Edward Micklos, a recent graduate from Global Security and Intelligence Studies, currently works for Epic Systems. He reflects on learning to work quickly to produce highly important communications during crisis situations, as well as how useful it was to apply skills from writing classes in his history classes, or welding skills in chemistry.
In his current job, Edward needs to write with a clear purpose and craft content that will be useful and valuable for whoever needs to use it—whether that's an internal audience or a more public audience. Making useful content means focusing the topic appropriately, being concise, and choosing just the right words and phrases to influence readers how you intend to.
Episode Transcript:
[Music fades in]
Abigail:
Hello, everybody and welcome back to another episode of What's the Word Eagle Alumni Spotlights Podcast. I'm Abby, your host and today we have a very special guest for you. Today we're joined with Edward Micklos. And Edward, why don't you give us a little bit of background about yourself?
Edward:
All right, I graduated Embry Riddle less than a year ago in Global Security and Intelligence Studies. And now I work at Epic Systems, which is a company that does all of the software for a hospital or clinic. If you have the mycare app on your phone, we do that as well. And there I'm a quality manager.
Abigail:
Awesome. That's very exciting. And do you have a favorite memory from your time at Embry Riddle that you'd like to share?
Edward:
Yeah, so I think one of the most impactful experiences I had at Riddle was crisis week, which was something that Professor Bob's Dean had in her more advanced intelligence writing class, which was we knew the time and day that we had to exercise that. But what we had to do was we had an hour's notice, where we were given a prompt, and then we had to produce a short piece, a one pager, as well as a set of PowerPoint slides. And in that hour, produce that one pager. And then at the end of it, present our PowerPoint and give our understanding and research as on the topic that she asked us about.
Abigail:
Oh, wow, that sounds very exciting. And is this just a global security major type week? Or is it more geared towards the whole campus?
Edward:
So, this is a thing that is just done as part of her advanced intelligence training class. But honestly, I think anyone would benefit from it. And Epic working in healthcare, we run into situations where we have very tight turnarounds. So, if something with a software isn't working, right, sometimes that can affect patients, and that can affect hospitals and their bottom lines. So, we need to be able to turn around pieces of documentation supporting are fixes that we are writing code for them, or customers to actually use.
Abigail:
Right, right. So, it's super important to get it down right around the first time.
Edward:
Oh, absolutely.
Abigail:
Okay, perfect. And that sounds like a really fun week that she offered in her class.
Edward:
Yeah, no. And that's why I think for me, that was a very memorable experience, just because now there are times where I have a very short turnaround time to get this critical piece of writing done that ultimately will help people.
Abigail:
Right, right. Oh, that's awesome. And now switching to your everyday kind of job, what does a typical day look like for you?
Edward:
Yeah, so as a quality manager, we are responsible for writing documentation, both that customers see and what it's what they use to actually put that information into practice in their systems. We also some of us do a lot more testing, I generally lean more towards like the documentation and management side. And then another big area where I work is a lot of risk management. Yeah, mitigating a lot of the potential problems that could arise in the software before it ever goes out the door.
Abigail:
Okay. And do you have to have a basic understanding of coding and everything like that, or more of a complex understanding?
Edward:
So, it kind of depends. It's very interesting, because I'd say I lean toward above average as understanding of code, compared to a lot of the other quality managers. But we have a policy where it is useful to have both testers who are almost as capable as our coders and testers who do not have that much experience with computers at all. Because ultimately, the people who use our software, some of them are very tech literate, some of them aren't.
Abigail:
That's awesome. And that leads me right into my next question for you, it sounds like you do a lot of writing in your everyday job.
Edward:
Oh, yeah. So, everything I do is technical writing. And the biggest things I've found to be most useful are concision, and really writing towards an audience. And if you're writing without a purpose, there isn't a lot of value in writing. But then, if you're gonna write with purpose, it's not necessarily your purpose for why you write that matters. But it's your audience's purpose. Because if you start writing to go and get that thing done, it's not going to be good. It's not going to be useful to whoever has to read it. But if you like for what I do, if I'm writing release note for this new functionality that we create, it'll be a note that is going to have a set of directions for the person who actually has to implement this new feature in a customer system. So, if I have that in mind, then I can tailor the note to all of the things that they need to know and disregard the rest so I can keep it concise and short. And also focus on just the value add making sure that anything I put is worth their time to both read and to do.
Abigail:
So would you say that your style of writing does it change with different audiences
Edward:
It does so like for internal epic stuff that we write. So, we have, like our internal wikis that are only accessible to our employees, and in those took a to be a lot more informal and casual at times. And at the same time, there's an ability to go sort of another level deeper, actually, like, explain how the system is working under the hood. Whereas most of our customers, and the people who implement all of the stuff that we create, they don't need to know that. Because at the end of the day, they need to know that it works and works reliably. And they need to know how to make sure that the system works in the way they want it to. And so, they don't need to know all of the little quirks in the code. That may matter if you're gonna write the next piece of code building on that functionality.
Abigail:
And now, were you able to take some of the writing skills that you gained at Embry Riddle and utilize them in the workplace now?
