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This article is adapted from a presentation (PDF, 772KB) delivered to the Society for Technical Communication TransAlpine chapter annual conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia on Friday, 18 April 2008. This presentation cannot be printed, distributed, or otherwise used without the written permission of the author. All rights reserved.

Are expectations of your work constantly changing, or ill-defined? Do your projects suffer from scope creep with no sense of the original agreement, and no understanding of the time needed to meet delivery schedules? Are you juggling multiple projects, multiple timelines, and trying to muddle through scoop creep?

Learn project management skills for technical communicators

You have to be able to explain your expertise and the parameters of your work. You have to be able to suggest, with confidence, the direction documentation should take. You have to be able to create reasonable project metrics and service level agreements, and use e-mail and telephone communication templates to even out your project communication and make things run smoothly. In short, you have to be able to fully exercise ownership of every process and every product of your working day.

What’s in it for you?

• Efficiency
• Project knowledge
• Professional consistency
• Confidence

In addition, as you get better at applying project management skills to your projects, you will find that you get:

• More income, if you are a contractor and find that you can handle more projects
• More respect in your workplace

In addition, use of these tools provides a means of protection from bad clients, or from projects using faulty processes. When a project manager does not deliver what you need for the project, or consistently misses deadlines, you can track it, substantiate it, and take action if needed.

Here are the tools

• Your professional knowledge and core skills
• A project management workflow containing the following elements:
  • Project metrics process
  • Service level agreement process
  • Communication process
  • Review process
  • Publishing process
  • Delivery process
  • Post-delivery de-briefing process
  • Project tracking process

Know the value of your core skills

Your core skills as a specialized communicator (writing, editing, research, and information design) are what make you valuable. Keep up to date with your field, and your specialization. Join groups and forums and read background material. Know your profession. Stay relevant.
Use your research skills so that you never make a professional decision because it sounds good, or it sounds right, or you think it might be correct. Always back up your decisions with research. If you are rigorous in your approach and verify your sources, Web research can be perfectly useable.
Follow templates, reference guides, style guides, and language direction whether supplied by your employer or from your own collection. Develop a project style guide if your employer does not have one. Do not insist on a template, a reference, a style, or a language direction because you like it. Instead, always choose what is right for your employer, and be able to meet their requirements with grace. Being able to make informed choices and to provide breadth as well as depth of service to your employer are powerful additional skills for writers. Add in project management, and you have skills that really set you apart from the rest.

Take time now to save time later

Here are the things you’ll have to know and own:

• Your product
• Your ability
• The project
• Your project management processes

Know your product

Create a documentation matrix that fits your work situation. Use it when you talk to the project manager about the direction documentation should take in the project. It’s a useful tool because the project manager probably does not know all the kinds of documentation you can produce, or the situations in which a type of documentation should be used.
Here is a sample documentation matrix:

Know your ability

Create a list of questions to define your work and use them every time you approach a project. This builds up a frame of reference for you to know your own ability in every situation. Here are some possible questions:

• How long do I need for the research segment?
• How long do I need to learn the product or tool?
• How long do I need for the draft segment?
• Do I need to create one draft or two before I send it for review?
• How many reviews do I need?
• Do I need another pair of eyes to edit the document?

Know the project

Ask yourself how involved you are with the projects for which you produce documentation. Get involved early in the process, if you can. A good thing to take on is user testing. With user testing, you get a hands-on learning opportunity with the product, and project managers understand the benefit.
Have regular meetings with your project team, your documentation colleagues, and your manager. This keeps you thinking about the projects you manage, and on top of your schedule.
Create a list of questions to define the project. Use them every time. Here are some possible questions:

• What is the target audience for the documentation?
• What kind of documentation does this project need?
• What is the estimated page count according to the project manager or the subject matter expert?
• How well is the project planned?
• Is the subject matter expertise a team effort?
• Does the subject matter expert need a walkthrough?
• How long does the subject matter expert need for review?
• Can the subject matter expert learn the one-review system?

Understand project metrics and learn to apply them
For a senior specialized technical communicator, here is a basic documentation project metric:

Using this metric as a base, develop your own project metric. Learn what works best for you through experience. Use a metric every time, and consolidate the results in your post-project de-briefing. Be adaptable when you plan so that you can take anything unusual about the project into account.

To avoid difficulty, do not share the project metric you use, and always treat it as a flexible rule. Every project is different. Your results may vary.

Develop a Service Level Agreement (SLA)

Create an SLA process that you follow each time you approach a piece of work. Here is a simple one that works well:

1. Know the project and, using a project metric, build up a reasonable estimated SLA for the work to be done.
2. Call the project manager on the phone, or walk over, to discuss it before putting it in writing.
3. Write up a brief estimate which includes:
   • The documentation product
   • The estimated delivery date
   • What they have to provide so that the work can be done and the deadline for that
   • What to expect next
4. Send the estimate to the project manager via e-mail.

Effectively, the SLA is the shell of your schedule for the project. For the project manager, it does not need to break down into dates for drafts, edits, or review, but the project manager knows what to do and what to expect. For you, the SLA helps you to organize your effort, to recognize and quantify scope creep, and to know when to escalate if a significant problem develops.

Follow up relentlessly

Communication is the key to a smooth project:

• First, always discuss things in person or over the phone. Keep it short and to the point.
• Second, always recap the important conversation points in an e-mail. Again, keep it brief.

