Notes from 52nd International STC Conference
Seattle, Washington, May 8-12, 2005

Same Methods, Different Disciplines

Maureen Hogg, Ball Aerospace
Dan Voss, Lockheed Martin

Maureen Hogg is a senior technical writer with Ball Aerospace, and Dan Voss is Communications manager for Tactical Missiles-Orlando at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control.

Session Description: The presenters explained how some of the skills they learned as history and English majors in college have served them well in subsequent careers within technical communication.

Co-presenter Dan Voss looks on as Maureen Hogg and Kathy Lopez demonstrate the assistive technologies that have enabled Maureen to overcome blindness and deafness as a successful technical communicator.

• Notes are not available from this session because I was a presenter. Links are provided below to the materials from this session, which are posted on the conference materials web site.
   
• Paper in Proceedings
• Briefing charts
• Synopsis:
   
• Maureen explained how the basic historiography skills of inquiry and reporting have helped her develop a wide range of information products for the Ball Aerospace product line, including the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS).
• Dan explained how the principles of rhetorical analysis (audience analysis, communication objectives and strategy, messaging, and media selection) learned in linguistics helped him and his team mount an integrated strategic communication campaign that helped his company win the Joint Common Missile (JCM) proposal.