The Physics of Reviewers

Subject-matter experts, managers, and other reviewers tenaciously resist our nagging to review documents properly, often delaying reviews until it's too late to do a good job. It's not that they inherently oppose quality control; rather, the problem's in the amount of work required to review something thoroughly, and 'work' is a physics concept. Conveniently, reviewers--like falling objects--follow the same laws of physics as the rest of the universe, and understanding those laws helps you predict reviewer behavior and take appropriate countermeasures.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (2001). Articles>Editing>Collaboration

Policies, Procedures, and Paralysis

We live in an uncertain world, and good intentions are no guarantee of success, so we develop policies and procedures to provide ourselves with a measure of security and provide the illusion of control.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (2001). Careers>Workplace>Policies and Procedures

PowerPoint Presentations: A Speaker's Guide  

Vinton Cerf, one of the founders of the Internet, reportedly parodied the well-known quote about the cost of attaining power, observing that if power corrupts, 'PowerPointcorrupts absolutely.' Pointed though Cerf’s statement is, it places far too much blame on the software. After all, speakers must take some responsibility for their presentations. As in any other form of communication, you must decide what you’re going to say and how you plan to say it. But once that’s done, you need to use all the skills at your disposal to make the chosen medium work for you.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2004). Articles>Presentations>Rhetoric>Microsoft PowerPoint

Practical and Effective Metrics  

Discusses several issues involved in developing metrics that measure performance and identify specific problems affecting performance.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2004). Careers>Management>Assessment

Practical Tips for Improving Web Site and Intranet Usability  

There's a large body of theory available to guide Web and intranet design, but concentrating too much on theory sometimes leads designers to overlook basic things they can do to improve the usability of sites. This article presents, in no particular order, seven simple ways to make your Web site or intranet more usable.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2003). Design>Web Design>Intranets>Usability

Prescriptive Audience Analysis: Moving Beyond the Purely Descriptive

Editing and writing both require an understanding of our audience, because without that knowledge, we can't shape our words to help them easily grasp difficult concepts. To understand our audience, we do what all writers and editors do, whether consciously or unconsciously: We create an image of our audience that guides our choice of words, images, and metaphors. This image is variously known as a 'stereotype' (e.g., Schriver 1997) or a 'persona' (e.g., Graham 2001). Keeping that image in mind as we work helps us satisfy the reader's needs, but if we're not careful, it can also cause us to waste valuable time collecting information that doesn't really help us communicate.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. TECHWR-L (2005). Articles>Usability>Audience Analysis>Tropes

"Prescriptive" Audience Analysis: Moving Beyond the Purely Descriptive

Editing and writing both require an understanding of our audience, because without that knowledge, we can't shape our words to help them easily grasp difficult concepts. To understand our audience, we do what all writers and editors do, whether consciously or unconsciously: We create an image of our audience that guides our choice of words, images, and metaphors. This image is variously known as a 'stereotype' or a 'persona'. Keeping that image in mind as we work helps us satisfy the reader's needs, but if we're not careful, it can also cause us to waste valuable time collecting information that doesn't really help us communicate.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. TECHWR-L (2003). Articles>Writing>Editing>Rhetoric

Privacy Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry

For those of us who work with computers, the value of identifying ourselves to Web sites is increasingly obvious: no more retyping our name and address information, less need to memorize dozens of log-in passwords and paths to specific Web pages, less spam, and fewer irrelevant banner ads. But even those of us who appreciate the value of sharing some personal information with Web sites and those who run them are growing increasingly uncomfortable with the potential for abuse inherent in having information on our identities and preferences broadly available.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (2001). Articles>Web Design>Privacy

Privacy Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry

For those of us who regularly visit certain Web sites, the value of identifying ourselves to those sites grows quickly and painfully obvious: Accepting cookies from a Web site could potentially eliminate endlessly retyping our personal information, memorizing yet another login password, repeatedly re-customizing how a site responds to us, and enduring irrelevant information such as untargeted banner ads. But even those of us who appreciate the value of sharing personal information with Web sites and their designers have grown increasingly uncomfortable with the potential for abuse inherent in having confidential information about our identities and preferences broadly available. Even if a site isn't cracked and our private information stolen--always a risk on the Web--the site owner is bound to sell the information to commercial mailing lists, thereby guaranteeing us a lifetime supply of junk mail. Worst of all, we won't even be able to burn that junk on cold winter nights to stay warm.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. TECHWR-L (2002). Design>Web Design>Privacy

A Programming Primer  

The easiest way to gain the respect of programmers is to learn to speak their language. If you can do that, they’ll inevitably recognize the effort you've invested in learning to appreciate their work and will treat you as an equal thereafter. With that goal in mind, I present this glossary of key programming terms you should master.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2004). Articles>Language>Programming>Glossary

Prove Your Worth!  

