Description

Table of Contents

This book received an Award of Excellence from the Society for Technical Communication, Region 1 Publications Competition, 1996.

International Technical Communication

How to Export Information about High Technology

By Nancy L. Hoft

1995, 372 pages, paperback
ISBN: 0-471-03743-5
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Includes case studies, worksheets, sample user analyses, hundreds of tips and tricks from successful global companies, and a reference of dozens of international resources that can provide data on target countries and users.

As technical information travels widely in an ever-expanding global marketplace, companies must balance the need for cultural adaptation with the costs and operational demands of localization. Whether your medium is print, graphic, or electronic, understanding the principles and practices of effective international technical communication is essential to the success of your publications. Now, for the first time, this valuable information is collected in a single, indispensable reference for any communicator who wants to reach audiences worldwide. International Technical Communication guides you through all the phases of planning, writing, and designing information for translation and international sale. It offers comprehensive and practical solutions for companies of all sizes, covering every aspect of developing global communication.

The Next Generation: Be aware of trends in international communication and the opportunities and the skills you need to address them.
Approaches to International Technical Communication: Successful high-technology companies apply these four approaches when creating effective international technical communication: localization, internationalization, globalization, concurrence. Also includes recommendations for technical communicators.
Management Issues: Manage so that your team can succeed. Learn the components of a successful international-management strategy that perceives instead of reacts to change and diversity.
Performing an International-User Analysis: To create world-ready information products, you need to know about target audiences. Use international variables and models of culture as tools for collecting cultural data about obvious cultural differences, unspoken rules, learning styles, and behavioral difference. Synthesize cultural data for meaningful internationalization and localization.
Identifying Cultural Bias: Cultural bias hinders the goals of international technical communication. Learn how to identify it. Understand your own cultural context well. Perform cultural edits routinely.
Design Issues: Good design traditionally enhances readability. New designs are needed to consider the effects of translation and localization.
Creating Core Information: Create the foundation for economical localization. Identify information that can be reused. Recyle.
Working with Translators: Forge healthy partnerships with people who can make your international technical communication successful: technical translators and translation reviewers. Discover ways to build and strengthen these relationships.
Writing Issues: Language problems form the majority of problems in international technical communication. Language problems can be grouped into two categories: 1) problems related to language structure, and 2) problems related to the expression of written language using different media.
Online Issues: Expressing written language in electronic form requires some technical knowledge in addition to linguistic knowledge and cultural awareness.
Graphics Issues: Know how to assess the cultural appropriateness of imagery and color. Learn how to develop graphics that make localization and translation easy.
Tools Issues: Use tools that facilitate the development of international technical communication. Learn about features that can assist rather than hinder.
Assessing Quality: Levels of quality for international technical communication have not been formally established by any national or international standards body. Use ISO 9000 registration as an opportunity to establish criteria that ensure the usability and quality of international products. Learn about methods for assessing and measuring quality.
Toward Concurrence: The development of world-ready products requires a new product-development model, a new mindset, new tools, and new processes. Concurrence offers these gifts for the truly global enterprise. It is in such and arena that world-ready information products can be developed to intuit the diverse needs of a global audience.
Appendices: Worksheets; Sample International User Analyses; Resources for International Technical Communication
Index