Friday, November 7, 2008

Smiling Face is the Index of a Happy Person

Most of us know this fact yet how many of us consciously make an attempt to keep smiling face. It might be a graduation day’s group photograph or may be a family photograph in a studio where the photographer might have requested you to put your smiling face in the photographs to show the people and to see yourself smiling. Why is it important that we do not show our grumpy face to the world in a recoded form? Moreover we may also not like to see ourselves morose, sad, and dejected in the photograph. You may please take your time to think over it, what smile mean to you.

To some, it is like wearing sunglasses to protect your eyes from sun rays and eye contacts of other people. To some it is like applying sunscreen so that the heat of sunrays does not burn your skin. To many others, it might mean differently. What does it mean to you? It may seem quite awkward if someone puts this question across you, but do you really smile? What if you don’t smile? Does this make any difference?

My suggestion is, you must smile and make people smile on you. Smile is one of the best assets and greatest attribute one has if one happens to be happy. It is having magical touch to reduce your pain, disappointment and feelings of being failure.

Remember, when you were born and smiled first to the responses of your parents. It gave them unlimited joy and they were elated when you kept on answering them with your toothless smile. Ask them how happy they were? Your smile might have given them a pleasant parenthood and to you, persona of a happy child.

When you grew up young and needed companion and friends, your smile brought them close to you. You might have made lots of friends by your pleasant smile. Unknowingly you developed a wonderful quality what makes you win so many friends and foes. It gives you greater advantage over the others.

Your smile is the index of your personality which makes you a lovable person. Be it working place or public place, your smile gives an access for others to approach you freely, in turn you reach greater number of people. Your smile calms down the anger of your boss and lessens the fright of your juniors.

Smile keeps your cheek muscles healthy and flexible. You give a look of forties when you are really in fifties.

Wherever you are, your smile breaks the hesitation to approach the strangers also. You are likely to get the reply of smile by a smile, except a few occasions. If you want to reply to a question neither positive nor negative, you need not worry, just smile. Your negative answer may show disappointment on your friend’s face. Well! You may smile on those occasions.

Nothing can be better than a smile on your face to show the affection. Your wide smile always gives a gesture of respect and welcome.

Think if everyone stops smiling on each others! Would anyone live in such a way? Certainly not! Life will become a burden. Ask a lover, how much important is his smile to meet and greet his beloved one. Ask a husband, how much important is his smile to win a favour and co-operation of his wife. Observe a child how he negotiates with his parent with his smile for a favour.

Smile is also appreciation. Your parents give you a smile if you do a commendable job. Your teacher’s smile boosts you to excel in your career path. Without a word it conveys millions what you suppose to receive when you achieve a milestone in your life. It is a great tonic of progress. Without this there is no joy of success.

When you receive a smile you owe to give smile. So maintain give and take policy and live smiling forever.

People say smiling face is the index of a happy person. Be happy and make people happy around you. Let us not miss the world of smile and let the world not miss your innocent smile. You may well spread the good news across what a smile mean to you.

Remember my suggestion and keep smiling!

Does smile costs anything? To me, it doesn’t cost. But who knows, throwing a smile for a person might be hiring trouble or inviting an unpleasant situation. The meaning of smile in today’s world is very complicated to understand. That’s how sometimes a pleasant person dons the gesture of a grumpy personality. Well, if you feel my suggestion is not suitable for you to like and love the world with your smile freely, be judicious, be choosy and selective, but do not be grumpy.

Freedom of smile is not free; it is actually to use it free. So, be careful and smile.

Even if you forget to wear sunglasses and apply sunscreen, please don’t forget to smile.

Smile please!

Monday, October 20, 2008

Changing Time for Technical Writers

Technical documentation can take a spiral web of describing complex concept and special terminology to suit the specific audience. Although, this is a well known fact, but to transform your writing from the simple steps writing for a procedure to describe a scientific concept in cutting edge technology, which is just defining, could take a tough toll at time. Visibly for a new writer, it could be nightmare to understand the subject and write about them. Even for that matter, the experienced writers would struggle.

