The Writer as Trainer: How to Transfer Your Skills and Empower Others Without Losing Your Job  

Technical writing may be seen as a marginal activity without clear economic benefit to an organization. Yet writing and editing can be tied to an organization's bottom line. Writers can use training and other interventions to demonstrate their own effectiveness. Such interventions can raise the efficiency with which their organizations produce documents and improve the quality of the documents themselves. Customer-oriented organizations will be most receptive to these interventions, but even unreceptive organizations can change their practices. Successful interventions require working with others and will mean added responsibilities for the writer.

Moody, Helen. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing

A Writer's Thoughts about Technical Writing, Part 2

I have recorded episodes with two of the writers on the Microsoft VSTO UE team (McLean and Norm), and here is the third writer, Brett Samblanet. We talked about the writing process, how Brett became a writer, how school prepared him for his work, and the importance of being able to communicate well and to take criticism.

Miller, Harry. Microsoft (2006). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Audio

Writing Application Guides for Technical Products  

Application guides are a type of marketing brochure particularly well-suited to promoting technical products. Through the use of examples they explain how a technology is applied to solve problem of a similar nature. They help organize and simplify complex subjects and, therefore, make a technical product’s benefits more understandable to potential customers. Like other marketing communications, application guides require careful editing and graphical support to make them powerful and persuasive.

Bednarz, Martha C. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Documentation>Writing>Technical Writing

Writing as an Embodied Practice: The Case of Engineering Standards    

This article explores the role of embodied knowledge and embodied representation in the joint revision of a small section of a large technical document by personnel from two organizations: a city government and a consulting engineering firm. The article points to differences between the knowledge and the representation practices of personnel from the two organizations as manifested in their words and gestures during the revision task, and it points to the gestures of the city personnel as a principal means by which their greater embodied knowledge of channel easements becomes distributed across the group as a whole. The article concludes by pointing to some advantages of considering acts of writing as embodied practices and by indicating a number of related questions that should be pursued in subsequent investigations of literacy in modern workplaces.

Haas, Christina and Stephen P. Witte. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2001). Articles>Writing>Engineering>Technical Writing

Writing at the User Interstices

The most coveted writing assignment in the computer industry is the overview of an integrated software package. It calls for careful pacing, creative metaphor, and lavish graphics, all integrated with the highest skill. Here stands the pinnacle of a career, to be 'writing at the user interface.'

Oram, Andrew. Boston Broadside (1990). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>User Interface

Writing Cost-Effective Documentation for Software Systems

There are many situations when you have an application but there is no help file with it, and you have no time to write complete documentation yourself. At the same time you have no budget to hire a professional technical writer who can do this tedious work for you. Let's consider the most common of such situations.

Crane, Dennis. Dr. Explain (2007). Articles>Documentation>Writing>Technical Writing

Writing for a Global Audience? Be Careful How You Say It

Basic miscommunication can litter the path to understanding—and worse. You may recall that a few years ago the Mars Climate Orbiter failed to achieve the correct altitude for its orbit of Mars, and was destroyed by atmospheric pressure—all due to a little misunderstanding. It seems that some crucial data had been calculated in English units, while the navigation team had expected to receive metric units and used the data that way.

Canavor, Natalie and Claire Meirowitz. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>International

Writing for Technical and Business Decision-Maker Audiences  

The impact of any technical writing depends on the ability of the writer to understand and address the readers' concern, and to deliver highly usable documents that are relevant to the audience. Especially when readers make business decisions about technology, based on technical communication, writers need to develop best practices for conducting their own audience analysis and writing with audience needs in mind. This paper introduces several likely audiences a technical writer is likely to encounter and makes a few practical recommendations for communicating to them with the intended impact.

Lemoine, Chris. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Business Communication>Writing>Technical Writing

Writing Globally: Teaching Technical Writing to Hungarian Students of Translation    

Not only do students of technical writing courses need to learn how to prepare documents for translation properly, but students of translation need to learn technical and academic writing. This article gives the example of such a course taught at the Technical University of Budapest, Hungary. The course covers writing instructions and manuals, documents for scholarly and professional societies and scientific conferences, scientific papers, reports and abstracts.

Koltay, Tibor. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (1999). Articles>Language>Writing>Technical Writing

Writing Help Is...Challenging

I'll never be able to be a technical writer. How do those people do it?

Osherove, Roy. ISerializable (2003). Articles>Documentation>Technical Writing>Help

Writing in the Corporate Workplace: How to Keep Your Writing Healthy at Work

Make sure you know what you're talking about. This means understanding the big picture as well as sweating the small stuff. When interviewing subject matter experts, don't accept high-level answers to questions. Drill down to the details.

