tekom-Jahrestagung 2012 - ActiveDoc

Professionelles Schreiben / Technical Authoring
TA 15
Workshop
Educating DITA
Nolwenn Kerzreho, Université Rennes 2, France
Tony Self, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
Overview
As some areas of technical communication continue to move from linear,
document-centric authoring to structured, topic-based approaches
using the DITA semantic mark-up language, it is becoming more apparent
that some existing practices have to be abandoned and new methods
and techniques taken up. The skills required for these new methods
and techniques can either be taught in the classroom at university level
or taught in the workplace. The way in which universities have taught
DITA techniques provides a useful insight into how DITA skills can also
be transferred in the workplace.
DITA
The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is an XML-based
architecture for writing and delivering information using structured
authoring techniques. It is aimed at technical communicators, authors,
editors, and creators of textual content.
The approach enabled by DITA represents a major shift in the way in
which technical communicators and other writers approach a documentation
project. DITA effectively separates the content from the presentation;
technical communicators using DITA can no longer use traditional
style-based techniques and authoring tools to write manuals and other
documents. This is because DITA is based on semantic mark-up and
integrated metadata, both of which are new concepts for most technical
communicators.
Two Universities, Two Hemispheres
Swinburne University of Technology is located in Melbourne, Australia.
Until 2011, a post-graduate Technical Communication programme was
run within the Faculty of Life and Social Sciences, offering post-graduate
qualifications for students. One of the Graduate Diploma subjects
offered was “Structured Authoring with DITA”.
Université Rennes 2 is located in Brittany, France, and offers post-graduate
and under-graduate vocational studies in technical communication
disciplines. One of the technical communication subjects offered is
“Structured Authoring”, which, like the Swinburne subject, focusses on
the DITA semantic mark-up language.
Why is education important for writers moving to DITA?
Writing structured topic-based documents using a semantic mark-up
language is markedly different in many respects to writing in a linear,
document-centric form. Technical communicators migrating from legacy
to structured approaches need to abandon some practices, focus on core
writing skills, and develop new methods and techniques. The change
can be described as re-educating a technical writer as an information
engineer.
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tekom-Jahrestagung 2012