Build a communication library to contain bare-bones templates for the following:

• An initial project reply and high-level estimate, if needed
• A service level agreement (SLA)
• An adjusted SLA, for when things change
• A message containing a draft for review, including a brief description of the review process, if needed
• A publication announcement

Prepare the documentation

This is what you do best. Create a production process that outlines your core activities:

• Research and learn
• Write
• Illustrate
• Edit
• Prepare the draft for review

Conduct the documentation review with the subject matter expert

Create a review process that works for you. This is one of your processes, so be confident to:

• Drive the subject matter expert review turnaround time.
• Drive the review meeting.

Explain the review process to the subject matter expert up front:

1. The subject matter expert conducts a technical review of the document.
2. There is ideally only one review meeting to gather and implement changes. This is most effective if you make document updates in real time during the review meeting. To make document updates in real time during the review meeting, use WebEx, MS NetMeeting, or another product that allows you to look at the same document with your subject matter expert and let them see exactly what changes you make.
3. The document is published.

Here are guidelines for the subject matter expert’s review process:

Here are some guidelines you can give to the subject matter expert to use while they review:

• Concentrate on content only. For example:
  • Product or technical definitions
  • Steps
  • Processes and procedures
  • Technical specifications
• Do not correct anything other than content. For example:
  • Grammar
  • Style
  • Language
  • Template
  • Layout
  • Colours
  • Document definitions and instructions
  • Front matter

You can offer to go through the material with the SME so that they know what they should focus on, and what they should ignore. You only have to do this once with a subject matter expert. It teaches them a valuable skill that makes the process faster and more effective for them, and more reliable for you.

Finalize and publish the document

Create a finalize-and-publish process that works for you. Use it every time you finalize and publish a document.
Here are timing guidelines for the finalize-and-publish process:

Publish the document in the way that works best for your employer.

Deliver the document to the project manager

Create a delivery process that works for you and refine it over time, or when delivering to a new project manager. Here are guidelines for document delivery:

• Do not widely release drafts of a document prior to delivery.
• Own the documentation process right up to publication.
• Deliver succinctly, and with authority.

Within one week: Do a project de-briefing

Create a de-briefing process that covers every angle of the documentation side of the project. Be sure to contribute lessons learned from the project to the:

• Project manager
• Documentation process
• Project process
• Any other related process, as needed.

As always, discuss your de-briefing with the project manager, the subject matter expert, your documentation colleagues, and your manager first. Then, follow up via e-mail.

Track your projects

Track your activity across all projects.
Create a tracking process that works for you. Update your tracking once a day and consider following these guidelines:

• Track the real time that you use.
• Use any gaps that you find in the schedule to be productive.
• Communicate changes in your schedule promptly to the project managers and subject matter experts that are affected by them.
• When you find conflicts, defend your schedule in quantifiable terms such as lost revenue, lost opportunity, duplicated or wasted effort, and so on.

Here are some examples of project tracking tools:

• MS Project (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Project)
• A presentation slide that you update daily, one slide per project
• A spreadsheet application such as MS Excel
• Google Calendar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Calendar)
• MS Outlook (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Outlook)
• Magnets on a whiteboard
• XPlanner (http://www.xplanner.org/)

Learn more

Don’t stop with the basics. Learn more to make you better at handling projects.

To find out more about the specialised writing and editing industry in the Netherlands, and about the effect that the European Union is having on the industry, I conducted a basic study in which I approached three Netherlands-located specialised writing and editing societies: EASE, SENSE, and STIC. EASE is the European Association of Scientific Editors, with about 7.5% of its members in the Netherlands (its presidency, however, is in the Netherlands). SENSE is the Society of English Native-Speaking Editors, with strong editing and translating components to its membership. STIC is the Studiekring voor Technische Informatie en Communicatie, the Dutch technical information and communication society. SENSE and STIC are based in the Netherlands and contain a majority of Netherlands-located members. In each case, I contacted the society leadership and asked to interview a member of the leadership.

The society that had the most information, and that had collected information from members via member profiles that are updated annually, and via occasional membership surveys was SENSE. EASE was second in terms of having information in a membership database, and being willing to make an educated guess in an area in which the membership database for the society was not detail-rich. STIC did not have a detail-rich member database, and the interviewee gave an opinion and made educated guesses with some reluctance. Nevertheless, I collected information about the societies and about perceptions of the effect that the European Union is having on the specialised writing and editing industry. In addition, the interviewees gave me the names of related societies, some of them Netherlands-located.

Society information

For basics, I discovered that societies are active here. Roughly, the largest Netherlands-located memberships are in SENSE, followed by STIC, and then finally EASE. This is because the Netherlands membership of EASE is much lower than its total membership. (Disclosure: I do not have statistics for the x-Netherlands membership of the other societies, but my understanding from the interview process is that it is not the majority of either society.)

The gender split in the specialised writing and editing industry averages 65% female to 35% male. (This calculation uses accurate data from SENSE, and an educated estimate from EASE. If we include the more loosely formulated STIC estimated split of 50–50, the average becomes 60–40 female to male across the societies.) In comments made by the SENSE interviewee, the underlying questions of pay scale, work flexibility, and language skills are identified as supporting the case for a female domination of the specialised writing and editing industry.

Each of the societies is active regularly, hosting an annual general meeting (AGM) as well as regular specialised events for members (mostly educational, one or two social). Each society has a publication that accompanies membership. Slightly unusually, STIC members receive the same publication (TEKSTblad) as another Netherlands-located specialised writing and editing society (TekstNet). Despite the resemblance in name, however, TekstNet has no involvement in the production of TEKSTblad, which is a fully independent Dutch magazine for technical and other writers. Both SENSE and EASE have a group email list for member discussion, employment offers, and immediate specialised help with work in hand. STIC uses an externally established group email list for this purpose. Each society has a website.

