I fell into mapping by accident, but it's been good to me. It's given me a career for 20 years, and it takes patience, consistency, and attention to detail, all of which I am good at. But the majority of work in BC was for the forestry industry, and since that is in a severe decline, mapping has taken a dramatic downturn. When I started looking around for a new career, tech writing seemed a natural fit. It requires the same skills as mapping, plus strong language skills, which I've always had but never known how to make a living with. I took SFU's two-year program, got my Technical Communication Certificate, and now I'm looking for a new job. I want to teach the whole world how to improve their lives with better communication!

I love solving problems, fixing things, whether it's a broken link, broken jewelry, or unloved furniture. I am always exploring new things, learning new skills, and discovering things I didn't know. I'd love to get to know your industry and your customers to find out what you need. If you need something written, or just tweaked a little, send me an email, and I will get it done.

We do not get our definitions of words from the dictionary. We get them from things we read, television, people we talk to. Context and innuendo. It would be truly remarkable if any of us had exactly the same understanding of language. This is only the beginning of our difficulties in achieving true communication.

Dealing with language today is like dancing on quicksand. New words are coined, become popular within months, and become dated in years. Anyone older than the generation that invented those words never truly understands them, and anyone younger may change their meaning to suit their own purposes. Just one more roadblock to communication.

There are so many reasons we aren't communicating when we think we are. One big reason that most of us don't understand is the way our brains work, both when we are talking and when we are listening. When we try to describe something to someone, we have a vivid, detailed picture in our minds. But when we talk, if the perfect word doesn't come to mind, we use the word that does come to mind, so that the words keep flowing. The person we are talking to doesn't know that what they are hearing is only an approximation of what we are trying to say. We feel that we have shown our listener the vision in our head, but what they see isn't even close.

Once we have described our vision, it continues to go wrong. Not because our listeners aren't paying attention, but because of the way our brains store memory. When we hear something new, our brains promptly start replacing parts of it with old, familiar memories. That's why eyewitness accounts are so unreliable. Immediately after the incident, memories are still fresh and vivid, but within hours bits of them are literally replaced by other memories. A face becomes the face of a celebrity, or a neighbor, a car becomes the car your parents had when you were a child. It's a lousy way to run a system, but it's the only one we have.

There are ways to keep our memories from fading. The most important is review, and this is something we should do any time we want to remember something, whether in work, in school, or in our private lives. Review the first time about two hours after you encounter something new. Review again about four hours after that, and one more time the next day. This process will help fix memories as they are, and keep them from being replaced.

We also need to take care when choosing our words. The perfect word says ten times more about what we really mean than the almost right word. Plan ahead, have the words in your mind. Pause if you have to. Also, include as much detail as possible. The more vivid the picture, the more likely it is to be remembered, and the closer it is to your original vision. One of the other tricks you can use is to associate as many senses as you can. Draw a picture, even if it's only a sketch, to include vision. Describe a texture. You can include a smell or taste by referring to something else, even if it is only peripherally related. All of these things will help keep that memory from fading away. Communication can be achieved, but not easily. It takes practice, training, and persistent effort. Luckily, the rewards are well worth it. The time we spend making sure we are understood is more than saved by not having to repeat ourselves later on.