump on the iPad bandwagon. I guess, deep down in my heart, I was afraid that a tablet computer will prove to be as less functional as my PDA.

Well, almost a month has passed since I first hold an iPad in the palm of my hand (special thanks to John), I would say that my iPad experience has been a mixed blessing so far.

The Blessing

Up until now, millions of iPad has been sold, an indication that iPad is well-received in the market place. If you were also impressed by some of the product demos, you really should be.

The multi-touch functionality work perfectly on this tablet device and the iPad virtual keyboard is much easier to use compared to iPod Touch/iPhone counterpart. The battery life is outstanding. Even if you watch hours of video, a fully charged iPad is most likely to sustain a day’s use.

Apple’s official iPad apps, such as iBooks, Numbers, Pages, and Keynote, all prove to be satisfactory. Users can also conveniently get access to new apps via App Store, where both paid and free apps are nicely categorized and available for download. It should be note that many popular paid apps also come with a free lite version.

The Curse

It is a truth universally acknowledged that iPad’s biggest faux pas is its closed platform. Be it intentionally or not, Apple has succeeded in making downloading/uploading almost impossible in Safari. As a result, the transformation of data is a really painful process, even though you do have several choices:

• You can sync data through iTunes, which is neither quick nor smooth.
• You can transfer data via blue tooth, which for some mysterious reason never work on my Vista HP laptop.
• You also can upload data to a Web-based file hosting service, such as Dropbox from a PC/laptop, and then download it to iPad, which is my favorite method to keep data in sync across multiple OS and/or devices.

Passive Consumers vs. Creative Contributors

Another major concern from iPad critics is based on the argument that most iPad users are passive content consumers rather than active content contributors. Thus, critics are worried that the popularity of iPad will have a negative influence on social media in the long run. Though it seems to be a valid argument, I don’t think iPad is to blame.

The tablet of nature of this device makes it difficult to generate content, just as any other tablet out there or might be produced in the future. The truth is, during the day, most of us work with PC or laptop so that we can run fully functional software. But, by the end of the day, it would be nice to lay back and relax for a while with your iPad. There is no need feeling guilty for becoming a content consumer temporarily, because it should be considered as refreshment from your hard work.

Establishing and Building Mutual Respect with Technical Team Members

A major part of working as a technical writer involves collaborating with the SMEs. In this article, Eric offers great advice on how to become a productive team member. He argues that the secret of establishing a productive working environment is to build mutual respect between writers and SMEs. To this end, Eric urges writers to have hands-on experiences of the products they are documenting, be a team player and always stay in the loop.

The Documentation Maturity Model (infographic)

If you’re an inquisitive user of any software/product, chances are you’ve some pleasant or not so pleasant experiences of its documentation. Based on researches of the best technical documentation sites, Mark proposes a documentation maturity model, which consists of six levels of technical sophistication. The significance of this maturity model, as far as I’m concerned, is to instruct companies with a lower maturity model to strive for a higher one, so as to stay competitive by providing a better overall user experience.

How to Write a Terrible Technical Document

While technical writers are perplexed by the ultimate question, i.e. how to produce quality technical documentation, it’s relative easy to put on your critic’s hat when you spot bad technical documentation.

According to the author of this article, signs of bad documentation include: obtuse or indecipherable document title; wrong, missing or low-quality images; flowery and emotional language; circular cross-references; no TOC or Index; unusable Index.

Do you have anything to add?

Drupal best practice: Document your way to understanding

I really enjoy reading this humorous post by Angie, in which she asks Drupal users to become active contributors of technical documentation for this open source project. After all, user-generated content is the key to improve project performance and maintain an active user community.

EOF

• Will readers find my content relevant?
• Are my posts technical enough to be useful to the audience?

I guess any serious blogger would understand the pressure of producing optimal content on a regular basis. Anyway, I apologize for keeping my dear readers waiting and I promise there will be more posts on technical writing coming in the future.

What I’ve been up to lately

Last week, I was assigned to interpret at an international forum for three days. On average, I worked thirteen hours every day, which was extremely demanding and rewarding at the same time. If you like my previous post on my life as a technical translator in China, you will probably also be interested in this one, which features my reflection on being a professional interpreter.

But first thing first, what’s the difference between a translator and an interpreter? To put it simply, translators primarily deal with written words, whereas interpreters deal with spoken words.

Role of the interpreter

Being bilingual is a prerequisite for both translators and interpreters. However, being a professional interpreter requires additional skills and knowledge set that are not necessarily obvious for novice interpreters. Hopefully, this post will give you a sneak peek at the world of professional interpreters.

As is feverishly argued by experts in the field, interpreters not only provide a gateway to bilingual communication, but also act as a bridge between two cultures. It is the interpreter’s responsibility to deliver the exact meaning of both sides in a timely manner. Under certain circumstances, notably in the case of insufficient resources or misinformation, it’s up to the interpreters to figure out how to bring both sides closer to a mutual understanding.

Public speaking skills

Although the interpreter is not supposed to draw attention to himself/herself, public speaking skills are essential to being a successful interpreter.

• Establish eye contact with both the speaker and the audience in order to engage every participants of the present conversation, and only glance at your notes occasionally.
• Speak loud enough so that even those who sit in the back row can hear what you have to say. Note: microphones can be helpful, but they are not always available.
• Be confident. I guess it’s valid that nervousness strike occurs when you’re conscious that your performance has the potential to hit the headline next day. Trust me on this one. Your audience can sense the fear in you. I am not sure what is the best way to cope with your own anxieties, but the more you have prepared beforehand, the more relaxed you will be.