Profession and industry splits

Members of EASE practice the most industry-specific work with an estimated 40% focussed in each of medicine and science. STIC follows with an estimated 30–40% focussed on software and 20% in machinery and hardware. SENSE has the most reliable figures spreading the SENSE membership industry focus across several areas, notably law (20.8%), science (18.5%), art and literature (18.5%), medicine (17.6%), finance (14.4%), and publishing (9.7%).

Members of EASE have an estimated professional focus of 90% editors, 35% academic researchers, 20% writers, and 15% translators. STIC estimates that the vast majority of its membership is writers, with several editors and a few trainers. STIC comments that the society is a group for information designers, which is a professional category. Again, SENSE has the most accurate data with 89% editors, 79% translators, 41% writers, 35% trainers, and 1% students.

Effect on the Netherlands-located industry by the European Union

The second part of the interview asked for an opinion on the state of the specialised writing and editing industry in the Netherlands; then asked for an opinion on the effect that the European Union is having on the specialised writing and editing industry in the Netherlands. Since the three societies have shown that they cover fairly different areas within the specialised writing and editing industry, the responses in this part of the interview can be taken to be only loosely inter-related. Ratings were uniformly out of a scale of five where five represents the best value answer to the question, one represents the worst value answer to the question, and three represents the neutral value answer to the question. Descriptive text accompanied the rating to help the interviewee answer the question. Text in square brackets is mine.

EASE and SENSE rate the specialised writing and editing industry in the Netherlands as very good (4/5), with challenges in industry sectors and employment at good levels. SENSE comments that this rating is based on experience in scientific editing, and contact with editors in the business and commerce, banking, and information technology (IT) sectors. STIC rates the specialised writing and editing industry in the Netherlands as endangered (2/5), citing that technical communication has always been endangered, is not taken seriously in the Netherlands, and that there is a marked unwillingness [by employers] to pay for it.

Keeping the new European Union member states out of consideration, I asked the interviewees to rate the specialised writing and editing industry in the Netherlands against the rest of northwest Europe. EASE and STIC rate the industry at par with the rest of northwest Europe (3/5). EASE comments that the industry is at about the same state in the Netherlands as it is in the United Kingdom, in Germany, and in the Scandinavian countries. STIC cites that the same complaints about the technical authoring industry are heard in Germany and Sweden, and that the technical authoring industry is in a marginally better state in the United Kingdom because the ISTC [UK-located society] does not complain about the same things. SENSE rates the specialised writing and editing industry as in a better state than the rest of northwest Europe (4/5), citing a trend in the Netherlands to more international publishing due to a booming economy and a predominance of non-native English speaking writers who need assistance with writing.

Keeping the recently-joined European Union member states out of consideration, I asked the interviewees to rate the effect that the European Union has had on the specialised writing and editing industry in the Netherlands since 2000. EASE rates the effect of the European Union on the industry since 2000 as suffering some negative change (2/5), with challenges receding in some sectors, and some talent migration away from the Netherlands. EASE comments that the European Union has facilitated mergers led by large academic publishers such as Reed-Elsevier and Springer. Thus, mergers have occurred, which usually result in unemployment. STIC rates the effect of the European Union on the industry since 2000 as no real change (3/5). SENSE rates the effect of the European Union on the industry since 2000 as gaining some positive change (4/5), with some gains in employment, renewed challenges in some sectors, and some talent migration to the Netherlands. SENSE comments that the European Union has definitely made a difference in the positive sense particularly in the banking, insurance, IT, environment, and energy sectors. SENSE goes on to comment that European Union directives are becoming increasingly important in directing national laws, so communication within the European Union and other countries has increased, thereby increasing the scope of work for translators, editors, copywriters, and trainers. As SENSE goes on to say, the countries of the European Union are all speaking English, which is not their native language. This European Union activity is of significant benefit to the SENSE membership.

Finally, I asked the societies to rate the impact that the new European Union member states will have on the specialised writing and editing industry in the Netherlands in the short term (less than ten years) and the long term (more than ten years). EASE and STIC both foresee no real impact (3/5) on the specialised writing and editing industry in the Netherlands by the European Union either in the short term or the long term. EASE comments that there will be no real impact on writing and editing but that there may be an effect on the printing industry, which may go to new European Union member states. At this time, the print industry in Poland is cheaper than the print industry in the Netherlands. EASE goes on to comment that this effect may not be long lasting because there will probably be balancing forces that will even things out. STIC comments that technical authoring will not be impacted because it is carried out, by and large, either in the local language or in English, which constitutes no real change. SENSE foresees the possibility of some positive impact (4/5) on the specialised writing and editing industry in the Netherlands in both the short and the long term. For the short term SENSE comments that based on 4–5 years of experience editing documents in environmental subjects for use by the European Union, the European Commission, and the European Parliament, the outlook is somewhat positive because the expansion of publishing in English and the requirement of the European Union to have press-ready documents will raise employment somewhat. For the long term, SENSE comments that their rating is highly speculative because developments are too far away.

Conclusions

Societies are regularly active in the specialised writing and editing industry in the Netherlands. They provide their members with educational and social activities. Perhaps most important, through their online forums and email group lists they provide ongoing support for specialised writing and editing industry professionals with work in hand, with employment offers, and with a sense of the larger community. The gender split in the specialised writing and editing industry in the Netherlands is approximately 60% female. The probable causes for this are pay scale, work flexibility, and language skills.

Despite having members in similar industry sectors to EASE, SENSE does not recognize (as EASE does) the publishing industry’s movement towards offshore locations such as India as a significant threat to employment. SENSE recognizes areas in which their membership can migrate professionally and remain both employed and challenged.

