#31608
The Literacy Alarm: It's Everyone's Problem
Between 21 and 23 percent of Americans (40 million) are functioning at Level 1 literacy rating, defined simply as "not having adequate reading skills for daily life." The rate for California is 24 %, for Orange County, 20%. These are people who cannot read, must struggle to read, or cannot cope with unfamiliar or complex information.
DuBay, William H. Impact Information (2004). Articles>Writing>Literacy
#26166
Local Input Critical for Global Web Content Success
Let's face it. People on the web are only out for themselves. They come to your site, and you have a time window of less than 30 seconds to convince them to stay.
Iler, Huiping. WTB Language Group (2005). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#27705
The Lone Ranger as Technical Writing Program Administrator 
The popularity of technical writing and communication has caused many colleges and universities to scramble to hire qualified tenure-track faculty members. So-called lone ranger candidates are often lured to workplaces in which they are the sole technical writing faculty members by promises of autonomy and the ability to develop programs in ways, and at a pace, that would not necessarily be possible at other institutions. This article explores challenges faced by several such lone ranger faculty members and outlines survival strategies that may help lone rangers sustain and build their technical writing programs.
Sapp, David Alan. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2006). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing
#24110
I've alternatively praised both long and short copy. In some columns, I have extolled the personal touch you can achieve through longer, more conversational text. In others I have pointed out that short, active text is your best bet for directing readers and maximizing conversion rates. There's no real contradiction here. Sometimes long copy will do the best job for you; other times you'll be better off using short copy.
Usborne, Nick. ClickZ (2003). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#24133
Why doesn't everyone determine copy length based on the needs and expectations of his site visitors?
Usborne, Nick. ClickZ (2001). Articles>Writing>Business Communication
#30194
Long vs. Short Articles as Content Strategy
Information foraging shows how to calculate your content strategy's costs and benefits. A mixed diet that combines brief overviews and comprehensive coverage is often best.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2007). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Writing
#20797
Look at Common Style Differences in Choosing Manuals
Style manuals often differ on important points, and one way to choose a manual is to compare them on some of those points.
#26955
Look Out Hollywood? Here Come the Technical Writers 
Have you heard it said that technical writing quashes your ability to be a creative writer? Do you ever think that you've trained yourself to do your day job so well that you can no longer produce something in an artistic vein in your spare time? If so, you might want to consider trying your hand at screenwriting! There are many reasons why someone who excels at technical writing might find screenwriting to be a good creative outlet.
Bronson, Lisa M. TECHWR-L (2005). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Screenwriting
#19521
Looking into the Future: The Role of the Technical Communicator in On-Line Report Design 
Corporations are rapidly moving vast quantities of information onto intranets. In order for that information to be usable by corporate decision makers the format of traditional reports needs to change. Corporate reports must reflect information needs and not just provide a dump of available data. Their design must change from static dumps of information to an on-line highly adaptable format that connects relevant information into an integrated whole. Part of making the change means careful audience and task analysis to determine what reader¡¯s information needs. Technical communicators are uniquely skilled to handle this phase of on-line report design.
Albers, Michael J. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Writing>Reports>Online
#30764
Low Bandwidth and the Highs of Web Design
The emergence of Internet was, and still is a fascinating thing to happen in technology firmament. The ease and the comforts of connecting to people, defying geographical boundaries, and getting a global audience for businesses were unparalleled -- first of its kind ever. So wonderful a thing has, unfortunately, got its share of woes -- the connection speed. The bandwidth of Internet connectivity was considerable at the time when it was entirely new to the world. The newness of the medium did not let it know to the excited lots of users and beneficiaries. Gradually, when people wished for more speed, they earnestly expected that things will turn favorable in the times ahead. Strategy is not something entirely applicable to chart out the direction of a corporation. Yeah, Your web design has to be strategized as well if you wish to serve your target audience in business friendly manner.
Azam, Rahbre. Amateur Writerz (2008). Articles>Web Design>Technical Writing>User Centered Design
#10788
The M-Factors: Qualities that Help You Break Into Major Magazines
Every magazine has a distinctive voice and particular story and style preferences, but five characteristics appeared to be widely valued.
#25786
Maintaining Staff Writing Skills
Use these five tips to reinforce the use of good writing strategies at work.
ULiveandLearn.com (2005). Articles>Writing>Business Communication
#18182
People are more likely to read a short passage of text than a long one, especially if they have to make an extra effort, like scrolling, to do it. Onscreen text is more difficult and time consuming to read than hardcopy text, which makes people even less likely to thoroughly read long sections of text on a computer.
Communication Circle, The (1998). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#32060
Make Your Content Work for You: Creating and Promoting Viral Content
With the cost of quality traffic rising and reaching and maintaining top search engine position becoming more and more difficult as EVERYONE is moving to the net, viral content blows up one of the most spouted off cliche of all time… “NOTHING IS FREE”. The exposure and added traffic that an amazing piece of content can generate is free. That’s the beauty… with a truly viral piece of content, everyone else does your promotion for you, letting you sit back and enjoy the ride.