Concentration and memory

The secret ingredient of being a professional interpreter is to optimize your brain for short-term memory. Abstractly speaking, the mechanism of STM is to encode what you’ve heard, store the information as accurate as you can, and retrieve as much as you can from your memory when it’s your term to interpret.

In order to keep your brain functioning during the hour-long conference, you need to concentrate on the content itself. Admittedly, you cannot stop interference such as unexpected phone rings, but try your best to ignore any of those distractions as if you’re working in a void.

Note-taking

I have heard people argue that note-taking is a necessary evil, and it sure is. If you take too many notes, it will prevent you from digesting the information input; while if your notes are inadequate, it will be hard to jog your memory later, and you are likely to miss important bits of information. Thus, you probably are puzzled by the following questions:

• What kinds of information should you include in your notes?
• How can you organize your notes?

Well, my answer is simple enough–it depends.

There are people who insist on teaching their own note-taking system on the ground that their system is superior to others. The truth is that note-taking method is part of your personal idiosyncrasy. Therefore, don’t feel obligated to adopt other people’s system even they seem fancier than yours, but rather stick to whatever signs, symbols, numbers, or abbreviations that work for you.

The only advice I have is to make sure that your notes stay organized. You can achieve this goal by using notebooks with threaded binding or if you prefer use separate sheet of paper, remember mark them with numbers, so that you do not get lost in a pile of papers.

Copying with unexpected situation

As it is foretold in Murphy’s Law, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. The most common problem that an interpreter is likely to encounter is unable to understand the speaker’s intention in the first place.

For instance, suppose the speaker refers to a previous event or a terminology that you’re not familiar with, I would suggest that you ask the speaker for further clarification on specific points. In most situations, the speaker will be willing to fill you in.

Culture awareness

It goes without saying that culture awareness is also an indispensable factor in cross-cultural communication. Since both sides are probably accustomed to a monoculture environment, you need to resort to your previous experience to cope with any miscommunication among cultures.

Professionalism

Thanks for your patience in reading this long post. Here are three final points I want to make if you also like to embark on a journey of being a professional interpreter.

• Be prepared beforehand. It is a well-established habit among interpreters to carry out extensive researches before we’re involved in any kinds of interpretation. It’s suggested that you get to know the speakers and any subjects that are relevant to the upcoming event and take notes if necessary.
• Dress professionally. I do not want to sound superficial, but obeying the dress code is also very necessary. If you don’t want to appear either overdressed or underdressed, check with your colleges for reassurance.
• Be punctual. In fact, as interpreters, you’d better show up on time or even earlier than schedule, so that you will have more time to familiarize yourself with the surrounding and speaker(s).

Conclusion

Thanks for your patience in reading this long post, and I hope that you will find it beneficial. As usual, comments are welcome if you would like to share your view with me.

Here is a picture of me doing consecutive interpretation during an evening session.

There is no denying that as the scope of technical communication is constantly developing, the responsibilities of a technical writer are also evolving. Tristan David Bishop, the senior principal business analyst from Symantec discusses the dynamic nature and new challenges of today’s technical communication profession.

• Documentation and the Whole Nine YARDs

This is not the first time I hear technical writers lament that good technical documentation is hard to find. For those who are skeptical about such argument, Loren Segal’s seminar at MWRC 2010 will hopefully win you over.

• Temple Grandin: The world needs all kinds of minds

What really caught my attention was a seminar by David Akers from Stanford University on the subject of backtracking events as indicators of software usability problems. His research is very thought-provoking for it provides a new prospective on the functionality of undo and erases events that are usually taken for granted by end-users.

As a novice in usability testing, I still need to delve into the ins and outs of the rationales of numerous control variables. Nevertheless, I also occur to me the practices of usability testing bear an interesting resemblance to what I had done in my previous qualitative research project.

In order to verify his arguments, David uses traditional usability testing method as a reference. What’s impressed me the most in David’s research is that he doesn’t try to do away with traditional usability testing, but rather he tries to and succeeds in proving the feasibility of backtracking events acting as reliable indicators in usability testing, which leads to his conclusion that a combination of testing methodologies will only shed new light on developers for further improvement of their software.

Image Credit: random thought

For a complete coverage of his research findings, see Backtracking Events as Indicators of Software Usability Problems (PDF).

This is a very tough question to answer. I guess the nature of translation will depend on what kind of content you’re dealing with. In my previous post, I’ve discuss my concern about the scalability of language. On the other hand, engineers are making tremendous efforts on machine translation research. During Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s keynote at IFA 2010 this week, Hugo Barra, product management director of the mobile team, gave a preview of the conversation mode in Google Translate. While the idea of on-the-fly translation sounds so futuristic, this feature should be available in a few months.

[Web app] paper.li – read Twitter as a daily newspaper

Have you ever wished for a newspaper fully tailored to your taste? If so, then check out paper.li, a web app that will convert your twitter feeds into a newspaper format. Please note that this app is still in alpha, and I would really hope that the UI could be more New York Times-ish.

[TED Talks] Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation

In this thought-provoking speech, Dan Pink argues that monetary incentives will not necessarily lead to positive performance. On the contrary, when it comes to works that require rudimentary cognitive skills, it is better to give your employees the autonomy to engage in works that they’re truly passionate about. His argument may sound very counter-intuitive at first, but the truth is that more and more companies have adopted or are going to try out Google’s 80/20 innovation model.