STIC indicates that the mood is sombre in the technical authoring industry in the Netherlands. There is a marked perception of being undervalued in the industry sectors that technical authors serve and there is a perceived unwillingness by companies in the Netherlands to pay for documentation services. Technical authoring does not, however, see its industry or professional situation worsening. In fact, the STIC interviewee comments that in the software industry, it is quite possible to sell the added valued of good documentation to an employer.

Most of the societies feel that the European Union will not have a pronounced effect one way or the other over the short and long term on the specialised writing and editing industry in the Netherlands. Overall and outside of this study, we know that a talent migration to the Netherlands is happening due to the enlargement of the European Union. In the societies approached by this study, there is some perception that this talent migration is accompanied by a degree of positive change in the specialised writing and editing industry in the Netherlands, and that there are positive changes to come as the European Union uses the English language more broadly as its lingua franca, or common tongue.

As an additional remark, EASE comments that the influence of technology is far greater on the specialised writing and editing industry in the Netherlands than that of the European Union. Especially, the introduction of word processing and DTP (desktop publishing), which has made the writing and editing tasks shift from the writing and editing professionals back to the text authors. This caused unemployment in the editorial sector. As an example, there was one institute in Wageningen (a university town in the Netherlands) which had a separate publishing house affiliated with the university. The publishing house was abandoned in the 1980s in a shift to put the responsibility for writing, editing, and contacting scholarly journals on the authors. There is a difference between Dutch publications and international publications in that Dutch publications are still edited in the Netherlands or in Belgium. International publication operations are shifting offshore, to India and other countries. Later, EASE contacted me by email with this final comment: “One afterthought I think I should share with you. I told you about outsourcing desk editing (or copy editing, which is the same) to India and other countries, but I did not mention explicitly that this is a consequence of technical innovation. The Internet is of paramount importance in such global reallocation of editorial tasks.”

Because this study did not ask the interviewees about recent technological innovations in writing, editing, and publishing, or the effect of the Internet on the specialised writing and editing industry in the Netherlands, this is out of the scope of this study. But it is important to recognize it. It may be included in a further study when one occurs.

The data tables from the interview process are below this article. All participant names have been removed.

Data tables from the interview process for the basic study of the specialised writing and editing industry in the Netherlands

Specialised writing and editing in the Netherlands and the European Union

The European Union

Rate the specialized writing/editing industry in the Netherlands:

EASE

	Level	Description
	Excellent	Full employment Fresh challenges across most sectors
	Very good	Occasional periods of unemployment Some lack of challenge in some sectors
	Good	Some unemployment Definite lack of challenge in some sectors
	Endangered	Visible or lasting unemployment Little challenge in any sector
	Dead	Severe unemployment No challenges across the industry
Any comments? Not comfortable about using periods of unemployment as an indicator of the industry in the Netherlands.

Sense

	Level	Description
	Excellent	Full employment Fresh challenges across most sectors
	Very good	Occasional periods of unemployment Some lack of challenge in some sectors
	Good	Some unemployment Definite lack of challenge in some sectors
	Endangered	Visible or lasting unemployment Little challenge in any sector
	Dead	Severe unemployment No challenges across the industry
Any comments? Based on experience in scientific editing … “Based on experience in scientific editing + contact with editors in business/commerce, banking + IT.”

Stic

	Level	Description
	Excellent	Full employment Fresh challenges across most sectors
	Very good	Occasional periods of unemployment Some lack of challenge in some sectors
	Good	Some unemployment Definite lack of challenge in some sectors
	Endangered	Visible or lasting unemployment Little challenge in any sector
	Dead	Severe unemployment No challenges across the industry
Any comments? Always been endangered. Not taken seriously, unwillingness to pay for it, very difficult for technical authors to make a living. Interviewee wishes he/she knew why. Luckiest end up heading a doc mgr. There is not enough opportunity unless you’re really good and set up for yourself, have a certain frame of mind, opportunity, being able to make something out of it.

Keeping the new European member states out of it, rate the industry in the Netherlands against the rest of northwest Europe:

Ease

	Level	Description
	Excellent	Much better than the rest of northwest Europe
	Very good	Better than the rest of northwest Europe
	At par	About the same as the rest of northwest Europe
	Endangered	Struggling to keep up with the rest of northwest Europe
	Threatened	Far behind the rest of northwest Europe
Any comments? Same as UK, Germany, Scandinavian countries.

Sense

	Level	Description
	Excellent	Much better than the rest of northwest Europe
	Very good	Better than the rest of northwest Europe
	At par	About the same as the rest of northwest Europe
	Endangered	Struggling to keep up with the rest of northwest Europe
	Threatened	Far behind the rest of northwest Europe
Any comments? Due to the booming economy and non-native writers. “Comment is drawn from trend in the Netherlands to more international publishing (due to booming economy and predominance of non-native writers (need assistance with language).”

Stic

	Level	Description
	Excellent	Much better than the rest of northwest Europe
	Very good	Better than the rest of northwest Europe
	At par	About the same as the rest of northwest Europe
	Endangered	Struggling to keep up with the rest of northwest Europe
	Threatened	Far behind the rest of northwest Europe
Any comments? Hear the same complaints everywhere I go: Germany, Sweden. Marginally better in the United Kingdom. ISTC (in the United Kingdom) is not complaining about the same things. The Sweden organisation is dead as well; thinking of giving up (400 members).

