Technical Writing Articles on the Web

[Robin Griebel <rgriebel -at- IS -dot- ALLTEL -dot- COM>]

I've been looking for technical writing articles on the Web, particularly
those related to software documentation, and haven't been having much luck.
I hope some of you can help.

As an editor for 30 technical writers of financial software documentation, I
recently piloted a monthly inhouse newsletter for them that I also forward
to management.  Our writers work on teams with the technicians and their
managers have technical backgrounds.  I want to use this newsletter as a way
to help keep writers and managers alike aware of software documentation
issues.  For this reason, I'm primarily interested in high-level articles
(not detailed work instructions).

For the first issue, I found a good article that discussed contributions
writers can make beyond traditional writing, such as helping ensure software
design and conducting structured user walkthroughs.  It fist appeared in the
1994 SIGDOC Proceedings.  However, I can't seem to find that Web site now.
(BTW, I received the author's permission to use the article.)

I've been collecting the lists of web sites for technical communicators that
have appeared on this list in recent weeks, but haven't found complete
nonacademic articles.  I've also used the search engines looking for
"technical writing," "publications," and so forth.  If I find anything, it's
an article  title or an abstract.  Because I'm trying to present a spectrum
of topics from a variety of sources, I don't really want to buy an
organization's proceedings.  I'm the only "writer" with an internet
connection so I'm trying to present information that the writers don't have
easy access to.  (Many of them are STC members and receive its national
publications.)  I also want to demonstrate what a useful research tool the
internet is because I, personally, believe that all writers should have an
internet connection.

As far as topics go, I think articles about the following would be helpful:

- Why indexes should provide more than TOCs; why users need them
- Skills technical communicators should have
- Quick and dirty usability testing--until you have more time for the real thing
- Why writers should understand online help even if they don't do it today
- Other traditional documentation issues
- and so forth

BTW, I've also looked at STC chapter pages and only found one that had its
newsletter online.  THANK YOU to the Carolina Cutters!  If others have them
online, I missed them.  As a side note, I would encourage all STC chapters
with Web pages to strongly consider putting their newsletters online, if
only their feature article.

I know this is a terribly lengthy article, but I hope this detail lets you
know what I'm looking for.  Can anyone help?  Are there complete articles on
the Web that I can save?  If not, this is a real niche that needs to be filled.

I would appreciate any help you could give me, but please respond to me
directly.  If there is interest, I will summarize for the list.  Thanks.

Robin Griebel
rgriebel -at- is -dot- alltel -dot- com