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STC IDL SIG Fall Frightfest MiniConference Presentation

Saturday, October 21, 2023

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Supercharge your Documentation with Storytelling Superpowers

By: Alex Michael Hales

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Presentation Outline

1 - About me

2 – Storytelling Reframed

3 – Take your aim

4 – Revealing Truth

5 – Understanding the Vision

6 – powers of Artificial intelligence

7 – Our mighty Responsibility

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1. About Me

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About Me – my Education!

Graduated From Arizona State University

Bachelors of Science in Technical Communication (May 2023)

Currently attending Arizona State University as a Graduate Student

Media Arts and Sciences, Masters of Science (May 2024)

Arizona Board of Pharmacy Certified Pharmacy Technician (November 2023)

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About Me – What I am doing!

I am constantly evolving my skillset in writing, creation, and ideation.
Currently studying about how Media Art and Science can help drive storytelling, even “story living.”
Create experiences that we can develop better relationships with each other.
Start connecting with the world and people around us.

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About Me – My Passion!

Combining my knowledge of Technical Communication with my academic writing knowledge and my love for Media Arts to persuade people to act
I am looking for opportunities to combine these attributes to create meaningful storytelling in the workforce.
I am also hoping to find creative outlets and share that work with others.

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About Me – My Contact Info!

My Work

www.alexmichaelhales.com

My Social

www.linkedin.com/in/alexmhales

My Email

alexmichaelhales@gmail.com

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2. Storytelling

Reframed

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Teaching and Learning in a Storytelling Culture

Richard Bowman

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The very heart of being an educator “is a desire to tell a story by making sensory, emotional connections” with students in an empathetic, realistic way (Schultz 2011, 273).

(Bowman, 2019)

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Bowman – Storytelling Culture

“Storytelling is universal. Throughout history, the building blocks of all compelling narratives have remained intact: Challenge, struggle, and resolution” (Bowman, 2019).

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Bowman – Storytelling Culture

In instructional environments, authentic stories employ drama to unmask the hidden truth about a challenge.

(Bowman, 2019)

In the early 1950’s, Oxford’s Dr Alice Stewart researched the question: Why were so many young children, many of those from very affluent families, dying of cancer in Great Britain?
Her exhaustive research findings suggested that 2:1 of the mothers of young cancer victims had received pre-natal X-rays (Heffernan 2012).
After 25 years of contentious debate, the medical establishment in both Britain and the United States abandoned the practice of pre-natal X-rays (Heffernan 2012).
“Members of the organization may not want to know or may not be able to handle the insights into their own culture (Schein 2010, 192).
Educators must have a “willingness to solicit the truth” (Heenan and Bennis 1999, 277).
The crux of Dr Stewart’s narrative is that constructive conflict, debate, and academic argument constitute collective thinking.
Constructive conflict invites and allows an openness to both exploration and change in a thinking classroom, a thinking laboratory, and in a thinking society.
Openness is the beginning, not the end, in confronting and resolving scientific and social challenges (Heffernan 2012). It is the ability to find solutions that is essential in sustaining life.
In contrast, what is to be feared in classroom, laboratory, and societal settings is silence, not openness to discover what works.

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Bowman – Storytelling Culture

“Compelling stories invite [The Target Audience] to examine their beliefs and allow them to act with greater consciousness regarding their everyday behaviors” (Bowman, 2019).

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Bowman – Storytelling Culture

Self-knowledge is the blood of all resonant stories! (Bowman, 2019)

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The question Concerning Technology

Martin Heidegger

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Heidegger – Questioning Technology

“The question concerning technology is the question concerning the constellation in which revealing and concealing, in which

the coming to presence of truth, comes to pass”

(Martin Heidegger, year).

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How can we become

super in this industry?

Interactive

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2. Take Your Aim

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Hawkeye – Taking aim at your Target Audience

When an archer takes aim with a bow and arrow, even the slightest breeze can change how a shot is made.

As Technical Communication experts, we need to keep our eye on our target and create for their needs.

We do this by using the art of persuasion through Pathos, Logos, and Ethos to humanize data.

We can also learn about their perspective so we can create something they will care about.

1.

2.

3.

4.

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What are other ways you have thought about your target audience?

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3. Revealing Truth

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Black Widow – Secret agent of UX/UI Design

1. Gather intel from your target audience.

2. Act on that data with precision.

3. Good design is often invisible.

4. Build interactive elements for your audience.

5. Guide you users to the desired goal.

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What are other ways you have thought about How UX/UI Design Reveals truth?

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4. Understanding

the vision

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Nick Fury – Super Spy (all knowing Eye)

1. Create a vision for your documentation.

2. Plan and Organize Information Effectively.

3. Gather tools and people together to create that vision.

4. Identify when something doesn’t work and edit it out of the equation

5. When something is working, build upon it.

6. Inspire, create, and outperform the competition.

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What are your thoughts on How Content Management affects our stories?

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5. The Powers of

Artificial Intelligence

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Ironman - superhuman brain of AI

1. Emerging technologies like chat-gpt, bing chat, Microsoft co-piolet, google co-piolet, and others are not going away.

2. AI generative images are going to be mistaken for human art.

3. Machine learning and data processing will be easier than ever.

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How have you already seen Artificial intelligence affect your work?

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6. Our Mighty responsibility

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Spider-Man – Our Responsibility

1. Relate your documentation to the audience.

2. Build a relationship with your audience.

3. Use personal experience as the backbone of your stories

4. “With great power, comes great responsibility” to use it wisely with restraint.

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Conclusion

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The very heart of being an educator “is a desire to tell a story by making sensory, emotional connections” with students in an empathetic, realistic way (Schultz 2011, 273).

(Bowman, 2019)

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The very heart of being a [Communicator] “is a desire to tell a story by making sensory, emotional connections” with [our audience] in an empathetic, realistic way (Schultz 2011, 273).

(Bowman, 2019)

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Questions?

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References

Bobkowski, & Etheridge, C. E. (2023). Spreadsheets, Software, Storytelling, Visualization, Lifelong Learning: Essential Data Skills for Journalism and Strategic Communication Students. Science Communication, 45(1), 95–116. https://doi.org/10.1177/10755470221147887

Bowman. (2018). Teaching and Learning in a Storytelling Culture. The Clearing House, 91(3), 97–102. https://doi.org/10.1080/00098655.2017.1373547

Heidegger, M., Lovitt, W., (2013). The question concerning technology: and other essays. HarperCollins Publishers.

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Thanks!

Do you have any questions?

youremail@freepik.com

+91 620 421 838

yourcompany.com

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CREDITS: This presentation template was created by Slidesgo, and it includes images by Freepik

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My Contact Info!

My Work

www.alexmichaelhales.com

My Social

www.linkedin.com/in/alexmhales

My Email

alexmichaelhales@gmail.com