Keeping the recently-joined European member states out of it, rate the effect that the European Union has had on the industry in the Netherlands since 2000:

Ease

	Level	Description
	Extremely positive change	Brought the Netherlands to full employment Created fresh challenges across the industry Brought significant talent migration to the Netherlands
	Some positive change	Brought some employment to the Netherlands Created some challenges in some sectors Brought limited talent migration to the Netherlands
	No real change
	Some negative change	A lot of unemployment in the Netherlands Removed challenges in some sectors Caused some talent migration away from the Netherlands
	Extremely negative change	Severe unemployment in the Netherlands No challenges across the industry Caused severe talent migration away from the Netherlands
Any comments? The EU has facilitated mergers of large academic publication companies such as Reed-Elsevier and Springer. Springer has taken over several smaller Dutch academic publishing companies, notably Wolters-Kluver. Mergers usually result in economisations, which result in unemployment.

Sense

	Level	Description
	Extremely positive change	Brought the Netherlands to full employment Created fresh challenges across the industry Brought significant talent migration to the Netherlands
	Some positive change	Brought some employment to the Netherlands Created some challenges in some sectors Brought limited talent migration to the Netherlands
	No real change
	Some negative change	A lot of unemployment in the Netherlands Removed challenges in some sectors Caused some talent migration away from the Netherlands
	Extremely negative change	Severe unemployment in the Netherlands No challenges across the industry Caused severe talent migration away from the Netherlands
Any comments? Made a difference in a positive sense in banking, insurance, environment and energy fields, etc. European Union directives are becoming more important in directing national laws. Communication back to the European Union and other countries on how to meet challenges, often in English. Interviewee’s comments: Belgium and Germany and Italy are all speaking English, and it’s not their native language. “Definitely made a difference in the positive sense. Particularly banking, insurance and IT industry are faced with new challenges, along with environment and energy fields. The European Union directives are becoming more and more important in directing national laws; so communication back to the European Union and to other countries on how to meet challenges, thereby increasing scope for translators/editors, copywriters, and trainers.”

Stic

	Level	Description
	Extremely positive change	Brought the Netherlands to full employment Created fresh challenges across the industry Brought significant talent migration to the Netherlands
	Some positive change	Brought some employment to the Netherlands Created some challenges in some sectors Brought limited talent migration to the Netherlands
	No real change
	Some negative change	A lot of unemployment in the Netherlands Removed challenges in some sectors Caused some talent migration away from the Netherlands
	Extremely negative change	Severe unemployment in the Netherlands No challenges across the industry Caused severe talent migration away from the Netherlands
Any comments? No real change.

What do you think the impact of the new European member states will be on the specialized writing/editing industry in the Netherlands?

Ease

In the short term (<10 years)

	Level	Description
	Extremely positive impact	Will bring the Netherlands to full employment Will create fresh challenges across the industry Will bring significant talent migration to the Netherlands
	Some positive impact	Will bring some employment to the Netherlands Will create some challenges in some sectors Will bring a limited talent migration to the Netherlands
	No real impact
	Some negative impact	Will cause significant unemployment in the Netherlands Will remove challenges in some sectors Will cause some talent migration away from the Netherlands
	Extremely negative impact	Will cause severe unemployment in the Netherlands Will remove challenges across the industry Will cause severe talent migration away from the Netherlands
Any comments? No real impact on writing and editing, but may have an effect on the printing industry. Printing may go to the new member states because it will be cheaper to print your journals in the new member states. At this moment, Polish printers are less expensive than Dutch printers. I am unsure whether this is a short term or long term effect because there will probably be counter-balancing forces that will even things out.

In the long term (>10 years)

	Level	Description
	Extremely positive impact	Will bring the Netherlands to full employment Will create fresh challenges across the industry Will bring significant talent migration to the Netherlands
	Some positive impact	Will bring some employment to the Netherlands Will create some challenges in some sectors Will bring a limited talent migration to the Netherlands
	No real impact
	Some negative impact	Will cause significant unemployment in the Netherlands Will remove challenges in some sectors Will cause some talent migration away from the Netherlands
	Extremely negative impact	Will cause severe unemployment in the Netherlands Will remove challenges across the industry Will cause severe talent migration away from the Netherlands
Any comments? See the comment in the previous question.

Sense

In the short term (<10 years)

	Level	Description
	Extremely positive impact	Will bring the Netherlands to full employment Will create fresh challenges across the industry Will bring significant talent migration to the Netherlands
	Some positive impact	Will bring some employment to the Netherlands Will create some challenges in some sectors Will bring a limited talent migration to the Netherlands
	No real impact
	Some negative impact	Will cause significant unemployment in the Netherlands Will remove challenges in some sectors Will cause some talent migration away from the Netherlands
	Extremely negative impact	Will cause severe unemployment in the Netherlands Will remove challenges across the industry Will cause severe talent migration away from the Netherlands
Any comments? Based on experience of 4–5 years in editing in environmental subjects to be used by the European Union, expansion of requirement for press-ready documents will raise employment. “Based on my experience of 4–5 years in editing documents in environmental subjects for ultimate use by the European Union and the European Commission and the European Parliament. Expansion of publishing in English and the requirement of the European Union for press ready documents will raise employment somewhat.”

In the long term (>10 years)

	Level	Description
	Extremely positive impact	Will bring the Netherlands to full employment Will create fresh challenges across the industry Will bring significant talent migration to the Netherlands
	Some positive impact	Will bring some employment to the Netherlands Will create some challenges in some sectors Will bring a limited talent migration to the Netherlands
	No real impact
	Some negative impact	Will cause significant unemployment in the Netherlands Will remove challenges in some sectors Will cause some talent migration away from the Netherlands
	Extremely negative impact	Will cause severe unemployment in the Netherlands Will remove challenges across the industry Will cause severe talent migration away from the Netherlands
Any comments? Highly speculative. Interviewee’s comments: Rough guess. “Highly speculative – developments too far away!”

