MCKINLEY HEARD
McKinley Heard is an experienced technical communicator who is adept at transforming complex concepts into clear, concise copy for multinational audiences. Heard uses her extensive background in English and linguistics to create accessible content that centers users, especially users of underrepresented communities. With years of experience in the technical and professional communication field (TPC), Heard has honed imperative skills such as collaborative technical communication. Heard is accustomed to working in cross-functional teams to produce effective technical documentation. She is also an expert user of technical tools such as Adobe Creative Cloud, WordPress, and other content management systems (CMS). Heard applies her formal education of design methodologies to achieve attractive design on documents and websites.
Heard's portfolio showcases impeccable technical documentation that she created pursuing an M.A. of Technical Communication from the University of Memphis located in Memphis, Tennessee. Her improvements are detectable throughout the portfolio and display the university's beneficial impact on her writing, editing, and design techniques. Heard had extensive experience in academic and professional writing and editing before pursuing her Master's degree, but she was lacking experience specifically in technical writing and editing, two key components of technical communication. Moreover, she was not an advanced user of Adobe Creative Cloud or WordPress. She had worked with Adobe Creative Cloud and content management systems before, but her time working under talented professors at the University of Memphis strengthened her abilities remarkably. The technical documents presented in her portfolio are written in a variety of formats, for different audiences, for different purposes. The documents work together well to illustrate Heard's approach to technical communication.
Heard is a unique technical communicator because she has an extensive background in teaching English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL). Along with technical communication courses, she took numerous linguistic and language teaching courses at the University of Memphis because of her personal interest and history in teaching ESL/EFL. While pursuing her M.A. of Technical Communication, she got the opportunity to teach English in Pilsen, Czechia for three weeks to earn a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certification along with course credits. During her final semesters studying at the University of Memphis, she has combined her linguistic and technical communication knowledge to conduct necessary research on the relationship between linguistically diverse people and technical communication. How linguistically diverse people interact with and understand technical documentation is of utmost interest to Heard.
Technical communication does not efficiently serve marginalized communities in its current state. It is the duty of the modern technical communicator to build coalitions with other technical communicators, especially those who have been discriminated against in the field, to reconceptualize TPC. Heard entered the field at the ideal time to further research on the topic of linguistic racism and bias within TPC. Heard is passionate about this work because she believes that addressing linguistic racism and bias, though it is a complicated, daunting endeavor, not only lifts up marginalized creators but also marginalized users of technical documentation. Heard believes in the production of humanistic technical communication over mechanical, robotic technical communication. She pushes for TPC to be shifted from neoliberal practices that condition technical communicators to produce soulless, grammatically perfect copy as quickly as possible that does not account for the author's voice or audience's needs, to practices that value the author's voice and consider the needs, cultures, and linguistic backgrounds of audience members.