[Photography] World Panoramic Photography - 360 Cities

I’m amazed by the top-notch panoramic pictures on this site. Apparently, this site had attracted panoramic photographers around the world, so feel free to check out your favorite spot.

My observation is that the tech-savvy users group is inclined to play with Firefox, Safari, and Chrome, whereas the average Chinese citizens have a higher preference for IE (the default browser for everyone), as well as other popular browsers by domestic IT companies, such as Maxthon and Tencent Traveler. An article from Global Times attributes the unpopularity of Opera, Chrome and Firefox to “cultural difference”, even though there is not enough research to back up this hypothesis.

An interesting point is that prior to Chrome, I have no idea how browsers work and no interest to acquire such knowledge, until a comic book revolutionizes the presentation of information.

On the other hand, if you’re running the latest version of Chrome, you will find that its user interface is streamlined to the minimum, despite that the idea of manually installing History and Download extensions in order to access these two extremely useful features is far from appealing. So far, all the extensions in the gallery are free, and you can install/uninstall any extension by only a few clicks.

In this post, I’m going to list my favorite Chrome extensions. If you’re a frequent visitor to the Chrome extension gallery, you will also find that the number of extensions increase exponentially everyday, so it would be a good idea to check back once in a while.

Google Dictionary

If you’ve never used an in-browser dictionary, Google Dictionary comes with my highest recommendation. To consult a word, simply double-click a selected word, and a dialog box will pop up. What’s so great about it extension is that the selected word is interpreted in context in most cases, so it’s easier for you to grasp new words. The only problem with this extension is that it doesn’t work with hyphenated words and phrases.

Google Mail Checker/ Google Reader Checker

Do you feel the urge to check incoming messages once in a while?  This set of extensions is ideal for people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The checker/notifier functionality will immediately notify you of how many new messages have arrived at your inbox.

Lightshot

I find screenshot tool indispensable part of the web browsing experience.  Having played with a handful of screenshot tools that are available, I recommend Lightshot, because it’s so lightweight, yet fully functional.

Clip to Evernote

I’ve been struggling to find the ideal note-taking extension for a while, and Evernote turns out to be the most powerful web-based notepad I’ve ever tried.

iReader

Considering the complexity of web design nowadays, sometimes reading against a noisy background can be very demanding on the eyes. By clicking the iReader icon, the content will be highlighted, while the background is grayed out. Warning: this extension is very addictive. After using it for a while, I simply cannot resist the urge to click the icon.

Rapportive

If you have a circle of socially engaged friends, you will be happy to find that the integration of Gmail and Rapportive makes it easier to keep track of what your friends have been up to.

Further Reading

The list that I’ve just mentioned is by no means exclusive. As I’ve said before the Chrome extension gallery is a really fun place to hang out and explore, so give it a try and come up with your own list of favorite extensions.

• 10+ extensions for better back-to-school browsing with Google Chrome
• 10 Google Chrome Extensions for Web Developers
• The 10 Best Chrome Extensions for Work and Play
• 10 Google Chrome Extensions for Boosting Your Productivity

This past week has been a very exciting week, to say the very least. Chrome 6.0 has just been launched to celebrate its second birthday. The changes in UI are almost imperceptible, thus it takes me no time to readjust. I’m glad to see that Chrome is gaining substantial momentum, which means that more creative energy will be geared to the extension galley, a fun place for me to hang out and explore. One suggestion I want to make to new Chrome users is that given its minimalist design, you will need to a decent collection of extensions that cater more to your personal needs. In a later post, I’m going to cover my most favorite extensions.

[Review] The Problem with Ping

Also in the news is the release of iTunes 10, featuring Ping, a social networking platform for music fans. From what I’ve been reading, early adopters are not particularly fond of this latest endeavor from Apple.  My only concern is that the built-in nature of this platform will make it less appealing to the everyday users. Anyway, I’ve decided to prolong the test-run until I make up my mind it.

[Tutorial] Learn WordPress.com

WordPress team has outdone themselves again and again. This newest member to the wordpress.com family aims at educating novice users about the fundamental of blogging with step-by-step tutorials. Its tasteful layout also makes the reading experience more enjoyable.

[Technical Writing] Should writers and editors learn technical skills?

This post tackles the dilemma between balancing writing skills and technical skills. According to the author, technical writers should diversify their skill set by acquiring a good command of technical skills in order to stay ahead of the curve.

[Fun Stuff] The Wilderness Downtown

This amazing web app delivers an interactive browsing experience that you’ve never seen before. It’s very processor intensive, so that you’d better shut down other applications and additional tabs before you give it a try. The downside is that the place where you grow up not necessarily optimized for this application. However, if you search for 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, you will still be prompted that the address doesn’t contain enough Street-View and/or Google Maps data to 100% enjoy this experience. I mean, what’s that all about?

The editorial review claims that:

The book presents a much needed approach to quality technical communication and a working plan for achieving quality. The examples are excellent and are easy to use and adapt. The editorial advice is simple and clear enough for tech writers who did not major in English or journalism. It is most worthy of a text in university programs, but it is more valuable to experienced writers, editors and managers concerned with raising the quality of their publications.

Based on this sample chapter that is available online, I find this book very informative for the following reasons.

• The authors structure their content with a single question in mind: what is quality technical information? In order to answer this question, this book is nicely categorized into the following sections.

