Communication in Technology Transfer and Diffusion: Defining the Field    

Provides an introduction to our field’s connections with technology transfer and diffusion. Technology transfer, the complex social process that moves technology from bench to market, drives global economic growth; technology diffusion, the market-driven process by which innovations are adopted and implemented, follows similar patterns. Indeed, technology transfer and diffusion may be considered synonymous with the phenomenon of growth in a global economy.

Coppola, Nancy W. Technical Communication Quarterly (2006). Articles>Communication>Technology>Technical Writing

Composing Organically With Reader Engagement: The CORE Method  

The CORE method of teaching technical writing begins with a short core document and builds up from there. The method follows advances in writing technology and pedagogy, realizing the advantages of computer-assisted writing as well as the 'process' approach to teaching composition. The workshop creates opportunities for participants to evaluate the CORE method and apply it to their own teaching or training tasks.

Killingsworth, M. Jimmie. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing

Conciseness is Key to Good Technical Documentation

One of the most important and difficult parts of technical documentation concerns writing in a concise manner. Technical writing is different than writing fiction or magazine articles, where a mood may be set or--in some cases--where space must be filled. (People seldom buy thin books.)

Kurtus, Ron. School for Champions (2005). Articles>Document Design>Technical Writing>Minimalism

Confessions of a Technical Author: What Can Technical Communicators Learn from David Ogilvy?

David Ogilvy was an advertising genius who distilled his successful concepts and techniques into a bestselling book I've just finished reading, called "Confessions of an Advertising Man". I wanted to read his book, because I often find it useful to look at other professions and ask whether their ideas could be applied to the world of technical authoring.

Pratt, Ellis. Cherryleaf (2008). Articles>TC>Writing>Technical Writing

Consideration Layer Model

As a technical writer, every decision you make is influenced by several discrete things, considerations for either the audience of the information, the process you’ll need to follow to collate and verify the information, and so on. Every decision requires such considerations but is it possible to model these?

One Man Writes (2008). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Theory

Contextualize Technical Writing Assessment to Better Prepare Students for Workplace Writing: Student-Centered Assessment Instruments    

To teach students how to write for the workplace and other professional contexts, technical writing teachers often assign writing tasks that reflect real-life communication contexts, a teaching approach that is grounded in the field's contextualized understanding of genre. This article argues to fully embrace contextualized literacy and better teach workplace writing, technical writing teachers also need to contextualize how they assess student writing. To this end, this article examines some of workplaces' best assessment practices and critically integrates them into an introductory technical writing classroom through a method called student-centered assessment instruments. This method engages students, as workplaces engage employees, in the assessment process to identify local requirements for writing tasks. Aligned with theory and practice, this method is not only an effective classroom assessment method, but becomes an integrated part of students' genre-learning process within and beyond the classroom.

Yu, Han. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2008). Articles>Education>Technical Writing>Assessment

Contracting and Consulting for Policies and Procedures Engagements  

As the number of persons employed by some U.S. organizations declined since the late 1980s, so have employment opportunities for Policies & Procedures (P&P) practitioners. During this period, the number of contractors and consultants has increased to meet the needs of newly changed organizations. A useful way for P&P practitioners to learn how they can provide contracting and consulting services is to understand three roles in leveraging such services: an extra pair of hands, expert, and collaborator.

Urgo, Raymond E. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Business Communication>Policies and Procedures>Technical Writing

Converting to Information Mapping: A Case Study  

Cisco Systems, Inc., uses electronic media as the primary delivery means for customer documentation and training. Information Mapping® techniques are being developed as a methodology for creating and linking modules of customer information. After selecting the Information Mapping methodology, we found it necessary to customize it for our needs. To implement Information Mapping methodology, we defined a system architecture consisting of three main subsystems: a document management subsystem, an authoring environment, and a publishing or delivery subsystem, In parallel with the customization and development of a system architecture, several writers began to implement the Information Mapping techniques to provide content to be put into the system being developed.

Garrett, Aviva, Haggai Mark and Jan Johnston-Tyler. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Documentation>Writing>Technical Writing

Course Design and Content Organization: A Psychological Perspective

While a lot of effort is spent on designing an effective structure of the course, individual memory is seemingly the more untouched and somehow neglected aspect of our efforts to develop effective learning solutions. There is a need to add a psychological perspective of memory and retention/recollection to the way we design learning solutions.

Singh, Atul. KeyContent.org (2006). Articles>Communication>Technical Writing

Creating Professional Documentation with Linux Tools

While Linux lacks standard Windows tools such as FrameMaker, RoboHelp, and WebWorks Publisher, it's still a viable environment for technical writers. Linux users can take advantage of a number of documentation tools, including both free or open source software (FOSS) and proprietary software. All of them give technical writers the ability to author and publish professional documentation.

Nesbitt, Scott. Linux.com (2006). Articles>Documentation>Technical Writing>Linux

Creating User-Friendly Documentation

We often hear that users do not read documents. To lure readers into reading our documents, we must make documents user-friendly.

