Technical Writing
(selected works)
Kate Weatherall
AIPS++ Newsletter
Provides general information of the Astronomical Information Processing
System. Produced under the direction of the AIPS++ Consortium.
The AIPS++ Newsletter is published in both HTML and postscript format.
Structuring a Web Site: Mapping, Modularity, Metaphors,
Hierarchy, and Non-Linearity
This thesis discusses the technical communicator's role to re-form text into a structure containing the richness of the theory, yet allowing the user to absorb information in his or her own way. A technical communicator's responsibility is to interpret, translate and provide a path which enables understanding. Conveying information succinctly is of the utmost importance.
Structural elements must be put into place to reach the widest possible audience.
These elements are mapping, the outline structure of the website; modularity,
the visual structure of the website adapted from graphical programming; metaphors, icons
or other elements; hierarchy, the different levels which comprise the links and nodes; and
non-linearity, the way users traverse the entire website.
Technical communication skills are essential to successfully advancing ideas and concepts. Effectively presenting information creates a vital link to the world and a more productive work environment.
(Technical Communication thesis)
Uranium in Socorro County
For almost half a century New Mexico was the
principal producer of uranium in the United States.
The sources of uranium in Socorro are from both the extensive
natural occurrences as well as from the testing of artillery shells,
which contain depleted uranium, at the Energetic Materials Research
Center (EMRTC).
My research thesis discusses the geological sources and chemical properties of uranium
and the possibility of its byproducts leaching into the
groundwater of Socorro County, New Mexico. Of concern is whether
these byproducts are adversely affecting the environment.
(Geology research thesis under the guidance of Dr. David Norman,
Geology Department, New Mexico Institute of Mining and
Technology)
Exchanging Files with Other Computers
Presents a tutorial approach to learning FTP using UNIX. Consists
of fifty pages within the book, A Busy Student's Guide to UNIX.
Paydirt
Wrote and conducted interviews for New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology's
student newspaper, including an interview and article entitled The Woman who
Discovered Pulsars: An Interview with Jocelyn Bell-Burnell.
Jocelyn Bell was a graduate student mapping twinkling quasars
under the direction of Tony Hewish in 1967 when she came upon
unusually regular radio waves. The precision of the waves being
so perfect, she thought that it must be interference of some sort,
or perhaps extraterrestrial life signalling from a far off planet.
At first, she jokingly labelled them LGM's (Little Green Men).
Then a few months later she discovered another, LGM 2, and knew that,
indeed, it couldn't be extraterrestrial life nor interference -- both
were too unique in their identities. In February 1968 Hewish and Bell
published an article in Nature magazine that discussed these
findings; they had discovered the first pulsar. In 1974 Tony Hewish received the
Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery.
Tech Notes
Wrote, designed, and published newsletters as
president of the Society for Technical Communication Student Chapter.
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