Easy to use
Task Orientation	A focus on helping users do tasks that are associated with a product or tool in relation to their job
Accuracy	Freedom of mistake or error; adherence to face or truth
Completeness	The inclusion of all necessary parts – and only those parts
Easy to understand
Clarity	Freedom from ambiguity or obscurity; the presentation of information in such a way that users understand it the first time
Correctness	The inclusion of appropriate examples, scenarios, similes, analogies, specific language, and graphics
Style	Correctness and appropriateness of writing conversations and of words and phrases
Easy to Find
Organization	A coherent arrangement of parts that makes sense to the user
Retrievability	The presentation of information in a way that enables users to find specific items quickly and easily
Visual effeteness	Attractive and enhanced meaning of information through the use of layout, illustrations, colors, typography, icons, and other graphical devices

• This book is full of examples taken from real-life technical documentation. By comparing the original and revised versions, readers will have a better idea of what measures to take in order to improve their technical writing skills.
• This book features well-designed checklists at the end of each chapter, which will remind you of guidelines and items that you should pay attention to.

It’s a pity that this book is not for sale in China. It appears that if I place an order with Amazon, I need to resort to procurement service for shipment, which will double the original price. I wonder if there is a better solution.

• [Add-on] Add Social Elements to Your Gmail Contacts with Rapportive, a chic chrome extension that will make your Gmail more socially enabled.
• [Cartoon] What it’s like to own an Apple product , which illustrates the happiness and sorrow of every Apple user.
• [Game] Entanglement is an engaging, HTML5-powered Time-Waster. Can you figure out how to achieve a higher score?
• [ Software] Do you want to bring iBooks reading experience to your PC? GooReader is a snazzy way to search and read Google Books
• [Technical Writing] 100 Rejected Summit Proposals: a fantasy list of proposals by Tom Johnson. If only some of them can actually be presented at STC!

For those who are not familiar with the current Internet censorship in China, the Chinese Government observes the right to block any websites or web services as its will. Such practices are commonly referred to as the Great Firewall of China (GFW).

According to Urban Dictionary, GFW has become so popular that it can be used as a noun or a verb.

1. noun. An acronym for Great Firewall, the nickname of The Golden Shield project, a censorship and surveillance project operated by the Ministry of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China (MPS).

e.g.  ”The GFW is watching you!”

2. verb. Block by Great Firewall.

e.g. “Oh my god, my website/blog is GFWed!”

There is no official explanation as to the criteria by which a site is to be deemed as inappropriate for the public. It is claimed that this kind of blocking happens purely randomly, but everyone knows that it’s not the case.

By the way, when submitting your search queries, be careful not to mention any forbidden words, even though no one’s really sure what they’re. Any violation of these rules, be it intentional or not, will cripple your search engine momentarily.

How GFW Works

It is my experience that even professional IT personnel have a hard time explaining how exactly does GFW work. In fact, a combined effect of the voluntary complexity of blocking mechanism and the artificial indeterminacy of forbidden words is so discouraging that the majority of users simply accept the censored search results.

Here is an infographic that deciphers the censorship myth. I’m not sure who is the mastermind behind this graphic, but I want to thank him/her for putting together this enlightening piece of information.

This is China (TIC)

Personally, I find GFW extremely annoying because even though my search queries have nothing to do with politics whatsoever, I still get GFWed dozens of time every day. The reality is lots of young and tech-savvy users can seek aid from proxy servers to surpass the GFW, but I’m not sure the scope of such users. If you are a first timer to China, you may be deeply troubled to find that a handful of the most popular sites are block.

• www.facebook.com
• www.youtube.com
• www.vimeo.com
• www.twitter.com
• www.blogger.com
• www.dropbox.com
• www.docs.google.com
• www. picasaweb.google.com

Wikipedia has a comprehensive list of blocked sites in China. The irony is that my ISP simply refuses to render this page, even though the rest of the site appears to work fine. Considering that Wikipedia has been blocked and unblocked many times on the ground that certain entries are considered too politically sensitive, I really shouldn’t complain here.

Given the diversified nature of the web, I understand that people can be extremely radical and vocal about their personal opinions. Appropriate regulation should be laid to establish a decent web environment. However, the general public should not be punished blindly by the current censorship absurdity.

See Internet memes: The GFW Flow Chart to learn more.

• Fun stuff: Do you have a dread of long-term travelling? Take a look at how Christoph Niemann visually documents his flight from New York to Berlin.
• Technical communication: How to quantify technical documentation? Documentation metrics: How do you prove you’re worth it?
• Software: Are you a fan of Picasa? Check out DLS Review: Picasa 3.8 released, now with Picnik editor.
• Website: Have you ever wondered how to extract music from a YouTube video? Dirpy Studio is a slick way to turn YouTube clips into MP3 downloads.
• Deep reading: From the visionary author of The Long Tail and Free: The Future of a Radical Price, The Web Is Dead by Chris Anderson.

Recently, I’ve been reading Technical Writing 101: A Real-World Guide to Planning and Writing Technical Documentation(3rd edition) by Sarah S. O’Keefe and Alan S. Pringle.

It’s a great book for entry-level technical writers. Besides an overview of technical writing process, ranging from planning, writing, visual design, editing, indexing to production, it also covers a wide variety of fundamental concepts, useful tools, practical advice and the latest trends in technical writing.

In order to give you a glimpse of the content, I would like to share the following tips on how to get the most out of your SMEs, aka subject matter experts.

