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technical writing tagged articles (0-20 of 1570) ( 0.006 seconds )
- The Process of Technical Writing By: James Hunt
The technical writing process consists of four main phases. These are planning, writing, delivery, archiving...
Tags: technical writing, delivery, archiving, planning
- Great Technical Writing: Banish These Two Attitudes By: Barry Millman
Overview
Incomplete User Documents disappoint your Readers. Two attitudes of many Technical Writers result in incomplete User Documents. These two attitudes are:
. "Everyone Knows That", and
. "The User Can Figure It Out"
This article describes these attitudes and presents methods for overcoming them. The result is more effective User Documents and more satisfied Users.
1. "Everyone Knows That"
The "Everyone Knows That" attitude makes assumptions about your ...
Tags: technical writing, user manual, instruction document
- Great Technical Writing: The Two-edged Sword Of Reader Experience By: Barry Millman
Overview
When we write User Documents we rely on our Reader's/User's experience to simplify our work. This can cause problems for the Reader. This article will discuss the effects of Reader experience and how to minimize the negative effects of incompatible experience, and how to handle the writer's assumptions about the Reader.
Writer's Benefits: Relying on Reader Experience
When we write, we rely on our Reader's experience to give us a "starting point" for our User...
Tags: Technical writing user manual instruction document assumptions experience
- Great Technical Writing: Sell Your Readers On What's Important By: Barry Millman
Overview
Our humdrum, sterile headings and writing manner do little to encourage our Users to read parts of the product documentation that would be especially beneficial for them. This article presents two real-world examples, how they fail their users, and how to correct the problems.
Not the Legal & Disclaimers
Although the Legal and Disclaimer sections of your documentation are important for the protection of your company (and protection of your company should be ...
Tags: writing, user, documents, manual, instruction, guide, technical writing
- New Technical Writer: First Things To Do On The Project By: Barry Millman
OVERVIEW
You, a non-writer, have just been assigned to write the documentation for a product your company produces or markets. You may be stressed out about the assignment. Fear not! This article will get you started on the path to writing a successful document.
QUESTIONS AND NOTES
As soon as you get assigned to the documentation project you must begin to take notes and ask questions. The major goal of this early information gathering is to gain access to the sources...
Tags: technical writing, new writers, user document
- New Technical Writer: The Four Dimensions Of Your User/reader By: Barry Millman
OVERVIEW
To create an effective User Document, the writer must know who he/she is writing for. This article presents four dimensions (Skills, Attitude, Knowledge and Experience) for describing the User of your product (your Documentation Reader), and how to build a Persona that turns your generic User into an almost-real person. The article stresses the need to actually USE this information when structuring and writing your User Document.
GETTING INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR ...
Tags: technical writing, user manual, documentation, new writer
- New Technical Writer: Use The Persona To Create The Most Useful Section Of Your User Document By: Barry Millman
OVERVIEW
A good User Document includes sections on how to set up, use, and care for the product. However, to create a great User Document , the technical writer should use the Persona, generated in the analysis of the User/Reader, to create the topics for the most useful section of the User Document. This article describes this procedure.
THE MOST USEFUL SECTION OF A USER DOCUMENT
The most useful section of a User Document is the one that helps the User get what he...
Tags: technical writing, user manual, documentation, new writer
- Great Technical Writing: Improve Document Searches By: Barry Millman
OVERVIEW
Searches in User Documents (manuals, etc.) often fail because the Reader uses different words for a concept than the author uses. Since the Reader's words do not appear in the document, the document search mechanism cannot find them, resulting in frustration. This article describes a User-friendly technique for improving searches, without having to change the Users' behavior or the search software.
YOUR READERS' WORDS
People use the words that they know whe...
Tags: technical writing, user documents, document search
- New Technical Writer: Don't Confuse Your Reader With Your Words By: Barry Millman
OVERVIEW
Stop confusing your Reader with the words you use. Your Reader is trying his/her best to understand how your product works without having to figure out your writing. Here are some writing guidelines to help you stop baffling your Reader.
SAME CONCEPT: SAME WORDS
User Documents are not meant to be entertaining. Do not try to be creative, especially by using synonyms for specific concepts in your product. When you talk about a topic use the exact same wording ...
Tags: new writer, technical writing, user document, manual, confusion
- 7 Ways to Carve Out Your Niche as a Freelance Writer By: Bobbi Linkemer
As a freelance writer, would you rather use a wide-angle-lens approach to clients and editors (all things to all people) or a telephoto (focus on one subject or genre)? Let's say you want to find your special niche. Where would you start? Here are 7 suggestions.
Tags: freelance writer, technical writing, professional writing, marketing communications, finan
- Great Technical Writing: Improve Your Readers' Access With A Visual Index By: Barry Millman
OVERVIEW
People are visual creatures. They look at your product, and see, for example, a button or display. They want to find out about that control or indicator. A Visual Index is a simple but powerful document access tool that enables your Readers to find the information that they want.
This article describes the Visual Index concept and tells how to create one for your document.
A VISUAL INDEX
A Visual Index is a picture of your product or process with links to...
Tags: technical writing, document access, index, visual index
- Help Authoring on Steroids By: Robert Richardson
As a technical writer, you might have tried a countless number of help authoring tools. My recent article tells about a great product which has certainly become my favorite HAT.
Tags: Help Authoring, Help Authoring Tool, Technical Writing, Creating Help, HTML Help, Web Help
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