However, understanding of the subject and relating the entire steps, procedures and concepts into a meaningful perfect document is the real challenge for a technical author to test their writing ability. The very purpose of creating document is to preserve the knowledge to use for the larger audience or the customers. These customers could be the internal or the external ones. The aim of the documents changes according to the requirements. If you thought that technical writing means writing Users Guide, Installation Guide and Help files, then this is the time to think once again thoroughly and understand the requirement of technical writers in the industry. Probable you will not be restricted to writing these manuals only. You will be tested writing many more things such as requirement documents, white papers or the technical articles. Technical writer’s job is not merely going to be defined as about writing guides.

If you look at the entire job spec, which is slowly becoming clear, I bet, industry will have really tough time getting good writers. All those who thought that technical writing is all about knowing few of the writing and publishing tools and to know how to write a user manual then its better track your career now unless it is too late to mend your ways. When I made transition into technical writing knowing word processing and publishing tools were supposed to be the most important requirement. Now that is dying down, rather corporations have learnt that tool can be taught but not the art of writing.

Many consider technical writing as an art as well as a science. It is true that technical writing alone can not be an art because if you do not understand the science and technology about which you are supposed to write, it can not make you fare well. You can not consider it science either, even if you are convinced that it is based on style guides for paragraph, page layout and graphics unless you are able to present the information as the weaver of the words. To me, technical writing is an art to write about the science. I am sure; all of us will have different way of defining it and opine our voices on this subject.

One more aspect which is conceived arbitrarily is the concept that technical writers get knowledge from the subject matter expert and transform that knowledge into simple, legible and easy information for the end users. Domain hardly plays any barrier for the writers because knowledge is preserved into the written format by the subject matter experts and they too are available for any discussion or clarification whenever required. This is the normal way of functioning of the large corporation where every thing is documented because of fear that the employees leave jobs without passing the full information and knowledge to the juniors and colleagues. The cost involved in the process and the time required is such that many a time it deviates the product release. The seer fact is that people who are forced to write these documents do not have good skills of writing and quite natural that it would take more time yet you can not be sure of quality. This does not include exceptions.

The smaller organization, which recognize this fact stresses that if a developer is involved in writing so many documents then they should very well write the user documents too. They believe that in such cases the role of a Technical Writer is just to collate and present the information in a better way. Definitely language cleaning is another area where more emphasis is given. But this is not all that expected from a technical writer. According to them, technical writer should collect the information on their own with different sources and that would let developer write only such information which can be understood by the fellow developer and in turn that will give them more time to complete their job faster. Subsequently technical writer will write the document, which will allow them to be involved more to understand the subject and in the process they would be enriching their knowledge in the domain.

One more concept, which suggests that a technical writer should not worry more about the domain, seems relatively not to be a good idea. “The domain knowledge is not necessary, wherever they go, they learn the terms of the trade”, sounds bit odd to me. Meaning you work in telecommunication domain and tomorrow you make a change in life science domain, I precisely feel the time taken to understand the new domain would put you back for some time. It could even be a bottleneck to prove your effectiveness in writing if you have not assessed it early. It might also hamper your growth too in a new setting because you are going to be rated freshly in a new environment. Well, this again is a personal preference, some can manage everything well and for some this could really pose a problem. The advice is to look at your strength and act.

For small product development company, “Speed” is the hallmark and that puts them in advantageous position comparing its larger adversaries, which ride on the back up of money, manpower and management. Looking at the scenario it seems that it is testing time for the technical writers to prove their worth in changing environment. Otherwise also if the industry has to be dependent upon the technical writers, they need to be mature enough to handle different situation. Ideally if they are able to handle such situation the pay cheque would not be a constraint. So, the catch is “show your competence to prove yourself”.