(Almost) 30 ways to get information from developers (p. 84)

While many of the following suggestions are hardly serious, the basic message should be clear: establish a clear line of communication, be persistent but respectful, and remember that the developer is a person with interests and responsibilities outside of work.

Bring bagels and cream cheese to a morning review session.

Deliver content that requires minimal changes from the developers. If the developers respect your work, they’ll be more likely to deliver the information.

Figure out the developer’s preferred method of communication and use it. If the developer prefers to talk at the water cooler, do it. If the developer prefers to be contacted by email, use email, even if his cube is across from yours.

Be respectful of the developer’s time and other commitments. Try to group your questions instead of interrupting her constantly.

Consider using medieval torture devices, including the rack and the iron maiden.

Develop enormous expertise in your product. The product engineers are more likely to take your questions seriously if they think you know your stuff.

Restrict the questions you ask the developer to the really obscure stuff.

Brownies. And lots of them.

Attend development project meetings to stay on top of what’s going on the project.

When working late, share your pizza.

Learn to read code and dig up information by scanning the code.

Make the developer’s life easy. When inserting queries for the developer in your document, use large, bold and hard-to-miss type.

If you don’t want your wiring style (and comma placement) criticized, don’t criticize the developer’s work.

Find out what the developer’s work schedule is and call (or visit) during those hours.

When reporting bugs to the developers, be thorough. Explain exactly what happens and how to reproduce it. Don’t make the developer figure it out.

Cold hard cash.

Save up questions and make a list to give to the developer instead of asking individual questions.

Deliver one or two chapters for review at instead of the entire document.

Split up reviews so that developers review only the material they are responsible for.

If all else fails, marry a developer. (This is not likely to help, though.)

Don’t ask stupid questions – do your research first.

Don’t tell a developer that you could have designed a better interface in your sleep (even if it’s true).

Find out what the developer’s favorite snack is and just happen to have some during the nest review meeting.

Schedule a standing weekly to review question.

Report bugs to the developer personally instead of the bug-tracking system – many developers are evaluated based on the numbers of the bugs reported against their code.

Send your manager a note explaining the drop-dead date when you need review comments.

Copy your manager on correspondence to developers.

Copy the developer’s manager on requests for information.

Have your manager talk to the developer’s manager (a last-resort measure).

For a more comprehensive review, please refer to Book Review: Technical Writing 101 by Alan S. Pringle and Sarah S. O’Keefe.

A couple of months ago, I made a short video clip as my creative resume and it got some positive feedback. I find it very effective way to learn via tutorials. I believe that the deployment of rich media is particular relevant in technical communication nowadays, for it’s the manufacture’s responsibility to create the best user experience possible and not the other way around. That’s why I always admire companies that are embracing emerging technologies, thus making their brand socially enabled.

Why do I choose Jing?

There are numerous screen recording tools, among which is the built-in snipping tool from Windows. I choose Jing because it survives my five-minute usability test in search of a screen capture utility. Jing boasts both a free trial version and paid pro version. After the installation, a short self-tutorial will launch automatically to get you up and running. Whenever you want to get access to Jing, an unobtrusive little yellow icon is displayed at the top of your screen.

Basic features of the free version include:

• Screen capture: Not only can you easily take screen capture, you can also modify the capture by adding arrows/ captions.
• Screencasting: Jing’s free version can let you record up to five minutes of screen activities and save in SWF format.

Advantages and disadvantages of the free version:

Jing is an ideal screen capturing and screencasting software for any digital media newbie, because it’s super easy to learn and use. However, it should be noted that its functionality is not strong, compared with other multimedia giants.

Lessons I learned from making my first screencast

Through this fun experiment with Jing, I taught myself the basics of screencasting.

• Basic Considerations: To put your ideals into practices may prove to be more difficult than it seems at first. It takes time to organize your thoughts logically, so that they can be digested by your audience easily.

• Outline or script: It was my initial attempt to go without script and it simply couldn’t work. I was so nervous once the mike was on that I stared mumbling. Later I found out that even podcasting professionals prepare scripts in order to keep their thoughts together. Thus, it’s perfectly nature and necessary to have a script.

• Recording, again and again: Even you’ve fully prepared, it won’t hurt to try multiple time, so that you will improve the rhythm of your voice.

In conclusion, screencasting is really a time-consuming endeavor. For every minute in the final cut, I spend one hour in preparation. So next time you watch an informative video, try to appreciate the efforts that the presenter has invested in. I understand that it takes lots of practices to become more seasoned in digital media production. I would like to try out a video tutorial about WordPress, if only you, my dear readers, would make such a request.

Transcript:

Hi, I’m Matt from support. So glad you could enter
My favorite spot on the web – it’s the Google Help Center.
I’ll start us off now and put my hand in the air
And point to a tool called the search box there
Where you can search for articles to read to learn about a product
and get answers that you need.
Please over to your right now adjust your view
To see some recommended articles just for you,
Which may be customized or based on common questions,
And below them you’ll see a Help Resources section.
Now, if you move your vision slightly over to my right
You’ll see a list of links with the topics of the site
And no matter where in the help center you roam
Click Help articles to hit the help center home.
or click the Google product logo slightly above
To go straight to the page of the product you love.
Now if none of these tools really answers your question,
Some help centers have a user Help Forum section.
And lastly, to check out other contact means
Check the contact link at the bottom of your screen.