Bhatia, Neeraj. Indus (2002). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design>Technical Writing

Creating World-Class Documents

The world chooses India for software development. But this is not true for documentation. Having written User Manuals and Online Help mainly for software exports companies for the last 15 years, I can claim to have written for the world market.

Kamath, Gurudutt R. IT People (2003). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>India

A Critical Assessment of the Minimalist Approach to Documentation  

Carroll's (1991) minimal manual has been considered an important advance in teaching first-time users the basics of computer programs. Unfortunately, it is not very clear what minimalism really means. Practitioners, for example, will find it difficult to create their own minimal manual because the principles of minimalism have not been described in enough detail (see Horn, 1992; Tripp, 1990). It is also not yet settled that a minimalist approach is the most effective one because critical experiments have hardly been conducted. This study therefore closely examines the minimalist principles and claims. This paper describes the basic ideas of minimalism, its design principles and how they can be operationalized. A parallel is drawn between a minimalist and constructivist perspective on learning and instruction. Like minimalism, constructivism places a high value on experience-based learning in context-rich environments. Like minimalism, it stresses the need to capitalize on the learner's prior knowledge as much as possible. And like minimalism, constructivists urge learners to follow their own plans and goals, to make inferences, and to abstract principles from what they experience (see Duffy & Jonassen, 1991, 1992). An experiment is reported that examines the claims of minimalism. Strong and significant gains on several factors were found, all favoring the minimal manual over a control (conventional) manual. The discussion points to several issues that minimalism has yet to address.

van der Meij, Hans. ACM SIGDOC (1998). Articles>Documentation>Technical Writing>Minimalism

Current Status Of Business And Technical Writing Courses In English Departments

We have heard a great deal of talk in recent years about the growth of business and technical writing courses in English departments. But very little, if any, factual information exists on how much enrollments have grown and whether they are expected to grow in the near future. Furthermore, no study has attempted to assess the impact these relatively new, rapidly expanding courses are having and will continue to have on English departments and their faculty members.

Rivers, William E. ADE Bulletin (1985). Articles>Education>Business Communication>Technical Writing

A Curriculum for a Corporate Technical Writing Department: Providing Cost-Effective, Ongoing, Quality Training  

This paper develops a cost-effective, ongoing, process-oriented writing curriculum for a technical writing department. This curriculum meets the needs of adult learners and the corporation and provides training for all experience and expertise levels while also allowing writers to meet the demands of their projects.

Gyure, Gloria M.D. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing

Deadly Sins of Technical Writing  

Some technical writers enter the field with strong writing backgrounds and moderate technical backgrounds. Others enter the field with strong technical backgrounds and moderate writing skills. This workshop is designed to help the latter group polish their writing skills.

Cox, Donna H. and Loretta F. Albert. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing

Deadwood Phrases

Deadwood phrases are found in all types of writing. In technical writing they are to be avoided at all costs as documentation needs to be crisp, concise and accurate.

Klariti. Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Minimalism

The Death of the Technical Author?

Technical Authors do not have high prominence in the workplace, and they don't have the best of images (as can be seen by the movie 'The Technical Writer'). Today, there are a number of Technical Authors struggling to find new employment in the current IT sector, and one can find messages on Internet newsgroups questioning the future employment prospects for Technical Authors in North America and Europe. Some wonder whether the role of the Technical Author will disappear, like other careers have in the past. In this article we look at the problems faced by Technical Authors in defining their role, and make some recommendations for the future.

Birn, William. Cherryleaf (2003). Articles>Writing>Professionalism>Technical Writing

Demand for Writers is High, 'Technically'

Today, the demand for technical writers in India is rapidly rising.

Times of India (2003). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>India

Designing and Writing to Reduce User Errors

A vast majority of documents (I consider print and online as documentation) often works to define the optimized error-free method of performing a task and provides a user with a straightforward solution. However, the user expects documentation to help solve problems and address errors. Thus, attention must be paid to potential problems users can have and how to correct them. Errors have different causes; the information designer should understand the potential types of errors since properly addressing each type requires a different approach in the design and documentation.

Albers, Michael J. WritersUA (2004). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Usability

Designing and Writing to Reduce User Errors  

A vast majority of documents (I consider print and online as documentation) often works to define the optimized error-free method of performing a task and provides a user with a straightforward solution. However, the user expects documentation to help solve problems and address errors. Thus, attention must be paid to potential problems users can have and how to correct them. Errors have different causes; the information designer should understand the potential types of errors since properly addressing each type requires a different approach in the design and documentation.

Albers, Michael J. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Documentation>Writing>Technical Writing

Developing a Web-Based Tutorial in RoboHelp

The very first thing you should do in developing a tutorial is to be familiar enough with the subject matter that you can write the content.

School for Champions (2005). Articles>Documentation>Writing>Technical Writing

Developing Indexes

As a technical writer, you'll typically have to create indexes for the print books and for online helps you develop. The type of index we mean here is the classic back-of-book index that shows page numbers on which topics and subtopics occur within the book. An online index is much the same except that you supply hypertext links rather than page numbers.

McMurrey, David A. Illuminati Online (2004). Articles>Editing>Indexing>Technical Writing