Saving articles

Copyright © 1996, 2000, 2001 by John Hedtke

John Hedtke will be the keynote speaker at our June Awards Reception. For more details, check out the STC RMC home page.

Serial rights granted to STC newsletters to reprint the article in entirety in exchange for advance notification and permission and two copies of the printed final version. For reprint rights, contact the author at john@hedtke.com.

Some years ago, Carole Tomme Thiel, then senior editor for Infosystems magazine, wrote an excellent editorial entitled "Are You in the Top 5%?" In this article, Ms. Thiel stated that if you read a single book about your career topic each month for a year, you'll be doing more to develop your professional skills than 95% of your colleagues.

If you don't think you have the time for a book, consider saving articles. A well-written article can have as much as a book, and it's short and to the point. Moreover, articles are likely to be more current. Here's how:

1. Read or skim as many professional magazines as you can.
   • Your company probably already receives half a dozen of these. Many magazines are also available free to qualifying companies in return for filling out a subscription information card.
2. Tear out or copy interesting articles.
   • Make sure the magazine's name and issue date appear on the article, even if you have to write it in yourself. It's very frustrating to have half of a good article and not know where to look to find the other half.
3. Develop a list of article topics that interest you.
   • You won't know exactly what articles you'll want to save at first. Just start clipping articles and see what topics they fall into, then look for more. This list will probably change as time passes and your interests shift.
   • Keep a tally of the type and number of articles you are saving. You may be surprised at where some of your interests lie.
   • Save articles for yourself. Don't save them because your boss reads them, or because you think that the article is something you "should" be interested in. If you aren't interested, it's just so much sludge.
4. Store articles so you can find them again easily.
   • Use manila folders or 3-ring binders with notebook dividers to separate articles into topics. Keep the fun stuff separate from the rest of the articles (the "fun stuff" category will grow fastest).
   • When you have twenty or thirty articles in a category, subdivide the category into several more specific topics, or create a table of contents for the category.
5. Once you develop a library of articles, use it.
   • A good article file is a valuable resource. You can use articles to back up a report or proposal. Circulate copies of your favorites.

By saving articles, you rapidly develop a sense of where an industry is going and what is about to happen. People are impressed with someone who has always has just the right article at hand. Best of all, you'll have the largest cartoon file in the office.

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John Hedtke is the award-winning author of 23 books, including RoboHelp for the Web (with Brenda Huettner, Wordware Press, 2002). He is an Associate Fellow and a member of the STC Nominating Committee. He can be reached through his website www.hedtke.com. John lives in Ft. Wayne, IN, and is President of the Hoosier Chapter.