Tag Archives: wordnik

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Wordnik at ALA San Francisco

Library Photography Competition 2011 entry

We here at Wordnik love libraries and librarians (and not just because the American Library Association adopted the words library and librarian). How much? So much that we’ll be holding our next meetup at ALA San Francisco at the end of this month!

Originally scheduled for the evening of June 30, we’re now meeting up at the conference on Monday, June 29, 10 AM, in the Moscone Convention Center. (Specific room to follow soon.)

If you’ll be attending ALA and are curious about Wordnik and what we do, as well as other online and offline lexical resources, we’d love to see you. There will also be snacks and  stickers, and you’ll have the chance to enter a raffle for some cool prizes.

Can’t make it? No worries: join the Bay Area Wordnik Meetup group and you’ll keep up to date with all of our upcoming activities.

Hope to see you soon!

[Photo via Flickr: “Library Photography Competition 2011 entry,” CC BY 2.0 by Loughborough University Library]

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Techical Communicators and Wordnik – Perfect Together

The Society for Technical Communication defines technical communication as:

  • Communicating about technical or specialized topics, such as computer applications, medical procedures, or environmental regulations.
  • Communicating by using technology, such as web pages, help files, or social media sites.
  • Providing instructions about how to do something, regardless of how technical the task is or even if technology is used to create or distribute that communication.

Regardless of what kind of technical communicator you might be – whether a writer of software instructions or patient instructions, a designer of websites, or a usability expert – words are important, and we were happy to learn that many technical communicators turn to Wordnik to find the right ones.

Kevin Cuddihy, Media Manager at the Society for Technical Communication (STC) had this to say:

I think many STC members have started using Wordnik since Erin McKean appeared at our Summit last year, and it’s certainly useful! Technical communicators and STC members may have an added edge in Secret Word Wednesday, given that many work with words constantly and are always looking for new ways of saying/writing things. That’s what makes Wordnik so valuable — finding not only a better way to say something, but clear examples of how a word is used.

“It’s fun to try to work out the answer to SWW from the clues,” says Karen Mulholland, a past winner of Secret Word Wednesday (SWW), “even if I’m completely baffled; and it’s more fun to see (and sometimes giggle at) other people’s guesses. Usually the result is that I learn an interesting word. And it’s an entertaining way to find other word-nerds!”

Melanie Seibert, a three-time winner of SWW, added, “I love the challenge of finding the answer before the other (super-smart) players do. It’s so hard that if you win, it feels like a great achievement. And I always learn new words!”

Technical communicators, if you have any other tips or tricks to winning Secret Word Wednesday, please share!  We’re sure other players would love to know.

You can learn more about the Society for Technical Communication at their website. You can also follow them on Twitter.