Society for Technical Communication

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The Society for Technical Communication or STC is a professional society for the advancement of the theory and practice of technical communication.

1 Overview
2 History
3 Membership
4 Annual Conference
5 STC Honors
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Overview

According to the STC web page, STC is the largest organization of its type in the world. 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.

Most STC members belong to one or more communities. A community can be either a geographic chapter or a special interest group (SIG).

STC publishes a quarterly journal, Technical Communication, and a monthly magazine, Intercom.

STC is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, USA.

[edit] History

The organization traces its roots to the Society of Technical Writers (STW) in Boston and the Association of Technical Writers and Editors (ATWE) in New York, both groups founded in the United States in 1953. These organizations merged in 1957 to form the Society of Technical Writers and Editors or STWE. This group merged with the L.A.-based Technical Publishing Society (TPS) in 1960 to become the Society of Technical Writers and Publishers. In 1971, the organization's name was changed to the Society for Technical Communication.

The organization's main journal developed from the TWE Journal to the STWE Review to the STWP Review to Technical Communications to Technical Communication.

Editors of this journal have included Douglas E. Knight, Allan H. Lytel, A. Stanley Higgins, Frank R. Smith, and George Hayhoe.

Other important leaders in the history of STC include Robert T. Hamlett (first president of ATWE), A. E. Tyler (first president of TPS), Samuel A. Miles (president of the Society of Technical Writers and Editors, which became ATWE's New York chapter in 1955), Vernon R. Root, Robert O. Shockney, and Stello Jordan.

[edit] Membership

STC now has 130 chapters, 21 special interest groups (SIGs), and about 15,000 members worldwide. It is the largest organization for technical communicators.^{[citation needed]} STC members work in a wide range of roles including:

[edit] Annual Conference

In May or June of each year, STC holds the largest conference for technical communicators in the world. Conferences have been or will be held in the following locations:

2004: Baltimore
2005: Seattle
2006: Las Vegas
2007: Minneapolis
2008: Philadelphia
2009: Atlanta

[edit] STC Honors

STC recognizes outstanding individuals by conferring the titles of Fellow, Associate Fellow, and Honorary Fellow. See The Society's Honors page for full descriptions and current lists of persons who have received these honors.