Category: Lived Experience

I have lovely coworkers who would never comment on my French accent. And I have children. Children who make fun of me when I’m looking for 10th avenue: “Tense avenue? There’s no Tense avenue around here!” As a technical communicator, that’s not cutting it for me. My audience wants to use their brainpower to solve complex problems, not decrypt what I’m saying.

That’s why I look for ways to improve my pronunciation within the time constraints of a full-time working mom.

Over the years, various tools have helped me improve my pronunciation in complementary ways. Today, I’m sharing my findings with you. If I missed something, I want to hear about it!

Have you ever had difficulty getting developers to document their code?

I work with all kinds of developers. While some of them are keen, talented writers, others won’t document without… convincing… that:

1. Yes, developers should write documentation.
2. No, code-level documentation isn’t enough.

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I’m an ESL technical writer: English is my Second Language. It’s been a source of self-doubt when looking for a technical writer job in Vancouver, and it still is now that I am employed.

What was I thinking? Would hiring managers entrust me with their technical communication needs? Are my readers silently judging my English? Does it make me less of a technical writer?

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