We are excited to invite you to our upcoming event, “Inclusive Technical Editing: How, Why, and When to Use Alternative Style Guides,” featuring Dr. Jonathan Arnett on Thursday, September 21 from 6:30-8:30 pm ET. This event promises to be an insightful exploration of how technical communicators can make their language more universal, inclusive, and respectful by employing alternative style guides.

Speaker: Dr. Jonathan Arnett, Associate Professor of Technical Communication, Kennesaw State University

Location: Zoom

Date: Thursday, September 21

Time: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm ET

Technical editors commonly rely on the big four style guides—the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, the MLA Handbook, The Chicago Manual of Style, and The Associated Press Stylebook—when writing for general audiences, and they also consult other style guides such as the IEEE Editorial Style Manual when they write for technical audiences. However, these mainstream guides do not necessarily serve the needs of diverse audiences, and they may unintentionally alienate or disenfranchise readers. Thus, technical communicators need to consider employing alternative style guides that explicitly address diverse audiences and edit their materials with an eye toward ableism, ethnicity, race, nationality, gender, sex, and sexuality in order to make their language more universal, inclusive, and respectful.