Stic

In the short term (<10 years)

	Level	Description
	Extremely positive impact	Will bring the Netherlands to full employment Will create fresh challenges across the industry Will bring significant talent migration to the Netherlands
	Some positive impact	Will bring some employment to the Netherlands Will create some challenges in some sectors Will bring a limited talent migration to the Netherlands
	No real impact
	Some negative impact	Will cause significant unemployment in the Netherlands Will remove challenges in some sectors Will cause some talent migration away from the Netherlands
	Extremely negative impact	Will cause severe unemployment in the Netherlands Will remove challenges across the industry Will cause severe talent migration away from the Netherlands
Any comments? What we do is, by and large, either the local language or English. No real change.

In the long term (>10 years)

	Level	Description
	Extremely positive impact	Will bring the Netherlands to full employment Will create fresh challenges across the industry Will bring significant talent migration to the Netherlands
	Some positive impact	Will bring some employment to the Netherlands Will create some challenges in some sectors Will bring a limited talent migration to the Netherlands
	No real impact
	Some negative impact	Will cause significant unemployment in the Netherlands Will remove challenges in some sectors Will cause some talent migration away from the Netherlands
	Extremely negative impact	Will cause severe unemployment in the Netherlands Will remove challenges across the industry Will cause severe talent migration away from the Netherlands
Any comments?

On a recent Sunday, members of the Amsterdam LIG drove down to Ede, in the charming Dutch province of Gelderland. There we tucked in to a long lunch with a group of editors, writers, and translators. The talk was lively and ranged over the health of the Dutch authoring industry, linguistics, grammar, and the special challenges presented when producing work in a non-native-speaking environment where many of our Dutch colleagues are confident that their knowledge of English grammar and phrasing is better than ours. It was decided that the industry seems lately to be thriving, and that some of the best ways of looking at English from a fresh angle come when a non-native speaker insists on a point of grammar or phrase that we might not agree with. It is a valuable skill to be able to defend your authoring choices based on research rather than hearsay, and to prove the professional worth of the professional author, technical or otherwise. After lunch we took a long walk in the Veluwe forest despite the usual persistent rain. All in all, it was a wonderful opportunity for the Amsterdam LIG to expand contacts and talk shop, even though we all got a bit soggy.

Most of the time, my fellow technical writers want to hear about the shift from the chains of permanent full-time work to the freedom of contracting. I agree that contracting is freer. You are free to do all the marketing required to keep yourself (and your subcontractors) in billable hours. You are free to travel to different clients constantly, racking up kilometers on your car (or bus and train tickets) which you are then free to administer in your bookkeeping and accounting which you are also free to calculate and remit in time to make your quarterly tax payments. You are free to manage your own pension scheme, health insurance, and business insurance.

You are free. But it is something of a heroic struggle. For several years I have done it, even launching a group for women professionals and women entrepreneurs to create a like-minded collective. Particularly since moving to The Netherlands, I have found myself constantly busy, but always in small projects: a few weeks here, a month there, a few weeks at another place.

Two and a half years ago, I bought a beautiful, century-old Dutch house. Then this summer, during some fairly major maintenance and building work, one of the contractors made a serious error which caused roof damage. When the rain came this fall (and, boy, does it come in The Netherlands: dark days of streaming water and howling wind), I discovered a steady stream of water coming through the roof.

Fixing the problem has not been straightforward. In fact, it is still not fixed, the rain is still pouring in, and the costs are mounting. When I was offered a full-time job for a year, I seized the opportunity.

My commute has changed from short and variable to one hour each weekday. My corporate culture has changed from ambient music and office cats to headphones and a much more sterile space shared with a colleague who must (as I must) have project meetings in the same room, one of us awkwardly trying to concentrate.

It is fun to dress well every day. I enjoy beautiful clothes, shoes, and make-up. But it is time consuming. In fact, the only thing that bothers me about my appearance is, as Maureen Dowd once said, the maintenance. It feels like a vacuum cleaner sucking up my precious time.

And that is the deepest difficulty: My time is no longer my own. I worked incredibly hard as a contractor and entrepreneur. I was literally never idle. Even my holidays were spent working on something.

But my time was my own to manage and my people worked for me. Now, I do what this client wants, no matter what it is, for at least 40 hours per week. When I am not at the client site, I maintain my appearance for them, make my lunch for the next day at their office, think about ways to cope with their schedule, iron the clothes I have to wear, and rush to keep up with the timing of everything. It is no exaggeration to say that adjusting to this temporal change has been very difficult.

But there are also some really positive things about working full time. The money is steady and reliable. I don’t have to market much other than when approaching my full-time client’s project managers to let them know about my services. I have that incredible thing that full-time workers take for granted: A paid holiday. I can cover my bills and save for the future, even possibly for an expansion of my documentation business.

Rather than relying on weekly coffee dates snatched with my network of co-entrepreneurs to keep me in touch with humanity, I see a variety of people every day. It is less lonely.

Even though the tools are, from time to time, not what I would choose for a particular result, making them work for the job in hand causes me to apply new paradigms. So I still get to learn new things, and to adapt to new situations. I work on diverse projects and manage my schedule to meet multiple deadlines. These important professional challenges have remained steady and appealing which is a pleasant surprise.

Happily, I enjoy the bicycle ride to and from work. It is time to let my mind wander, let myself work physically outside in the elements, and enjoy the beautiful Dutch canals and architecture that surround me. For some, this would be a negative part of the job. For me, it is a precious bonus.

Thinking back, I took on small jobs for my documentation business hoping they would lead to longer jobs. They led, in fact, to more small jobs. But constant worry about meeting my operating costs, generating billable hours, and paying for basic things like mortgage and food, made me continue to take on small projects because they were there. In the end, I became exhausted.