This past week, I was busy translating parts of a maintenance manual, which made me feel guilty for not updating this blog. Fortunately, interesting topics keep popping into my head. I’ve also developed a habit of scrabbling then down on a notebook that I carry around all the time. When people find out that I work in technical translation, some show genuine interests and others ask very good questions. For example,

• What do you do as a technical translator?
• What kinds of qualification/certification do you need to become a technical translator?
• What kinds of tools do you use?
• Is there any standard translation workflow?
• How to measure the quality of a piece of translation？
• Do you find your life as a technical translator fulfilling?

In reply to those questions, I’ve decide to write this post. I will give a general introduction of the translation industry in China and some basic practices in technical translation. As a junior technical translator, I do not intend to assert any kind of authority. My opinion is only a personal reflection based on my experience.

Hopefully, this post will benefit those who are looking forward to breaking into technical translation and those who want to gain some insights into this industry.

My reflection on translation industry in China

Generally, people involved in this industry all agree that translation industry is a booming filed in China. According to statistics provided by Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA), China’s translation industry has already been a billion-dollar business way back in 2003.¹ While start-up translation agencies are mushrooming throughout China, there are only a few that are nationally recognized. Besides, most translation services tend to be unidirectional, meaning the needs for E-C translation far outgrow those for C-E translation.

As Chinese universities keep chucking out language majors, many of them end up in translation industry willingly or unwillingly. Generally speaking, an undergraduate language degree will suffice to launch a career in translation. However, you will also find out that all the translation theories and grammar rules that you’ve learned in school will be challenged in daily usage.

Authoritative figures in the field often lament for the discrepancy between what the students are taught at school and the competences needed in practical work. However, neither universities nor translation agencies have plans to change the current situation. In a nutshell, just as many experts had put it, the translation industry in China is “big but not strong”.²

Quality assessment in translation

As in technical writing, the most mind-wrenching problem in technical translation is how to evaluate the quality in translation. The most common mistake from an outsider’s perspective is to focus solely on the quantity in translation. It’s definitely easier for everyone if the translators are paid for how many words they’ve labored on. As a professional translator, you would be expected to translate at least 3000 characters/day on average.

Personally speaking, the three most important metrics in measuring translation would be: accuracy, readability and speed. To get an idea of translation procedures, please refer to the following chart³. In most translation agencies, either an extended or simplified version of translation workflow is  followed, as a way of quality control.

Translation Workflow (Please click picture to expand.)

Machine Translation (MT) vs.

Computer-assisted/computer-aided Translation (CAT)

Whether you’re fluent in a second langue or not, chances are that you’ve some hands-on experience of machine translation tools, such as Google Translator. The hard truth is that, even after decades of research in machine translation, this technology just isn’t going anywhere. I guess the fluidity of human language simply makes it an insurmountable mission to gain perfectly satisfying results with machine translation.

In recent years, however, the most exciting breakthrough would be the wide-spread of CAT, aka computer-assisted/computer-aided translation. More and more translators have been equipped with powerful CAT software, such as SDL TRADOS, to facilitate their translation process. However, you should not confuse CAT and machine translation. In other words, CAT software serves as the facilitator of translation, but will never actually do the translation for you.

The core functionalities of CAT software lie in translation memory (TM). To put it simply, while translators are translating large amount of info, the software is programmed to record all the data in info chunks. Since technical documents have a higher degree of repetition regarding terminology and sentence structures, your burden of translation will be lessened with the help of CAT software. CAT software will provide you with an automatically generated recollection of your previous translation. Such software will also generate matching scores, so that you can simply copy the perfect match and modify those with a high matching score. Besides, you can also import pre-existing databases of terminology into the software.

Found in translation

In conclusion, technical translation consists of a set of skills that can be developed through practices. As you mature in technical translation, you will also acquire some kind of domain knowledge, which will serve you well in the future. To become a professional translation, you need to detail-oriented. And more importantly, the persistence to improve the accuracy and readability of your translation is desired.

I’ve known a few translators who argue jokingly that if you have an extrovert character, you probably won’t be a good fit. However, don’t let others decide what’s right for you and jump at the next opportunity in technical translation if that’s what you want to do.

Note:  For a comprehensive list of CAT tools available, check out this wiki page.

References:

1. Interview: Reflections on China’s Translation Industry
2. Translation industry big but not strong
3. Document Globalization Guide. Photo Courtesy of Globalization Partners International.

At the risk of making myself Google’s unofficial evangelist, I’m going to discuss the semantic confusion among three features in Google Reader. I realize that I’ve probably written too much about Google so far, and I promise that I’ll diversify my subjects in future posts.

To be honest, I’m not an early adopter of web-based aggregators, such as Google Reader. I’ve become a regular user gradually by adding more and more feeds into my subscription. I’ve also learnt to create folders so that I can manage my feeds better.

On an ordinary day, I will spend at least an hour reading posts from my favorite bloggers, scanning through other potentially interesting blogs and simply neglecting the rest. For most Google Reader aficionado, it’s really agonizing when you simply cannot find the time to read or you’re overwhelmed by the information overload, which is commonly referred to as info-guilt.

It has been a while since there is any major change in terms of new features in Google Reader. According to Wikipedia, the most recent feature is Google Reader Play, which I don’t find very interesting to play with. The latest release of Google Images is quite impressive, though.

Starred, shared and liked items in Google Reader

At the end of each blog entry, there is a list of buttons that you can choose from, in order to mark this particular post for particular purposes. Later on, you can access these marked items from the sidebar. However, I find out that most users are unable to tell the semantic differences of each button, or they are simply clueless of what to do with them. It is my firm belief that user interface should be self-explanatory and use-friendly. If many users are confused by some buttons, you really should look into the matter and figure out how to make them more intuitive.

