The Future Technical Communicators club was established in 2000 as the product of two technical communication students at UCF with a dream. They both sought to make a student organization that offered itself as a place for technical communication students to sharpen the skills they would need when they enter a career in technical communication. Beyond that, the club sought to help its members find and get a job in those very careers. Since then, it has grown to offer an array of programs from workshops to guest speaker events and networking opportunities, all while still pursuing that same goal. Whether you are a freshman or senior, graduate or undergraduate student, technical communication major or otherwise, FTC always seeks to provide you with opportunities to gain something practical that can’t be gained in the classroom alone. We want you to give you a push that makes you not just an excellent student but a prepared professional.
We want to add one more asset to our repertoire of resources for members. Our club’s current website was established fairly recently, back at the end of Fall 2020. While it has information about the club itself and houses some of our content, it never had a definitive purpose. The officers have wanted to make the website a proper home for FTC content, and in doing so, we had the idea of giving it something unique too — something you could only find here and something that was useful for students at the same time. One idea led to another, and then we got to work.
Introducing the FTC blog! The FTC leadership team has organized a publications committee that is dedicated to creating new and substantive written content for the club. It is currently composed of John Clement, Zachary Miller, and Danielle Porres. We are excited to be pursuing this initiative and hope that our upcoming articles are both enjoyable and beneficial toward you as a future technical communicator. We hope to act as a helpful resource for our readers by answering questions relevant to maintaining a successful academic and professional career.
Topics that you can look forward to seeing from the blog include:
- How to get experience outside of the classroom
- How to network professionally
- Taking care of yourself, mental health and rest
- Member and leader spotlights
- Why become a technical communicator?
- Fields and jobs in tech comm
Upcoming articles:
- Danielle & Zachary: Under the Spotlight
- Meet the Team (2021-2022)
- Careers in Technical Communication
- You Are Your Best Asset: Prioritizing Mental and Physical Health
Where do we want the blog to go? Above all, we want the blog to be something that benefits our members in a practical way. Right now that means providing helpful and informative articles, but in the future, we are looking into expanding that to receiving and publishing your articles or written work. This would make our blog a good place for members to get their writing out in the open, which makes for a great portfolio piece. Additionally, we could receive academic work such as essays and papers from our members, which we would then be spotlighted in a similar way. In essence, we want to offer benefits on both ends: sharing articles that are helpful to read, and offering a space for members to get their own great work out there and publicized. We’re excited to have you along for this ride.
For more information about FTC, please explore and bookmark this website. Additionally, you can join our Discord channel and follow our other platforms. We look forward to creating content that is well-suited to our audience members, and are always open to suggestions.
Sincerely,
FTC Publications Committee
John Clement, Zachary Miller, Danielle Porres
