Fighting the Non-Sexist Language Battle

Sexist language consists of various words and terms that foster stereotypes of social roles based on gender. Professional writers must keep abreast of significant changes in our language, and the issue of sexism is an integral change. Sexist language has become offensive. Sexist language is confusing.

Bourns, Tracy. Boston Broadside (1991). Articles>Writing>Diction>Gender

Final Check: Dotting Those i’s and Crossing Those t’s

You’ve worked long and hard on your article, newsletter, press release, promo brochure or report. Now it’s time to move your baby off your screen and into the world. Not so long ago your baby would have gone either onto a printed page or onto the Web. These days, your words will probably head for both. Even materials such as newsletters, white papers, reports and advertorials that are first published on paper are quite likely to be reprinted, archived or otherwise reused on the Web, perhaps even as an audio file or podcast. People may even blog about your content. What does this mean for you as a business communicator?

Canavor, Natalie and Claire Meirowitz. Communication World Bulletin (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Editing>Writing

Finding Out Who Likes What: A Research Tool Kit for Technical Communicators  

As new technologies revolutionize our communication options, technical communicators must be increasingly accountable for the outcomes of our products and messages. Research in the behavioral and cognitive sciences has provided many data tools that can be very useful to technical communicators. Techniques such as simple descriptive statistics, the Delphi method, trained observers, chi-square analysis, and aptitude/treatment interaction analysis can help technical communicators discover and document the impact of your messages by revealing what you did right, who says so, and who disagrees.

Ausburn, Lynna J. and Floyd B. Ausburn. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Research>Writing>Technical Writing

Finding the Time: When Deadlines Are Looming, Prioritizing Your Work Gets the Job Done

Professional people today work longer and harder than ever before. Find out how to make the most of a scarce resource—time.

Holland, Anton. Writer's Block (1997). Articles>Writing

The First Line of Support

Customer support costs account for as much as 60 percent of a high-tech company’s total costs. Documentation is the first line of support for most customers, and customers usually use documentation to find the answer to a problem they’re having. The inevitable result of poor or nonexistent documentation is that more people try calling the customer support lines for help.

Butow, Eric. Software Development Times (2006). Articles>Documentation>Software>Technical Writing

Five Aims and Purposes of Technical Communication

An outline about the the Processes and the Results of Technical Communication.

University of Vienna. Articles>Writing>Technical Writing

Five FAQs About Business Writing

A few style guide tips for novice business writers.

ULiveandLearn.com (2005). Articles>Writing>Style Guides>Business Communication

Five Reasons Freelancers Make More Money Writing White Papers

Are you looking to drum up some new business? Want to get more dollars from existing clients? Are you a starving writer? White paper expert Michael A. Stelzner provides the following reasons white papers could dramatically increase your writing revenue:

Stelzner, Michael A. Content Wrangler, The (2008). Articles>Freelance>Writing>White Papers

Five Steps to Developing Your Writing Brand

If you're wondering about an alternative solution for revitalizing your writing business, consider branding. It's a popular concept that you're most likely familiar with, but probably think of as a marketing strategy used only for the true brick and mortars. If so, think again.

Carmichael Jones, Sonya. Writing World (2004). Articles>Writing

The Five W's: An Old Tool for the New Task of Task Analysis    

An audience pays attention to your attempts at communication because they have certain needs that they expect you to solve. As journalists have long known, it's possible to meet the majority of an audience's need for information by answering five 'W' questions: what, who, where, when, and why. Although this approach is a core element of journalism, it has obvious applications to technical communicators, who must create information in the context of meeting an audience's needs.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Technical Communication Online (1996). Articles>Writing

Five Ways to Ensure White Paper Success

How can a business ensure that its white papers will successfully help further the sales process? Effective, high-quality white papers follow these five golden rules.

