Society for Technical Communication—Israel Chapter

Haifa, April 18, 1999 -- Five Israeli high-tech projects won awards, presented today in Haifa, for quality in documentation.  The awards are presented annually by the Society for Technical Communication (STC), an international organization of some 20,000 professionals who spend their days writing, editing, illustrating, and otherwise making technical concepts clear to readers and customers. 

This is the first year that STC has extended its competition into Israel.  "In order to honor technical writers, you first have to corner them," jokes STC Israel chapter president Mark L. Levinson.  "Technical writing often means working hard to keep your company's product prominent and to keep your own style unobtrusive.  So you don't see a preponderance of trophy-seekers in this profession.  But we're the ones who give Israeli high-tech its written credibility."  In Israel, the Society for Technical Communication has attracted more than a hundred writers to its ranks, adding up to one of the organization's largest chapters outside the USA.  The annual competition for technical publications, illustrations, and multimedia is open to STC members and nonmembers alike. 

Two of the local winners of the STC citation for excellence were the user's manual for the CARTO Cardiac Electrophysiological Mapping System, written by Deborah E. Shapiro for Biosense Israel, Ltd.; and the administrator's guide for eSafe Protect Gateway, written by Svi Ben-Elya and Eyal Zohar for eSafe Technologies, Inc. 

Also cited for excellence were two works from Radcom Ltd:  the installation and configuration guide for PrismLite, written by Robert Horwitz, Debbie Novick, and Mark Barnett; and the book _A World of Protocols_, by Novick, Barnett, and Caroline Tabach. 

The product description for the LearNet Interactive Distance Learning Network, written at TDS Training and Documentation Solutions Ltd.  by Dorit Sapir, Tami Guetta, and Yigal Rahamim, won a citation of merit. 

All entries, not only the winners, received detailed written evaluations from the United States, where the Society for Technical Communication traces its history back to 1953.  Besides holding competitions annually, the Society publishes periodicals that update its members on the latest advances in technology and style, holds meetings and seminars, awards research grants, and cultivates specialized sub-groups for topics that range from multimedia and visual communication to health-and-safety issues.