Professional Writers Association of Canada 2008 Seminars

Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC) is delighted to announce the 2008 PWAC Presents seminar schedule.

The series provides a choice of five half-day seminars on specialty areas of writing to help you and your business communicate more effectively.

You can register for one or come to them all, as best suits your needs!

Topics in the 2008 series include:

• White Paper Writing 101 - Friday, 14th March
• Writing for Success on the Internet - Wednesday, 30th April
• How to Earn $ Writing Promotional Materials - Tuesday, 24th June
• Media Release Writing - Tuesday, 30th September
• Speech Writing - Tuesday, 25th November
  

Location
Centre for Social Innovation, Suite #120, 215 Spadina Ave. Toronto

Time
Each session runs from 9:30am to 12:30pm on the date specified.

Cost
Single sessions are $42 for PWAC members and $63 for non-members. Group and multi-session packages are also available.

Presenters
Presenters are PWAC members and experts in their seminar topic.

For more information about sessions, presenters go to:
http://www.pwac.ca/eventsandresources/pwacpresents

To register please go to:
http://www.pwac.ca/eventsandresources/pwacpresentsregform

If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact PWAC National Office at info@pwac.ca

February's chapter meeting -- a few thoughts

I couldn't make it to the last STC Toronto meeting ("Cool Tools for Tech Writers", Nicky Bleiel), so I asked some people to tell me what they thought of the speaker and what they made use of from her presentation. If you also attended, please use the Comments function to add your opinion of the presentation.

(Thanks to Elizabeth Pollack, Michèle Marques, and Todd Race for the answers that follow.)

What did you like about the speaker?

She was lively, knowledgeable about the topic and provided instances where she used the tools in her day-to-day working life. She also didn't get flustered when the tools did quirky things in the middle of the demonstration.

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I liked that she had a handout listing all the tools she mentioned, so that we didn't have to take notes for those details. I also liked that she was open to other people mentioning their favourite tools for particular areas, which made the meeting more participatory.

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She's a tech writer with experience and able to relate these items to our world. She didn't take herself too seriously and was able to keep things moving along with an appreciation for the flow of the evening.



What specific information did she provide in her presentation that you are most likely to act on in the near future?

Right after the meeting, I:

• Downloaded the Gimp. It it much more useful than the other "free" image manipulation software I had downloaded. I plan on playing with / using it often.


• Removed document metadata using Office 2007.


• Reviewed Wiki tools at http://wikimatrix.org.

I also plan on reading "Free or Open Source Tools for Technical Communicators" and "Useful Shareware and Freeware for Technical Writers" when I have a spare moment or two.

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I'll have to check out "the gimp" ... it's been a long time since I last looked at that image editing tool, and it seems a lot friendlier now. I already use some of the other cool tools she mentioned - SyncToy, Snagit, Sharepoint. And, not part of the presentation in the same sense - the speaker works for Component One and had a door prize draw for DemoWorks. I was the lucky winner :-) and will be trying it out.

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I was especially intrigued by the overall discussion about blogs and podcasts (ie Web 2.0) and also about Sharepoint (and how Nicky brought Sharepoint into a discussion of tools < $100)

The Incomplete Guide to Gödel

If there's one thing that's certain, it's that nothing is certain. Find out why.

Writing and Grammar Course: Front Runner and Toronto STC Promotion

As an ongoing part of any partnership there is a need to offer support to one another. Front Runner Training has been an active partner with the Toronto STC in a variety of ways and they are continuing with that partnership by offering us promotional pricing on an upcoming course. The course titled Writing & Grammar will be held on two upcoming Saturdays: Feb. 16 & 23, 2008.

The Four Portable Rules of Grammar - John Samuels

John writes, in part:

"When I was asked to teach writing and grammar, two thoughts immediately crossed my mind. How do you teach something that is so essential, so complex, but so "to the average person" boring, without putting an entire class to sleep? The answer lay in two main ideas: I have learned more by correcting someone else's bad grammar, and people use better grammar when they talk than when they write.

I avoid teaching the language of grammar and focus on the uses of grammar.

The bulk of the course has the students write non-stop for five or ten minutes, then edit each other's work. When a particular problem is discovered, the review stops and the questions begin. Why does this not work? How can we make it work? That is, a need is created, and then the theory is taught.

The result is a set of four basic rules that students can easily recall and use whenever they write."

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To learn more about John's four rules of grammar, take the two day workshop, conveniently scheduled over two Saturdays, so it won't affect your weekly work schedule!

Click here for detailed outline, pricing and date information
http://www.front-runner.com/training/outlines/writing/writing_grammar.html

Register and pay now for February's course - Toronto STC members receive a 10% discount on this specific course.