My initial transition period towards full-time work was glorious. The client gave me a month until my start date and suddenly I did not need to develop new projects. At first I was frustrated; I was used to working overtime all the time. For the first time, preparing my quarterly tax filing felt easy because I had more time to devote to it.

I wound things down gradually then, finally, took a few days off. Hiking in Ireland was, for once, not sandwiched between two stress-filled projects. I slept in for the first time in years. I spent a whole day reading a novel then a magazine then drifting in and out of sleep. After such a long time embroiled in my heroic struggle, I took time off that was really off.

As much as I love being an entrepreneur, making my mark in my industry, and creating something that is my own, I have found that there are some positive things to be said about a longer span of full-time work. My co-entrepreneurs are not all so happy about the change. When I described what I had taken on for the next 12 months, one said, “One client. For 12 months. Is that it?” I tried harder to explain. “The roof. The leak. One steady client for steady income.” But she was unable to see this as a positive opportunity. For her I had been defeated.

A few months ago, I had a similar point of view. Entrepreneurship was electric. It was a challenge. It could be a lot of fun. Something in me believes that I learned more in those hectic periods than I will ever learn again. Going against the entrepreneurial stream feels strange and a little scary. But this full-time work is something I am enjoying for now. It is not perfect but I feel positive about it for as long as it lasts.

Although they are about the same distance apart geographically, Madrid is not to Munich what Manhattan is to Miami. In Europe, short distances can mean big differences in expectation and understanding as well as in language and culture!

I am a Canadian with dual British and Canadian citizenship. I have lived and worked in several countries, and in every case, I have found linguistic adaptability, the ability to think like a local, and sensitivity to subtle issues important talents for writing useful documentation. I learn on my feet and through being here. Even though I come from the cosmopolitan, bustling, and, by North American standards, somewhat European city of Montreal, nothing prepared me for Europe, or other places in the larger world, quite like being here. It is a challenge to which I have seen many of my fellow expats succumb. They go home, wherever home is, chalk it all up to a very foreign—and thankfully brief—experience, and settle back into what they know and understand. Although I still sometimes have bouts of wrenching homesickness, I have stuck it out in strange places and learned, eventually, to thrive immersed in foreign-ness. But what foreign-ness am I talking about?

How Far Is Foreign?

To get from England to France you merely have to hop across the English Channel. But there are glaring differences between the two countries. For example, it is a well-known fact that you can read a Frenchwoman by the way she wears her scarf and the type of scarf she wears. Englishwomen are less readable overall. As for lunch, two hours is typical in France, where drinking wine with your meal is expected even in a business setting and everyone enjoys long, gossip-filled conversations, often openly discussing office romances that would be terribly indiscrete and out of place in England. A much shorter break is the norm in England, where a quick sandwich and a cup of tea are consumed in an office canteen, or a quick pub lunch is consumed at the nearest public house (or pub). Sensitive conversations in the pub can be declared to be under Pub Rules, which means that they are not be repeated. Office romances, although they are certainly discussed, are not openly celebrated.

Italy and southern Germany (Bavaria) both huddle against the Alps, but the differences between Bavarians and Italians permeate their lives. Bavarians drink beer, drive Porsches at unregulated speeds on their straight, well-maintained highways, always look a bit severe if not thunderous, and wear lederhosen (leather shorts with suspenders) as a matter of course. Italians drink wine, drive Alfa Romeos on twisting, crumbling roads, always look sexy and cool, and wear the gorgeous, stylish clothes for which they’re famous. Could close neighbors be more different?

Writing to Match the Culture

In subtle ways, documentation written for each group has to match its cultural expectations. Bavarians would not respond well to preamble. They want brusque direction that gets to the point as quickly as possible. Italians prefer a meandering approach that gets to the point eventually, after lots of discussion, a possible sidetrack or two, and maybe some more wine. If you get to things too quickly or abruptly in Italy, you will quite literally be shown the door—and not asked back in again. If you take too much time over things in Bavaria, you will be kicked into action very quickly. Or kicked out.

Writing in Europe is all about using language and skill to bridge such differences. When I write documentation for a company in the Netherlands, I bring confidence and directness to a table that is non-hierarchical, even when the CEO is sitting at it. When I write documentation for a company in England, I bring a quieter, less assumptive expertise and a very necessary deference for management personnel.

Being There

Many such cultural clues cannot be learned other than through time spent in the country. If you want to work overseas, you have to be alert and sponge-like in your ability to absorb local culture and languages. You also have to be tolerant and patient so that you can gather data and gradually benchmark it to be able to make informed decisions.

If you want to learn to communicate technical ideas successfully abroad, it is best to live in the target country and learn the people, their language, and their point of view. Don’t expect it to be an overnight study, even if you speak the local language. Small distances in Europe mean large differences.

After a particularly vicious downturn from mid-2001 through the end of 2002, the market in Europe seems to be improving. Diverse regions and industries are holding steady or even showing a bit of upswing. Alice Jane Emanuel, Director of Comma Theory, a communications company in Amsterdam, spoke to recruiters to find tips for contractors to improve their business right now.

Boom . . . then bust

The dot com and telecommunications boom of the late 1990s changed our earnings and our expectations. We chose industries and opportunities with greater freedom than ever before. Some technical writing specialists entered contracting in earnest during that time in order to benefit from the economic expansion. The world was our boomtown.

There was, of course, a downturn to counter the boom. It began gradually after the relative non-event of Y2K, reached its greatest depths after 9/11, and lasted until the end of 2002. Particularly the period from mid-2001 until the end of 2002 was a dead time when very little growth occurred.

