#14988
Approximately "Real World" Learning with the Hybrid Model
Most workplace professionals write documents in a fairly mature way. They typically write: Independently or with collaborators, without direct or constant supervision; With frequent interaction with team members at remote locations, and not just with those at their own division or company; With computers and other electronic equipment; and With the freedom to make important decisions about project and time management, such as determining when and how to interact with others, how to collaborate with irresponsible writing partners, how to resolve unexpected problems that arise, and how to meet deadlines despite mishaps and obstacles. How can instructors of business and professional writing prepare students for the relative freedom and independence of this kind of thinking and writing?
Spilka, Rachel. Teaching With Technology Today (2002). Articles>Education>Writing>Workplace
#14438
When giving overview information, be concise. Save the details and flowing language for those that want them or have the time, but don't slow down the skimmer. This doesn't mean skip the details, just keep them from people who don't need them.
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Writing>Workplace>Technical Writing
#14461
Centering in on Professional Choices 
I examine my involvement with writing centers as an example of how we can look at the choices we’ve made within our areas of expertise to see why they attract us. In my case, the flexible, collaborative, individualized, non-evaluative, experimental, non-hierarchical, student-centered nature of writing centers is an excellent fit.
Harris, Muriel. CCC (2001). Articles>Writing>Workplace
#30554
Hone Your Professional Skills: Find Your Writer's Voice 
When concentrating on your daily tasks, you may lose track of your creative side. Discover four suggestions for how to stretch your creative muscles.
Tremmel, Martina A. Intercom (2007). Articles>Writing>Workplace
#31237
How Employee Publications Missed a Chance to Matter
About 20 years ago, employee publication editors everywhere were under assault from consultants like me who were carping about our colleagues' reluctance to move beyond reporting on employee outings, hobbies and similar fluff. On, we urged, to the serious business of directly helping our organizations win!
Nelson, Barry. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Articles>Writing>Workplace>Newsletters
#28133
A technical writer is not respected; information providers and reviewers do not understand the importance of documentation; my deadlines are not given priority. Do these statements sound familiar? Are there any solutions to these woes that will help us deliver the best output to the end-user?
Lawrence, Prema. International Journal for Technical Communication (2006). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Workplace
#14439
While parts of a document should be concise, provide detail whenever it may help the reader. Computer documents often have less total space constraints than paper documents, so the cost of providing extra details may be small. In fact, sometimes providing details can cut the cost of writing the document by saving time from writing summaries.
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Writing>Workplace
#30125
Strategies for the Lone Writer
Being the lone writer in an organization can be very rewarding, but often poses unique challenges. Some of the issues of particular concern to lone writers include training, variety of tasks, managing multiple projects, career growth, and organization concerns. In addition, the challenges facing lone writers vary greatly between self-employed lone writers and lone writers in a corporate environment, and between experienced and new lone writers.
Fleischer, Becky and Win Day. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Writing>Workplace
#18981
A Technical Writing Course Aimed at Nurturing Critical Thinking Skills
Designing effective technical documents requires insightful and well-designed thinking strategies. Experienced writers--usually good problem solvers--practice critical thinking to identify the problems arising out of conflicting goals and agendas. Problem solving starts with problem finding (Flower 1994), and critical thinking plays a vital role in achieving the resultant writing goals. This article describes the function of critical thinking and its practical application in a technical writing course in an occupational setting. A solid understanding of critical knowledge will enhance novice writers' capability of handling problems and making appropriate decisions.
Kanaoka, Masao. Cambridge Language Consultants (1999). Articles>Education>Workplace>Writing
#24573
Theorizing Structure and Agency in Workplace Writing: An Ethnomethodological Approach 
This article proposes ethnomethodology as a theoretical approach for resolving the structure-agency binary and for treating the activities of writers in organizations as simultaneously embedded in and constitutive of organizational context. Structure is defined asthose elements of social circumstances that writers orient to as relevant to their immediatewriting task. In orienting to these elements, writers reproduce them as external andconstraining social facts. The value of ethnomethodology is illustrated with data from astudy examining the social practices that surrounded the writing of an evaluation reportby two managers in an educational institution.
Schneider, Barbara. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2002). Articles>Workplace>Writing
#26694
Toward a More Productive Discussion about Instrumental Discourse
This article traces the ongoing debate surrounding instrumental discourse in technical communication scholarship and identifies steps that scholars should take to increase the efficacy of this debate.
