A report on the panel discussion:
"What makes an award-winning document?"

by Rick Lorenz

On April 12, the STC and ITE held a joint meeting at RMOC for a panel discussion on what makes an award-winning document. For $8.00, I got a light dinner, and the opportunity to hear expert opinions. Doreen deMunnik moderated the panel, which included Gordon Brown, Bob Stanley, David Wegenast and Paul Leroux.

Gordon Brown managed this year's print competition, and won a merit award in the 97-98 online help competition. He started as a print journalist, worked at Corel, and is now a team leader and documentation specialist at Nortel Networks. Gordon discussed the attributes a writer must have to produce quality documentation:

Bob Stanley has been involved with the STC for many years. He ran Stimulus for several years and managed the 98-99 competition. He has served as a judge and has won a number of awards, serving and winning locally and at the international level. Bob started as a reporter in England, and has worked for most of the major companies in Ottawa.

Bob talked about judging documentation. Judges are experienced writers who tend to volunteer each year. They use a comprehensive set of guidelines formalized by the STC. They are each assigned about five entries, and have three weeks to review them. At the end of the review period, the judges meet in teams of three to score the entries. Judges don't have time to read an entire entry, depending on its size. For example, their conclusions may be based on 10% of a 300 page manual. They pay close attention to detail, checking things like index entries, pagination and spelling.

David Wegenast has been on the ITE executive for many years, and is currently president. He has judged for a number of years and has won multiple awards, both locally and internationally. He worked for a magazine, later graduated from the Technical Writing program at Algonquin College, and is now manager of technical publications at Autodesk Canada.

David stressed consistent, but also creative adherence to the STC guidelines. Documents must be usable, and must encourage use of the product by generating a sense of excitement. Things like colour and attention to layout show concern for the user.

Paul Leroux has won multiple awards for QNX over the past decade, including many this year. In fact he needed a box to carry all the certificates home from the awards ceremony.

Paul began by questioning the discussion topic; should the emphasis be on winning awards? More importantly, we must concern ourselves with our users. Fortunately, the criteria for winning awards matches the user's needs. Paul then told us that documents need a human touch. They must portray that other people are involved, have shared their struggles with the product, and are on their side. This doesn't necessarily mean a folksy style, but rather reassurance at stumbling blocks that they are on track.

Once the presentation was complete, audience members identified themselves and asked questions. Here are some highlights.

Dr. Ralph Callistro (a prominent STC member) was on hand, wondering how documents can be judged without access to the product and its users. The panelists indicated that judges assume the information is technically accurate. However experience has honed their instincts, and they can tell whether the information is complete, internally consistent, and meets the user's needs. All the elements of good technical writing must be present to win. Therefore you can enter the competition, not for an award, but to get feedback and insight on a document you're vaguely unsatisfied with.

Audience members questioned the validity of the STC guidelines. They don't mention "concise", or "lends itself to translation". Aren't these characteristics important? The panelists explained that these attributes are indirectly included, because a document must have a "clear presentation of required information". Paul said that being too concise isn't always appropriate. Sometimes it's better to add text to maintain the user's comfort level. For example, if the system takes a long time to complete a step, the user may think the computer is locked up. The user will be more relaxed if told to wait for a few minutes.

An audience member asked what sort of manuals tend to win. A manual about a familiar consumer product has better chances than a reference manual for abstract high-tech software. However reference documentation has won awards.

Are you interested in the guidelines that judges use in STC competitions? Do you want to know what makes a good document? Go to www.stc.org, and follow the Competitions link. From the Competitions page, follow the 1999-2000 Judging Evaluation Forms link. From the Judging Evaluation Forms page, you can download PDF files with guidelines for the Online, Art and Publication competitions.