Spotlights highlights a member of the chapter each month through an article about their accomplishments in the field and some lesser known facts about them gained through an interview about their career and general selves.  Check back on the second week of the month to find new Spotlights articles!

This month in Spotlights, we are learning more about Sheila Jones who has been a long standing member of the STC and accomplished many great things in her career.

She co-developed the first certificate program in technical communication in Canada at SimonFraserUniversity, then served on the Advisory Board for the program and has also served on the board of Shameless Hussy Productions, a provocative theater group. She has collaborated on writings in Creativity, Dementia and the Therapeutic Environment, and was a singer at STC conferences with The Rough Drafts.

At the Society level, she co-managed the 1997 Governance Committee, recommending changes to the Society’s structure. At the chapter level, she increased membership during her 1995-96 presidency, then managed the PR committee for the regional conference, ShapeShifters, winning the 2003 award of Distinguished  Technical Communication with Rahel Bailie in STC’s PR competitions. In 2004, she was named an STC Fellow.

Sheila continues as president of International Wordsmiths and advocates the use of plain language to all clients.

 

Me: If you could go back and talk to yourself when you first started in the field, what advice would you give yourself?

Sheila: Biggest and best advice:  Be a sponge; relax and enjoy the process of soaking up information. Overall, this is what we did at Wordsmiths. Our initial clients and sporadic clients over the years were software developers. What fun! New ideas and lots of enthusiasm. But watch out: as manual writers, we were the last to be paid and too often weren’t.

Me: What aspect has kept you working in the field for as long as you have?

Sheila: Insatiable curiosity and a lust for variety. The technical editing I do now is a pleasure; it’s like people making up puzzles for me to solve. I’m learning something new every day.

Me:  If you could stand on a rooftop with a megaphone and tell the world one thing about the field, what would you say?

Sheila: Tell the story! Find it and tell it. At least, hire the people who can do it.

Me: What was the most interesting project you’ve ever worked on?

Sheila: When it comes to one that may have had a real impact, I would say “Preparing materials to train Aboriginal Peoples to be Fishery Guardians.” Talk about complicated! We produced 80 training modules in 6 months, including instructor’s material, student workbooks, exercises, exams and tracking systems from significantly outdated, occasionally abstruse and academic work and in some cases from scratch.