Edward:
Oh, absolutely. So definitely, like technical writing skills that I got in the intelligence writing classes that GSIs has, were 100% invaluable. Another example that I can call on very specifically is one of the things that we discussed very heavily in Professor Bob's Dean's class was words of estimate of probability. So, these are your words for things like how likely is something to happen, sort of saying that there's a chance and so one of the things that I have been pushing for on my team is, there's always been a struggle at Epic to make sure that if we put out this new feature, people actually start using it. Because if they don't start using it, then they're not going to see the benefit of it. And so, if we just put that something can or may happen, there is a wide range of interpretation there. Now, how wide can that be, that can be anywhere between someone hearing can and thinking that it's 20 to 80% probability of seeing a benefit. So, if they read that can pessimistically when we say like, this new feature can reduce the amount of time you spend doing this workflow. If they're pessimistic about it, they're going to be questioning why they should even do it, they should move on to something that's more worth their time. So, I've been encouraging is, instead transitioning to regularly using terms like highly likely, almost certainly will. Because if we can express this value add, which a lot of our features, do have that very substantial value adds for almost all of our customers, then it's more likely for them to actually execute it. And that's just another way by focusing on what you're trying to accomplish with your writing. And trying to make sure that you are always advocating for what you want to see can be both beneficial to you and the people you write for.
Abigail:
That does make a lot of sense. So, you would say that, when you're writing would word choice for precision and conciseness play a major role in that?
Edward:
Oh, absolutely. The goal is always to be as concise as possible, especially since some of the things we have to write about are complex. And so, you have to make it simple enough that anyone who is going to read it can understand it without needing to have a full background of being like internal to our company, because otherwise, they can't take action on it. But at the same time, if you are being too like long, and you're writing and you can't be concise, then that's intimidating to a reader is not going to be looking forward to seeing paragraph after paragraph just to do this one thing. Whereas if you can explain the same thing in one paragraph, or even in a few lines, then it's a much less intimidating task.
Abigail:
And so, when you're writing, does your word choice ever change between your audience? So, say internally, do you have a major word change shift between external documents you write?
Edward:
Yeah, so external documents have to be substantially more formal. Now, at Epic, we sort of have this idea of, it's still going to be formal writing style, but it's not going to be perfectly formal. So, we have some little rules like we are actually allowed and encouraged to use common contractions, because it makes the writing feel a bit more personal. And it's okay to use the second person and address the reader directly. But there are times internally where writing is sometimes almost, you know, using that conversational writing style where it's okay to drop in words that you just use in everyday conversation, because there isn't necessarily a pressure to make sure that like that It's our image. And sometimes that allows me to write faster in those resources that do not need to be seen by our customers.
Abigail:
And so, my last question regarding writing for you today did have you noticed any big differences and the writing that you did at Embry Riddle and the writing you're doing in the workplace?
Edward:
I mean, obviously, there was the big difference in the topics. But I think the biggest similarity really quick was, the approach to writing is that if you can identify what you're doing and who you're writing for, then you're going to be a lot more successful. The biggest difference that I've seen, aside from just the nature of what I'm writing about, is probably in the turnaround time, and in the level of the writing actually matters. So, at riddle, it's okay, if you make a mistake, and even an epic, ultimately, it's okay to make a mistake. But it's important to not make a big mistake. So, what I mean by that is, I have this one release note that I wrote shortly after starting at Epic, which had a simple issue of I didn't know at the time how integrated my team's software was with the rest of the company. And so that one mistake ultimately was not one that resulted in anyone getting hurt, or any major inefficiencies. But it did lead to confusion with our customers, and the people trying to use our software, which isn't great, but it's not the end of the world. And then this led to several months of trying to find a more optimal solution as to how that note should have actually been written.
Abigail:
Okay, so would you say there's an added level of seriousness to workplace writing over college writing?
Edward:
Absolutely. Just because in college, it's okay, if you make mistakes, if your professor is being effective, they should be giving you feedback on those mistakes, and how to do better in the workplace, you should be getting all of those things as well. But now you have to remember that your writing matters more to your audience. Ultimately, at the end of the day, if you're writing for your professor, it's only really your professor who's going to see it maybe other students if your professor wants to use that as an example in the future. But if you're in the workplace, it matters, your writing is going to be very important to whoever has to read it.
Abigail:
That leads me right into my last question for you today. Do you have any advice for current eagles?
Edward:
My biggest advice is taking a look at what you study in your classes. And look at ways to apply what you learn in one class into the next now, your classes should be able to build off of each other. And they shouldn't be designed around that. But look for opportunities to take ideas that you see in one place and use them in another. I used what I learned in my writing classes, for instance, and this in particular, writing more concisely and effectively, and I had a pair of history classes, US military history from the United States inception to 1900. And then US military history from 1900. To today. And before and after the advanced writing class that we have for intelligent trading. My professor even noticed a big difference in the quality of my writing. So, like take opportunities to take lessons learned in one class and apply them to the next.
Abigail:
Right. And I'm sure that can be applied to every aspect of life not just writing, right?
Edward:
Oh, absolutely, even when I was in high school, but one of the ways that I better understood AP chemistry, and in particular, how electricity worked at the chemistry levels of scope. And even some of electricity and physics was at the time, I was also working in the metal shop and using a welder. And so, it's sort of a way to, I guess test the theories you learn about in class in a practical way.
Abigail:
And that is great advice. Thank you so much, Edward. And that wraps up this week's episode of What's the word Eagle alumni spotlights podcast. We want to give a big thank you to Edward for being on with us today. And if you're new to our podcast, you can find our previous episodes on our YouTube and Spotify as well as Apple podcasts. But that wraps up this week's episode so be sure to stay tuned for more.
[Music fades in]
Amelia:
This podcast is supported by the Department of Humanities and Communication at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona. Abigail Bradberry is our host, Matthew Haslam is our Department Chair. And I'm Amelia Chesley, Assistant Professor of Professional Writing. The intro and outro music is Wander by Aylex. Find us on Spotify or on YouTube and reach out if you are a Prescott campus alum. We'd love to feature you in a future episode.
[Music fades out]