Describes ten arguments technical writers can use to demonstrate their importance to their employers.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2001). Careers>Workplace>Assessment

Reach Out and Touch Someone

The hardest part of communication lies in the many options we have available, and how tricky it can be to pick the right option for each individual member of our audience. When we write something, whether in print or online, we try to produce something that satisfies as many readers as possible because we require a 'one size fits all' solution: we're not physically present to tailor our approach to meet each individual's needs, and so must meet a range of needs in a single document. With print, we're stuck with static text: the text can't change until we rewrite it and distribute a new version. Moving information online makes it easier to revise and distribute information, but actually updating the information still requires a writer. Are there alternatives that make it easier to reach customers with our messages?

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (2001). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Personalization

Reach Out and Touch Someone

Providing the right combination of options for each individual member of our audience through a single online document (or online document set) would be tricky indeed, but consider the potential of being able to do so--the potential for providing flexible information. Users could quickly obtain the information needed, in the medium that suits them, with the appropriate level of detail right at their fingertips. An unobtainable utopia? Perhaps not.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. TECHWR-L (2002). Design>Web Design>Personalization

Reader-Centered Documentation Provides the Necessary Context    

A features-based approach to documentation is appropriate for reference manuals, where the goal is to provide information on something the reader already knows. This article explores how to meet the needs of the reader when providing documentation for user manuals.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2007). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design

Recipe for Designing Usable Documentation

What makes documentation usable? Usable documentation accommodates the way I think. Hart summarizes his principles for define 'user-friendly documentation.'

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Usability Interface (2006). Articles>Documentation>Usability

Science and Fiction

The purpose of this article is to clarify some common misperceptions as to what science is, what science does, how science relates to technology, and how the activities of science and technology differ from the areas of informed and uninformed speculation, and how the three areas complement each other.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (1989). Articles>Technology>Scientific Communication

Scientific Documentation: Learning from Journal Articles  

Suggests that writers of technical manuals could learn a thing or two about usability from the consistent form of scientific journal articles.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2004). Articles>Document Design>Scientific Communication

Seek and Ye Shall Find--And Replace  

Offers tips on using search and replace commands in word processors.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2001). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Search

Sensitivity to Other Cultures  

Shares experiences and observations collected from working with colleagues in Asian cultures. Discusses the importance of actively working to accommodate the needs of communicators from other cultures by beginning the dialogue in their language.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2006). Articles>Collaboration>International

Shakespearean Technical Writing  

Shows how technical writers can make better use of literary devices such as metaphor and foreshadowing to produce better, and more enjoyable, documentation.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2001). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric>Tropes

So You Want to be an Editor?

Most technical communicators are hired primarily as writers and creators of information, but despite this, many of us must learn how to edit at some point. Whether the reasons are good (to prepare better first drafts for review) or bad (your employer won't pay for a full-time editorial position), the reality is inescapable: at some point you're going to have to edit your own writing or that of a colleague. The problem is that editing requires an entirely different mindset than writing, and it's difficult to make the mental shift from creating to revising.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (1998). Careers>Editing>Technical Editing

Sometimes Playing Dumb Makes Things Work Better

I've learned how to forget for a period of time that I know almost as much as my authors about their subject, and this lets me play dumb and trip over things that the author's peers and I could both figure out with a little work--or a lot of work, occasionally. Once I understand why I tripped over a particular wording, I can figure out how to fix it so that nobody else, even if they really were as idiotic as I sometimes pretend to be.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (2000). Articles>Editing

Sometimes You Really Can be Too Helpful

It's important to establish and maintain relationships with your audience: it gives you a handle on their changing needs so you can continue to meet those needs.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (2000). Articles>Documentation>Audience Analysis>Help

Speaking in Tongues: Dealing with Word's Dictionaries  

Word has powerful language tools, but if you don't understand how they work, even a simple spellcheck can pose problems. In this article, I'll discuss how to take full advantage of Word's language settings.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2004). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word

Special Needs: Editing Tables and Graphics  

Hart explains the difficulties of editing tables and graphics on-screen.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2002). Articles>Editing