Emond, Sue and Gwyn Finnell. WhitePaperSource (2006). Articles>Writing

Fixing the Flaws in the Ten Principles of Clear Writing

More importantly, most lists of ten principles of clear writing are not really principles at all, but rather tips and technique. Understanding why you are doing something, i.e., the benefit you will gain, helps ensure that you will actually do it and do it consistently. Too often, when we are told only what to do, we follow the instruction half-heartedly, inconsistently, or not at all.

Yaffe, Philip. IEEE PCS (2008). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric>Minimalism

Fluency, Fluidity, and Word Processing  

Despite the above maxim, numerous studies have been conducted over the past five years to determine whether student compositions improve significantly with the use of a computer. As Gail Hawisher (summarizing Seymour Papert) suggests, our field is so new that we seem lobe in a technoúcentric phase comparable to the egocentric phase through which Piaget’s children must pass on the way to maturity. We are searching for “THE effect” of the computer on the product (the text) rather than “the effects” of the computer both on the writer and on the context in which the product is produced. We have already passed judgment on what the computer should do (improve the product) rather than investigate what it does do. Thus, the results of the studies conducted to date appear contradictory.

Boiarsky, Carolyn. JAC (1991). Articles>Rhetoric>Computers and Writing

Focus On WHAT You Are Going To Say

Focus all your energy on figuring out WHAT to say. Get that right and everything else will fall into place.

Usborne, Nick. ClickZ (2002). Articles>Web Design>Writing

Focus on What You're Trying to Say

Deciding on WHAT to say sounds easy, but rarely is. When you concentrate on the 'what' of the message, it makes you start asking a lot of the right questions.

Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2002). Articles>Writing

Forum Topic Titles: How To Write Them

Internet discussion forums contain topic titles that are vague, silly, amateur, too long, or too emotional. How to write clear, relevant, succinct topic titles that command attention and attract replies that can provide the answer you seek.

Streight, Steven. Blogger.com (2004). Articles>Internet>Discussion Forum>Writing

Four Things Every Web Site Headline Must Achieve

Here are four things you need to keep in mind, four elements that demand your attention, four separate ‘audiences’ you need to satisfy.

Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2003). Articles>Web Design>Writing

Four Tips on Writing a Web Site Home Page

Home pages can be tricky, simply because your page not only has its own job to do, but also has to support a group of second level pages. Here's how I approach writing home pages...whether a site has a total of ten pages or a thousand pages.

Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2006). Articles>Web Design>Writing

The Fourth 'R'

Teachers often emphasize the importance of the 'three Rs'--reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic. For people who earn a living through writing, as well as for those whose writing is a pastime, a solid grasp of the first two R's is indispensable. There is, however, a fourth 'R' critical for writers--research.

Zvalo, Peter. Writer's Block (1997). Articles>Writing

Free Terminology Management: The Better Alternative?  

In projects like 'Wikipedia', collaborative work also necessitates a common language. This was one of the reasons why a 'Wiktionary' or a 'Wikiwoerterbuch' came into being. Thus, the open source community has already set out to develop ideas for the management of terminology and its implementation.

Herwartz, Rachel. tekom (2006). Articles>Writing>Glossary>Controlled Vocabulary

The Freelance Writing FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions about Freelance Writing

Writing an article and then casting about for someone to publish it is not the efficient way to get published.

Yudkin, Marcia. Yudkin.com (2001). Articles>Writing>Journalism

Frequently Asked Questions About English

Asterisks.com answers some frequently asked questions about English usage.

Asterisks.com (1999). Articles>Writing>Style Guides

Friend or Foe? Web 2.0 in Technical Communication  

The rise of Web 2.0 technology provides a platform for user-generated content. Publishing is no longer restricted to a few technical writers—any user can now contribute information. But the information coming from users tends to be highly specific, whereas technical documentation is comprehensive but less specific. The two types of information can coexist and improve the overall user experience. User-generated content also offers an opportunity for technical writers to participate as “curators”—by evaluating and organizing the information provided by end users.

O'Keefe, Sarah S. Scriptorium (2008). Articles>Web Design>Technical Writing>Social Networking