Skip to main content icon/video/no-internet
icon backReturn to Entries

Society for Technical Communication

The Society for Technical Communication (STC) is the world's largest professional organization devoted to the field of technical communication. Its members include writers, editors, illustrators, Web designers and developers, and a number of other specialists who work to communicate complex scientific and technical information to a broad range of audiences. Its goals include improving the practice of technical communication and communicating its value within professional contexts. Through its publications, Web site, and chapter meetings, it serves as an important resource for practitioners and educators in the fields of technical and scientific writing and communication. Although many working technical communicators are not STC members (STC estimates that there are 100,000 working technical communicators just in the United States, while STC's membership is around 20,000 worldwide), the development of the field of technical communication itself is reflected in the history of the organization, its mission and publications, and its emphasis on innovations in the field, as well as the importance of professional standards.

History

Although technical writing is perhaps as old as writing itself, it was not until the middle of the 20th century that technical writing came into its own as a discipline, and the development of the STC is symbolic of the maturing profession. As long as written language has existed, people have been writing texts that might be called technical instructions. When the printing press became widespread, countless manuals on every subject, from cooking to military science, were published. Although well-known historical technical writers include Geoffrey Chaucer and Galileo Galilei, more typically, past technical writers were obscure or anonymous. Technical writing was not recognized as a profession until the dramatic technological developments of the mid-20th century suddenly drove the demand for more technical manuals and instructions. In 1953, a gathering of technical writers and editors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology founded The Society of Technical Writers, the predecessor to the STC. A second group, the Technical Publishing Society, was founded in southern California the following year. By 1960, these two groups, along with the Society of Technical Writers and Editors, merged to become the Society for Technical Writers and Publishers, which changed its name to the Society for Technical Communication in 1971.

As Cate Nielan notes, throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the defense industry was very important to the profession, and many colleges and universities began offering courses in technical writing at that time. But it was the two decades between 1980 and 2000 that saw the most explosive growth in the field, fueled by the development of the personal computer in the 1980s and the Internet in the 1990s. The STC's membership more than doubled in that time, and new job titles were added to the STC's description of its members, such as multimedia artist, Web and intranet page designer, and information architect. These job titles reflect the multifaceted characteristics of both aspects of the profession, technology as well as communication.

Current Mission and Publications

STC has a clearly stated mission, as presented on its Web site: it seeks to advance the “theory and practice” of the field of technical communication for the benefit of both businesses and their customers. The organization has a strong emphasis on both professional and ethical standards. Because there is no formal certification for working technical communicators, unlike other fields such as accounting, engineering, or medicine, the STC plays an important role in defining a profession that has sometimes been overlooked within large organizations. The society also works to advocate for the profession by presenting evidence for the value of technical communicators within a number of different industries. Another important aspect of STC's mission is its support of academic programs; it offers inexpensive student membership rates, honorary fraternities, and student competitions, and many universities with programs in technical writing or communication have student chapters with close ties to regular chapters in the same area.

...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles

Read next

More like this

Sage Recommends

We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.

close

Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches

close
close
close Signed In to profile You are signed in as:
close
Logged in Institution Institution