Robbins, Kyle. ReEncoded (2008). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Rhetoric
#22597
Some of the biggest opportunities in technical writing are in proposal and grant writing. In fact, an American company wanted me to write proposals for them. But I refused saying that I had no experience. Of course, I lost money and a “golden opportunity”. You need not miss out on such an opportunity. If you know English and have some report writing skills, you can become a proposal writer. In India, grant writing or writing reports for grants or funding is not very popular. But in the US grant writing is big business. Technical writers are making big money writing grants and proposals. Typically, departments in universities want funding for their projects. These could come from corporations, trusts, and individuals. How do you convince them to fund your projects? That is what grant writing is about.
Kamath, Gurudutt R. IT People (2000). Articles>Grants>Proposals>Writing
#31646
Teaching writing to engineering students representing Indian, Middle Eastern, Asian, and American cultures can be daunting as their cultural perceptions of time, gender, source of authority, individualism and risk taking, affect learning styles. However, despite cultural differences, many International students have no difficulty with much of American instruction and, in some cases, perform better than American students. Their ability to adapt to American instruction appears to depend primarily on the educational goals of their cultures.
Boiarsky, Carolyn. IEEE PCS (2008). Articles>Education>Technical Writing>Engineering
#23732
Making Documentation Accessible to Users With Disabilities
Good documentation takes into account the needs of people with disabilities. Such documentation is termed 'accessible' and provides support for the assistive technologies used by people with disabilities. For example, accessible documentation provides a text equivalent for each graphic element, such as a picture, flow diagram, or icon. This provision is necessary for users who rely on screen readers to read the documentation.
Chappell, Gail B. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Documentation>Accessibility>Technical Writing
#24423
Making Product Information an Integral Part of the Development Process
Document inspections formalize the document review process and encourage the full participation of technical developers in the documentation development process. A document inspection consists of three parts: a briefing meeting, a desk review, and a recording meeting. At the briefing meeting, you state your requirements for the inspection process. During the desk review, the technical developers review your document. At the recording meeting, you review the comments made by the technical developers, and as a group decide on appropriate resolutions.
Hildebrand-Lund, Ruth. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Documentation>Workflow>Technical Writing
#20468
When we are trying to communicate complicated ideas, it is important to be specific. One way to ensure that you will not be misunderstood is to look at your use of 'scope'. 'Scope' refers to which words go with which to form a 'sense unit' in a sentence; for example, which nouns are covered by a particular verb or preposition. Often, poor punctuation or poor sentence construction messes the scope up. Scope isn't easy to explain, but you can get a handle on it once you have seen a few examples of how it works.
#22259
Making Sense of Step-by-Step Procedures
Procedural instructions that consist of only a sequence of steps will probably be executable, but nevertheless 'meaningless' to users of technical devices. This paper discusses three features that can make procedural instructions more meaningful: adding functional coordinating information, adding information about the use of the technical device in real life, and adding operational information about how the device works. The research literature supports the effectiveness of the first feature, but offers little evidence that real life elements enhance understanding of instructions. As for operational information, the research suggests that users are willing to read it, and that it contributes to better understanding and performance in the long term, but only if it is closely related to the procedure. As a conclusion, we propose a theoretical framework that assumes three levels of mental representation of instructions: syntactical, semantic, and situational.
Steehouder, Michael F., Joyce Karreman and Nicole Ummelen. ACM SIGDOC (2000). Articles>Documentation>Rhetoric>Technical Writing
#21063
Words, graphics, and photographs are the tools used to communicate with customers, and a Web site is one way to deliver that message. We need to choose our words carefully.
Allen, Cliff. Allen.com (2001). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#31129
Making the Writing "Easy to Scan"
Give the reader the ability to quickly peruse the information presented and extract the information they need. For example, if there is a lot of information, and the reader is required to scroll the screen to see content 'below the fold', an overview would probably be a very good idea. Contrariwise, if the article is short, and can be quickly scanned (especially if you can do so without scrolling the page), providing an overview might be counterproductive.
Rockley Group, The (2008). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#27974
Managing the TWI Mailing List: As Tough as it Gets
The success or failure of any mailing list depends entirely on its members - as in how effectively can they contribute on the list or how diligently can they enhance the quality of ongoing discussions. If you watch closely, the level of discussions combined with the maturity of posters is what characterizes these mailing lists to a large extent. For instance, take a firsthand look at Technical Writers India mailing list or TWI, as it is popularly called.
Prabhakar, Rahul. Blogspot (2006). Articles>Documentation>Technical Writing
#10703
When you are assigned to a writing project, you must be sure you are doing what is really wanted or needed. You also need to know how long the job will take and need to follow some general project management methods, as applied to a writing assignment. An important part of managing a writing project is documenting all the requirements and initial factors. You should also document your progress, the outcome and lessons learned. This will help you in this project and in future writing projects.
Kurtus, Ron. School for Champions (2000). Articles>Writing
#19740
Writing is popularly considered a spontaneous exercise, and often is. Spontaneous writing, however, does not always result in high quality results.
Aiyyangar, Ramesh. Indus (2002). Articles>Writing>Collaboration>Technical Writing