Interface of a blog entry in Google Reader

Google Reader Sidebar

Add star

By clicking Add Star button, you will mark a post for later reference. Since this label is only visible to you, I think it can act as the secret Like bottom. However, there are many people who use this button to mark up posts they’ve not read yet, but planned to do so. They suggest renaming this button as To Read.

Like

By clicking Like button, you will mark a post as one of your favorite. Your preference and customized profile will be visible to all Google Reader users who happen to read this post. I guess the idea behind this feature is to make it a social networking tool. However, most popular posts will generate 100+ people who like it, thus make it impractical to search for like-mined people in this manner.

Share/Share with note

By clicking Share/Share with note buttons, you will share selected posts. You can make your shared item public, or limit access to only a few people. I think it is a great feature because by subscribing to people with common interest, you can get an idea what she/he is reading now. However, my personal experience is not many people use this feature, or am I not sharp enough to notice such users.

What does the future hold for Google Reader?

In conclusion, Google Reader has become an integral part of my life and I’m looking forward to any new features that the Google Reader team may come up with. Drop me a line in comment if you like to share your experience of being a Google Reader devotional.

Further reading: For more discussion of this topic, please refer to another great article Google Reader Basics – Share, Like and Add Star.

Last week, I launched my technical writing blog officially using the much-acclaimed weblog hosting provider WordPress.com. I’ve read so much about it from other technical writers’ blogs, and finally made up my mind to give it a try. It turns out that the more I learn about and play around with its features, the more I like this blogging platform. Since then, I’ve spent a lot of time configuring the layout of my blog and also wrote a couple of original posts.

At the same time, I was wondering if my blog would get noticed among the gazillion blogs out there. Since I was under the impression that search engines, such as Google, would automatically index newly published websites/pages in real-time, I was puzzled when I  input my blog URL into Google and found out that my blog didn’t show up in the search results. Thus, the million dollar question goes: why my blog is not indexed by Google?

How to make search engines work for you?

By doing an extensive research on-line, I’ve learned some interesting lessons about getting indexed. Though it’s true that your blog will probably show up in search engines eventually, there is no guaranty how long it will take search engines to index your blog. Some people speculate that this agonizing process can take days or even weeks.

The moment I found my blog was not indexed, I began to wonder if other bloggers had similar problems. There seems to be some compatibility issues between WordPress.com and Google that make your blog less likely to be indexed. My search results also show that people have been puzzled by this problem for a long time and came up with many creative solutions.

The Bad News

• Google Analytics is not available for WordPress.com bloggers.

One of the soundest solutions is to use Google Analytics, a free web service that provides tailor-made statistics about traffic to your website. People argue that since Google Analytics is designated to track the data on your website all the time, your blog will get indexed almost instantly. As reasonable as it may sound, it’s not applicable to my blog because Google Analytics is simply not available for WordPress.com bloggers.

Note: Google Analytics is available to self-hosting bloggers on WordPress.org. For a detailed explanation about their difference, please refer to WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org.

• No cheats! Fair play!

Other people suggest taking advantage of social bookmarking sites, such as Digg.com. It’s believed that by self-digging, you will promote the visibility of your blogs, leading to an acceleration of ranking in search engines. Still, even if it really works, it sounds like cheating to me.

The Good News

If you’re tired of waiting for the magical moment to happen, you should take matters into your own hands like I do. This post will give a step-by-step description of how I get my blog indexed by Google. Please note that I’ve no prior experience of search engine algorithm and/or search engine optimization. If I can achieve this mission by trial and error and so can you!

After you’ve acquired some basic understating of how search engines work, it will make more sense to:

• Submit your blog URL to Google at http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl.

• Use Google webmaster tools to add your blog URL and site map. The most important thing is to verify the ownership your blog.

• Copy and paste the automatically generated verification codes into your WordPress.com account.

My Dashboard>Tools>Webmaster Tools Verification

Endnote

As I’ve mentioned before, it will probably take a while for search engines to index your newly launched blog and it’s perfectly fine to wait for that moment. However, if you want to make it happen faster, you are more than welcome to try out the steps I’ve mentioned above. I hope that your will find my explanation informative and useful.

Important Update

After I posted this article, I stumbled upon a great article How to Get Your Website on Google. According to the author, it’s the sandbox effect that prevents fresh content from being indexed right away.

Despite all the controversies over copyright issues, Google Books is another indispensable tool for academic writing. You can literally get access to millions of books without the hassle of frequenting your school or local libraries. Chances are that you will discover the perfect resources that correlate to your research area, no matter how obscure your subject matter may be.

The reading pane in Google Books is well-designed so as to provide readers a satisfying reading experience.

To initiate your research, input your queries into the search box. Please note that books that you want to read probably belong to one of the four models.

• Full review: meaning you can not only read the whole book on-line, but also download it as a PDF file.
• Limited review: In some cases, you can still read a significant portion of the book under limited review. My tips would be to use the table of contents and the build-in search box to quickly pinpoint the most relevant information.
• Snippet review: meaning you can merely get a glimpse of content and page layout.
• No preview available: As depressed as it may sound, you can still get some bibliographic information about this book.

