Greetings, all! After taking a few weeks off to rest and reflect, your friendly, neighborhood Heroic Technical Writer is back in action. One of the primary reasons I paused–aside from being busy–was simple burnout. I was often scrambling at the last minute to come up with a topic, and quite frankly my enthusiasm and quality were diminishing. To remedy this problem, starting next year/week, I will be publishing HTW once a week on Fridays, at 9 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time. This will hopefully give me more time to write thoughtfully and share insights with greater clarity and depth.

2021 Recap

As is my habit, I’ll share some of the results and insights gathered by WordPress regarding you, my reading audience.

First, I would like to thank all of you for taking the time to read my posts. Thanks in part to the publishing of the Heroic Technical Writing book, the blog once again exceeded its readership from the previous year. Curiously, I have more site visits, but fewer visitors, which means that those of you who are visiting HTW are reading multiple posts, for which I’m duly grateful.

Second, while I have no control over what others find popular, I thought you might find it interesting to know what the site’s most popular posts are. The top 5 are as follows:

• Vertical, Horizontal, and Matrixed Organizations (And Why You Should Care)
• Characteristics of Formal and Informal Writing
• Writing for NASA (note that this is a page summarizing and linking to most of my space-writing posts, not a single post, per se).
• Large, Medium, or Small: What’s Your Best Working Environment?
• How an English Major Got a Job at NASA

Next, I am pleased to see that I continue to reach my target audience: students and young professionals interested in technical communication careers. My thanks especially to the college and university instructors who refer their students to this site or to the book! My referrers–shared in order of quantity of shares–include the University of Management and Technology, the Community College of Rhode Island, Southern New Hampshire University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Albion College, University of Limerick (Ireland), Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, University of Central Florida (my M.A. alma mater), North Carolina Central University, North Carolina State Univerity, Yorkville University (Canada), Independent Institution of Education (South Africa), Boise State University, and the University of Alabama at Huntsville.

Lastly, while my primary readership comes from the U.S., I am gratified by the attention this blog continues to receive from overseas. Many thanks to my readers in the Philippines, India, United Kingdom, Canada, Pakistan, Nigeria, Germany, Australia, Netherlands, and Malaysia (among the top 10). While I am most familiar with the U.S. market, I’ll be happy to answer any questions regarding professional or personal aspects of the technical writing life.

Preview of Coming Attractions

With a little more time between posts, I’m hoping to touch on topics that matter to me in more depth than I might do at the last minute on a Monday morning. As noted above, I welcome questions from my readers. As a reminder, I am here to offer insights into aspects of tech writing that might not be covered in a typical university course. I am not (repeat: NOT) here to offer legal advice; professional counseling services; or accounting, investment, or tax guidance. For those specific issues, I highly recommend that you seek a paid professional. (I will try to add a “Contact Me” page this coming year to simplify the outreach process.)

In addition to dispensing my usual wisdom here on HTW, I am open to being a “guest speaker” via Zoom or in-person classrooms if it’s in the Central Florida area. I’m also willing to serve as a paid speaker if you’re interested in having me speak at a public event for professionals. The best way to reach me is via email: bart (at) heroictechwriting.com

As for specific topics that I’ll touch on in 2022, you can look forward to me holding forth on topics such as:

• How do you know when you’re spending too much?
• What types of source materials should you use on the job?
• How do supply and demand affect your career as a technical writer?
• What does “last hired, first fired” look like and why does it happen?
• How do you build trust in the workplace?
• How should you handle various concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic?

I look forward to continuing the conversation into the new year.