Warnick, Quinn. Orange Journal, The (2005). Articles>Workplace>Writing
#14435
Use Heads, Subheads, and Summaries
Use standard typographic techniques and writing features that help the reader find their way through each page of your document. Titles, subtitles, bold subheads between paragraphs, and summaries help the reader find out what they would learn if they read a page or section in greater detail. Let the reader know the bottom line up front. Offer a brief introduction that lets the reader know what information is being presented.
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Writing>Workplace
#14437
Lists are short lines, and easy to skim. Since they break up nicely into chunks (one chunk per list item) they work well for organizing a related group of links. For many situations, they will work better than links scattered in a paragraph that must be read in context.
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Writing>Workplace
#14432
Newspapers are a good model from which to learn techniques for creating skimmable documents. A newspaper provides an immense amount of information that is highly skimmable. You can pick up almost any daily newspaper and in just a few minutes find the information you want: What's new? How did your home sports team do (no matter where you are in the country)? What are this paper's biases?
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Writing>Workplace
#28115
What Must Be Done to Ensure That College Students Communicate Well in Their Fields?
With the turn of a new century, it seems as though everyone has gone into the forecasting business--especially stockbrokers and academics. Our own field has marked the emerging era with a wonderful essay collection, WAC for the New Millennium (ed. McLeod, et al., NCTE 2001). In the same spirit, this panel looked to the future by reflecting on best current theory/practice (guided by the stockbrokers' caution that past performance is no guarantee of future results.) To set the stage for the discussion, the moderator briefly considered the title assigned by the conference organizers: 'What Must Be Done to Ensure That College Students Communicate Well in Their Fields?'
Youra, Steven. LLAD (2002). Articles>Education>Writing>Workplace
#14431
Word Processing vs. "Web" Documents
Reading on screen is different than reading on paper. The metaphors used for writing word processed documents do not make for easy to read screen documents. Techniques from CD-ROM's, the Web, and on-line documentation can help make web documents that are compelling to read on-screen.
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Writing>Workplace>Word Processing
#14436
Write in an inverted-pyramid style, with the conclusion first, details later. Writing with the 'punch line' first, starting with the conclusion, rather than building up to it with careful reasoning may be hard for some writers used to presenting detailed arguments orally. If you think like you are writing a newspaper or newscast, instead of telling a joke, you may find it easier.
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Writing>Workplace
#32208
Lone writers are found across all industries, as junior- and senior-level employees, contract workers and direct employees. Sometimes, they’re not even the only writers in their company, but rather are the only writers in their division with either little to no contact — or little to nothing in common — with the other writers in other company divisions.
Potsus, Whitney Beth. TechCom Manager (2006). Articles>Writing>Business Communication>Workplace
#33477
Placing Value on User Assistance
User assistance writers are often the Rodney Dangerfields of the UX world, bemoaning the fact that we don’t get any respect. I think the real problem is that user assistance folks are not particularly good at communicating the ways in which we add value to an enterprise. This column explores two models that show how user assistance adds value and how we can communicate that value to those who pay our salaries—something I would like to encourage other user assistance writers to do.
Hughes, Michael A. UXmatters (2008). Articles>Documentation>Technical Writing>Workplace
#34515
Old Media, Technical Writers, and the Evolution of Documentation
Technical writers are an important and underutilized asset to most businesses; however, I also believe that technical writers have to fundamentally alter the way they approach the problem of educating users and helping them find the answers they need before they will be properly valued by the businesses that employ them.
LugIron Software Blog (2009). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Workplace
#35086
Most people consider writing to be a creative endeavor, and in some situations, it certainly is. But creativity is not just associated with writing, art, and the humanities. Penelope Trunk broadens creativity to include problem solving too.
Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2009). Articles>Writing>Advice>Workplace
#35290
Technical Communications as a Profit Center
Those within technical communications have long argued that product documentation provides significant value in terms of a customer satisfaction and downstream savings in customer support and service. In the broader, enterprise perspective, however, documentation is generally viewed as simply one of many requirements for product launch. This perspective is often the result of the lack of visibility that is generally available into the business value contributed by product documentation. Aberdeen investigated and isolated the quantifiable business impact of technical communications makes for 165 participating companies. An analysis of this data indicates that when leveraged effectively, technical communications stands to contribute as much as a 42% increase in customer satisfaction and an associated 45% increase in product revenue. This report provides a quantified framework for understanding the potential impact on technical communications makes for business profitability as well as the best practices to adopt to drive greater value from this organization.
David Houlihan. Aberdeen Group (2009). Articles>Documentation>Workplace>Technical Writing