A reshaped employment-scape

Markets exist in cycles, so booms followed by downturns are normal. But a few changes coming out of this last cycle have reshaped business:

• Some companies disappeared entirely.
• Some companies used the dead time to restructure, refinance, and reorganise. Nortel is an example of this, shedding 40,000 employees in their re-org.
• Some companies, notably Hewlett-Packard, are undergoing a version of the re-org process now in order to catch up to the leaner market.
• In general, business is more cautious now, throwing less money around, eliminating expenses, and squeezing more out of employees.

Technical writing has also been reshaped:

• Technical writers are more cautious, taking fewer professional risks, staying in employment positions longer, and taking full-time employment or long-term, rolling contracts over shorter positions.
• Some technical writers have moved laterally within their industry. Some with technical skills have moved into technical roles. Some with business skills have moved into business-analysis or functional-analysis roles.
• Some technical writers used the dead time to re-skill or to develop richer niche skills.
• A certain number of technical writers have left technical communications permanently.

State of the market

Companies are moving forward again and, albeit gradually, employment opportunities are emerging. Mark Clifford, Director of Clifford Sells, an employment agency specialising in documentation and with offices in both France and England explains, “Fewer people are responding to job postings. More people are staying in their situations and some people have left technical writing.” Frank Van Alten, Managing Director of ExecutiveSource, an employment agency with offices in The Netherlands adds, “The market has gone from broadly recruiting to narrowly selecting. Fewer contractors are professionally active, but there are fewer roles out there for them, too.”

Security is not really security

Of course, many of us want to stick to whatever job security we can find for as long as we can. “This leads to the Staleness Factor,” says Van Alten. “When you stay in a safe job for too long, you cannot refresh through change.” The result is that you become de-skilled and your market value decreases. This is a particular problem now when so few companies are investing in employee professional development.

Big cities are best

Large metropolitan areas and capital cities are still the best places to find good opportunities for contracting. See the sidebar for industry tips.

What industries look good right now?

Tips for contracting

Another Competition Done and Dusted

The 2004 edition of the Trans-European Technical Communications Competition completed smoothly once again last December under the capable guidance of this year’s Competition Manager, Jennifer O Neill. The results were collated, the entrants advised. All that remained was the awards supper held in a European city as an opportunity to meet in a social setting, reward ourselves for work well done, and distribute awards.

Last Year’s Try-outs in Belgium

Last year’s awards supper was held at the end of January in Brussels and, for the first time, added evening speakers to the programme. Victoria Koster-Lenhardt, Director-Sponsor for Region 2, presented on STC issues; I, last year’s winner in the newly-created Best Judging category, presented on the evaluation process. After the awards supper but before the awards were handed out, in front of a swaying and happy group of technical communicators, their friends, and lots of wine, we tried-out this new format: speakers at the awards event. (I’m relieved to say, and I’m sure you’ve already deduced, the result was positive.)

Fixing Scope and Finding a Location

When this year’s awards supper was being discussed, the idea was introduced to add a leadership element and a quality-evaluation element, workshops if possible, and a mini-conference quality to all of it. In other words, we would expand the event to last a day for presentations, and an evening for revelling.

With just over a month to complete the organisation, Amsterdam was established as this year’s city of choice and the date was set for Saturday, 5 February 2005. Victoria Koster-Lenhardt offered to lead three mini-workshop-style presentations over the morning; entrants and judges came forward to make afternoon presentations devoted to quality in technical communication, judging documentation in a second language, and developing winning documentation.

Having a Blast

The Awards Banquet, so elegantly named this year out of my dry and twisted sense of humour, is always just a big supper party. There are no ball gowns and no dinner jackets. There is no elevated sense of self-importance. On the contrary, it is a chance for all of us to let our hair down and feel the relief of another year’s dedication to the improvement of technical communication across Europe well done. Even the awards, handed out after supper, are given with somewhat wild hilarity, enthusiastic cheering, and an almost complete lack of pomp.

By the time the awards supper arrives, we are all in great need of it and ready to have a blast. This year being no exception, we ate, we drank, and we made merry until they packed up the chairs and tables and threw us out into the bar. There we continued, talking shop, telling stories, networking, and otherwise partying, until the bar closed.

Kudos for Volunteers

I accepted every offer of help I received and put all the volunteers to work at some task or other on the day. Tina Hoffman (UK), Patricia Kack (Montreal, Canada), Jennifer O Neill (Belgium), and Jonathan Hart (Netherlands) helped variously all day and made the event smooth and enjoyable for all.

Although I organised this almost-last-minute event pretty much single-handedly, having the support of a professional event organiser helped very much. My friend, Kristie Hall, of QED Productions (www.qedproductions.biz) walked me through the mini-conference/banquet process and made sure I knew which paths to take. Then, for the entire day of the event, she occupied the registration desk and liaised with hotel staff freeing me to be part of the event. A great help!

Next Year’s Event

Despite being a first try at something larger, this year’s event was a marvellous success. Attendees came from across Europe. A varied and engaging Day Event programme held everyone rapt. The Awards Banquet was a wonderful party.

In addition, we can now pass knowledge of the event process easily to the next organiser. As well, we can begin earlier to take the stress out of it, and to allow more people to plan to attend.

Mark your calendars for the upcoming year!

Competition Dates:

• September—Call for Entries and Call for Judges.
• October—Entries are collected.
• November—Teams of judges examine the entries.
• December—Results are announced.

Awards Event Dates:

• October—Awards event date and venue are announced.
• January (late in the month)—Awards Event and Banquet!

Want to know more about entering? Want to be involved as a judge?

Visit STC Europe