Resource Library

Creating Cultural Sensitivities in a Multicultural World

From the STC 2002 Region 7 Conference hosted by STC Canada West Coast:

We Are Not Alone—Creating Cultural Sensitivities in a Multicultural World (PDF 2,105 KB)

If you write for a world audience, this session is essential. Do you know when “Yes” really means “No”? In this session, group exercises create a safe multicultural experience that may make you laugh, but bring a serious message. Learn of geopolitical hot zones, cultural conventions and best practices. You’ll take away some Internet resources and a bibliography of printed materials so you can maintain your new cultural sensitivity.

Susan Hedding, The Write Stuff, Seattle, Washington

Localize Your Technical Documentation Successfully from Start to Finish

From the STC 2002 Region 7 Conference hosted by STC Canada West Coast:

During this presentation you’ll take an in-depth look at the steps involved in managing localization projects to schedule and budget. This interactive session, led by an experienced localization project manager, provides useful information to technical writers, technical editors, and managers of technical publication departments, who are planning to localize or are looking for ways to improve localization within their departments.

wasser-studios_localization.pdf

Elizabeth Stoneburg, Wasser Studios, Seattle, Washington

Internationalizing Your Documentation

Internationalization and localization have been buzzwords for the past few years, as companies attempt to expand their market share globally, while reducing the cost of translation and localization. Internationalization involves making changes to processes and content in English so that the localization process can become more cost effective and efficient.

Attached are handouts from the Jan ‘05 program meeting led by M. Katherine (Kit) Brown, an Idaho-based award-winning writer with a background in the life sciences and 15 years of experience in the technical communication field. She is currently the Principal for Comgenesis, LLC, which provides consulting services and training to clients on how to produce internationalized documentation, as well as more traditional technical writing and editing services. Kit is an Associate Fellow for the Society for Technical Communication (STC), and has spoken about various technical communication topics at several conferences in the United States and internationally.

Localization Tips
Glossary
Recommended Reading

Presentation: Regaining Control of Your Content

From our Oct ‘02 program meeting: Think usability is just for domestic users? Think globalization and localization are somebody else’s problem? Think again. International users need and deserve the same usability improvements as domestic users. This seminar presents some key issues that directly affect all your users and raise product costs. We will review problems taken from real-world materials - such as wordiness, lack of information, poor structure and implementation, and others - and discuss how you can avoid wasting your company’s time, money, and resources.

Topics covered include:

  * Understanding the crucial link between source content and localized content
  * Better writing for multi-use of content
  * Avoiding the “writing for translation” trap
  * Specific ways to reduce localization/globalization costs
  * Thinking globally and writing locally
  * Using metrics to make a business case for globalization

This presentation was delivered by Hans Fenstermacher. Hans is the founder and president of ArchiText, Inc. Born and raised in Germany, Hans is a graduate of Princeton University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He speaks six languages and has been in the language business for over 22 years. See: fenster.zip.

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