My opinion on Google Books copyright disputes

A while ago, there was a rapture of conflict between Google Books and Chinese Writers Association. Apparently, some writers and officials from this organization were upset by Google Books Library Project, which was regarded as a serious threat to the already sluggish growth of the print media. As far as I’m concerned, these opponents cannot be more narrow-minded. By becoming members of this project, writers will definitely attract more potential readers.  Besides, if they’re afraid of decrease of book sales, they can assign their books to limited review or simply snippet review. In other words, I believe that Google Books presents a great opportunity for writers and readers alike, so that the knowledge chain cycle will be optimized.

Advanced features for registered users

In order to try out advanced features of Google Books, you need to register a Google account and stay logged in. It’s worth the effort, nonetheless, because registered users will able to:

• Customize your bookshelf
• Manage your library by adding tags
• Contribute to the community by adding your ratings/notes/reviews

Don’t forget to give credit to your sources

While enjoying the convenience of Google Scholar and Google Books, you should also make a point of granting full credit to the recourses that you’ve consulted or quoted. Any infringement of intellectual property would be considered plagiarism, a serious violation of the sacred trust that is acquiescent in the academia.

That’s why I’m dedicated this post to these two great products of Google. I will also give my insight on how to make use of them. Please note that the method mentioned in this post might be particularly useful to liberal arts students/researchers.

Increasing Use of Electronic Resources

When it comes to academic writing, the first thing that comes to mind is probably hours after hours spending in your school literary in order to emerge yourself in your particular research area. Well, it is not necessarily true for “postmodem” students. As a matter of fact, it has become a necessity, rather than a dispensable alternative to academic research.

For instance, the research subject of my post-graduate these is an Indian-born American writer. My research subject is by no means conventional. Actually, most of the professors in my department have never heard of this author, let alone reading any of her novels. When I started researching at school and department libraries, I was discouraged because there were not enough resources with which I can further me research. Luckily, when I turn to the Internet, things are getting much better.

Admittedly, there are numerous high-quality websites, databases or even search engines for academic research, but this post will cover Google Scholar and Google Books exclusively.

Standing on the shoulder of giants: Google Scholar

To begin with, here is some useful information about this product by Google.

What is Google Scholar?
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research.

Features of Google Scholar

• Search diverse sources from one convenient place
• Find articles, theses, books, abstracts or court opinions
• Locate the complete document through your library or on the web
• Learn about key scholarly literature in any area of research

How are documents ranked?
Google Scholar aims to rank documents the way researchers do, weighing the full text of each document, where it was published, who it was written by, as well as how often and how recently it has been cited in other scholarly literature.

Google Scholar user interface it is almost identical to Google search engine. You can start your research by inputting the name of an author or a book into the search box.

Suppose you’re doing research on Jane Austen’s novel Persuasion, you will be given a list of search results.

• By clicking [BOOK] Northanger Abbey-Persuasion, you will be directed to the novel in Google Books. There is also a PDF version of this novel available for download.
• By clicking Cited by 287, you will get a list of resources that have cited this book. The citation rate of a resource is viewed as the measurement of its reliability.
• By clicking Create email alert, you can enable Google to send an E-mail to you according to your customized queries.

Due to space limit, I can only cover some basic features. Besides, you still need to use your critical mind and decide which resources are most relevant to your research. In the upcoming post, I’m going to introduce Google Books, another indispensable tool that will make your research experience much enjoyable.

On July 22 at 4:30 pm, I received an e-mail informing me that my first attempt at breaking into technical writing at NI Shanghai had failed. During the past two months, I had gone through the whole recruiting process smoothly. In retrospect, I’ve learnt a lot from this experience. In the last on-site interview, I had the opportunity to meet several members of the telecom department, the department manger as well as an engineer from the software development team.

I was so excited to take a snapshot of what technical writers at NI do at a daily basis. All the interviewers were extremely kind to introduce to me what kinds of documents they’re working on and what kinds of tools they’re using.  I was also delighted to find out that there is a very close relationship between technical writers and the subject matter experts at NI, which leads to a very relaxing and productive working environment.

When people ask me what I try to accomplish professionally, I often tell them that I’m trying to “break into” technical communication. As an English major in China, I have to say that this mission is very challenging so far. Not only because there is not a very high demand of technical writer in China, but also I’ll have to compete with CS/engineering candidates, who have the domain knowledge that I need to catch up with.

It just so happens that this year I come across the technical communication route and I’ve made up my mind to launch my career in this field ever since, even though no one believes in me at this point. It’s extremely ironic that my present supervisors are happy to have me and my clients thank me for my excellent translation services.

Failure is an option, but fear is not.

It is never easy to take rejections, especially when it’s something I really want. Plus, NI has this two-week wait rule, meaning each recruiting stage would take approximately two weeks, which makes the waiting even more excruciating. I don’t know how to describe how I feel when I get the message in reply to my follow-up letter two weeks after the on-site interview. I don’t want to sound too dramatic by saying that I feel “crushed”, but you get the idea.

On February 2010, the world-renown director James Cameron gives an inspiring speech at TED, in which he argues that “failure is an option, but fear is not”. I find his words especially encouraging, because even though everything doesn’t work out this time. All the trails will only make me realize how much I want to be a technical writer. While I still need to continue my role as a translator/interpreter to earn a living, I’m going to maintain this blog on the side in order to keep track of what I’ve learned and how I’ve developed in technical communication.

[Off-topic] Here is a great article on how to deal with rejection – How to Respond to a Job Rejection E-mail by Suzanne Lucas.