The newsletter of the Florida Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication
<<First Name>>
We are glad to bring you the latest news from the Florida chapter of STC on our blog, Memo to Members. We have a new update, and we encourage you to scroll down or click the link to read up on the latest news.
Julia Southwick STC Florida Communications Chair and Newsletter Editor
The STC-FTC annual joint meeting is almost upon us! Before the pannel, we invite you to meeting this year’s panel: Shannon Maharajh, James Yunik, Cora Heisler, and Julia Southwick. Read what they want you to know about them before joining us below!
Shannon Maharajh
Technical Writer/Editor at Lockheed Martin Recent Graduate (Fall 2022)
Shannon Maharajh is a Lockheed Martin (LM) technical writer/editor within the technical publications department at the Training and Logistics Solutions (TLS) facility. Shannon works to ensure that every document produced is clear, coherent and presented with structure. Before her full-time position, Shannon interned through the College Work Experience Program (CWEP) at the University of Central Florida (UCF) for one year and eight months while pursuing a major in technical communication and minors in emergency management and national security. Shannon is adept with military standards, Department of Defense (DoD) writing styles, and emergency management communication.
Why you love Technical Writing: “I love technical writing because it is an integral part ensuring complex ideas can be communicated clearly and coherently for end users. It is a field often misunderstood, but important in industries such as aerospace defense. I wrote a thesis examining the importance of technical communication and discovered how language plays a critical role for technicians receiving manuals internationally or domestically. (I am happy to elaborate on this during the presentation!)”
Favorite Book: “Spaceman: An Astronaut’s Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe by retired astronaut Mike Massimino” Fun fact: “I can write script calligraphy!”
James Yunik
James Yunik is a technical writer/editor at Lockheed Martin, where he has served as a contractor for 18 months and as an employee since November 2022. Within his role, he mainly works on documentation–typically user manuals and guides–for projects with military applications. James graduated from UCF in December 2020 with a BA in Writing and Rhetoric and a minor in Technical Communication. He also earned an AS in Information Technology from the Pittsburgh Technical Institute in 2006.
Cora Heisler
Cora loves Tech Writing because it allows effective communication across all and any boundaries. She loves to see collaboration turn into usable pieces of information. Cora is passionate about creating usable technical content and knowledge in document design, client contract negotiations, data entry, and technical and layman’s documentation.
Favorite book: “My favorite book is The Alchemist. I’ve loved this book since middle school, and every read is better than the last.”
Fun Fact: “I work full-time remotely while traveling in my vintage van. Checking in from Baja Cali Sur Mexico!”
Julia Southwick
Julia Southwick currently works at JHT, Inc as a technical writer. In her time with the STC Florida chapter, Julia has served as the chair of the communication committee, editor of Memo to Members, co-chair of the 2021-2022 chapter mentoring program, and is the chapter VP. Julia is a graduate of UCF’s technical communication program class of 2019.
As the editor of STC Florida’s Memo to Members (MtM), Julia has recently published an article series on personality types and tech comm. She is interested in how personality types and tech comm intersect. Julia also started a series of STC Membership Spotlights which are “getting to know you” posts in a similar style to meet the new editor.
Why do you love Tech Writing? “I love tech writing because it’s a perfect blend of research, reading, writing, and asking questions about technology to help others understand how things work. Explaining technology comes easily to me because of my family’s background in engineering and it makes me happy to know I’ve helped others understand what can sometimes be complex topics and concepts about technology.”
Favorite book: “It changes all the time… at the moment probably The Secrets of the Immortal Nickolas Flamel: The Sorceress by Michael Scott. The series takes historical and mythological characters into a world where all of them are real, the events of mythology (all mythologies) happened, and there is magic everywhere.”
