Bangalore to host tech writing seminar

Wednesday, 27 November 2002, 20:30 IST
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BANGALORE: In a country where English is at best an adopted tongue, it's not always easy being a technical writer. Now a Society for Technical Communication (STC) meet will be held in mid-December in Bangalore pointing out the crucial role they play in today's world and how their skills can be improved. As copywriters, Web content managers, information architects, usability engineers and documentation specialists, to name a few, technical writers wear many hats in India. "In all written Indian languages, the noun is the most important word in a sentence, not the verb (as in English), and 'nounism' was the trend in written English that was dumped on India first by the East India Company," explains Jyoti Sanyal, author of The Statesman Style Book. Sanyal, who will point this out in a presentation at the meet, argues: "We haven't recovered from the awful combination of 'baniya' English (made current by merchants of the East India Company) and circumlocutory Victorian English. "And to that brew we can trace the chief defects of technical writing in India." V. Sairaj, head of content and design services at the Chennai-based Cognizant Technology Solutions, will trace the root of the problem to technical writers in the country being expected to play multiple roles. Asha Mokashi of Bangalore will argue at the meet that the technical writer has a strong role in enhancing software quality. Currently, the Indian chapter of STC is one of the largest outside North America. Founded in 1999, its goal is to carry forward the "technical communication movement" in this country. Global STC is an individual membership organisation for "advancing the arts and sciences of technical communication". Its members include technical writers and editors, content developers, documentation specialists, technical illustrators, instructional designers, academics, information architects, usability and human factors professionals, visual designers, Web designers and developers and translators. On December 13-14, STC India's annual meet at Bangalore is slated to be the largest gathering of technical communicators in India. Hong Kong-based Saul Carliner, an expert on e-learning, information design, and technical communication, will be the keynote speaker.
Source: IANS
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