Harper, Judith. Between the Lines (2007). Articles>Business Communication>Writing>Technical Writing

Writing Material Safety Data Sheets Using the American National Standard for Hazardous Industrial Chemicals-MSDS Preparation    

This article presents the history of the ANSI standard for preparation of Material Safety Data Sheets, and then provides a section-by-section guide to preparing MSDSs that comply with the standard.

Croft, Suzanne D. Technical Communication Online (1996). Articles>Risk Communication>Standards>Technical Writing

Writing New Mexico White: A Critical Analysis of Early Representations of New Mexico in Technical Writing    

In this article, the authors analyze early technical documents produced by the New Mexico Bureau of Immigration (NMBI), including 'The Legend of Montezuma' and 'Illustrated New Mexico.' The purpose of these documents are clear: to increase the number of white Americans to create a clear white majority when New Mexico became a state and thereby prevent the Mexicans from gaining power. In analyzing these documents, the authors use theoretical frameworks from studies in the history of business and technical writing (SHBTW) and critical whiteness theory to show how early textual representations of New Mexico reproduce racist constructions of native New Mexicans and represent whiteness as the norm.

Johnson, Jennifer Ramirez, Octavio Pimentel and Charise Pimentel. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2008). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Ethnicity

Writing Off Technical Writers

The mantra of a customer-centric Information and Technology Age 'Content is King' is belied by complaints from technical writers of discrimination and organisational imbalance in favour of developers.

Aiyyangar, Ramesh. Assure Consulting (2001). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing

Writing Procedures Like a Pro: The "How To" of "How To's"   

Do you need to brush up on your procedure-writing skills? Or do you need to teach others--like clients or coworkers--these valuable skills? If procedural writing isn't your focus, keeping these skills honed is a challenge. This workshop is designed for communicators at all levels who must--in some fashion--tell people how to do something. During this highly interactive workshop, you'll find out about the differences between process descriptions and procedural writing, some tips for planning procedures, and the secrets of writing techniques for procedures. So bring your thinking cap, and join a couple of seasoned writers/instructors for this fun and informative session!

Edgerton, Rebecca J. and Jill Nicholson. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Documentation>Writing>Technical Writing

Review: The Writing System: A Step-by-Step Guide for Business and Technical Writers  

I would recommend this book to subject matter experts who lack writing expertise. The exercises and examples are especially beneficial to lone writers who often do not have an expert writer nearby to review their writing.

Jones, Irene. Technical Communication Online (2004). Articles>Reviews>Writing>Technical Writing

Writing the First Draft, Part 1

How technical writers prepare their first drafts--how they get started creating a document out of a bunch of facts and features. That's such an interesting topic I'd like to get as many people as I can to talk about how they do it.

Miller, Harry. Microsoft (2006). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing

XML Authoring: Coming to a Desktop Near You

XML for use in technical publications is growing in popularity. As the author explains, technical writers are likely to become more and more involved in XML document production in the future. This article looks at the many benefits of XML authoring and the trend that's moving technical publications toward structured content.

Abel, Scott. Writing Assistance (2007). Articles>Content Management>XML>Technical Writing

You Can't Fix What You Can't Measure: Toward Better Content Metrics  

Fenstermacher writes that while there are substantial benefits to globalized content, it is difficult to develop metrics to analyze this content. He discusses key terms and processes that can be used when considering cost-reduction strategies to get you on your way to developing your own content metrics.

Fenstermacher, Hans E. Intercom (2006). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Assessment

You Talking to Me?: Usability for Global Audiences on a Shoestring Budget  

For inexpensive usability, plan for content adaptation, presentation, access and feedback.

Bailie, Rahel Anne. STC Region 7 Proceedings (2003). Articles>Usability>Technical Writing>Localization

Your Reader

It is critically important to consider the needs of your reader when writing. If you can do this well, everything else follows naturally.

Young, V.L. and K.J. Sampson. Ohio University (2004). Articles>Rhetoric>Writing>Technical Writing

Your Role in Supporting Sales-Force Automation  

When given a user manual to write or a Web site to put together, your role as a technical communicator is clear. But what is your role when supporting sales tools? How can you help your company market their technical products? The first step to understanding your role is to understand what a sales-force automation (SFA) solution could mean to your company. This workshop defines SFA and the potential benefits. Further discussion covers deciding on an information delivery method, determining data organization and management, and identifying audience needs.

Caldanaro, Regina M. and Jodie Pait. STC Proceedings (2000). Articles>Documentation>Writing>Technical Writing

The Zen of Minimalism: Designing a Top-of-Class Manual for Beginners and Advanced Users

Can using minimalist documentation improve accuracy and learning speed for beginners as well as for advanced users? I tested this question using Microsoft Access for Windows 95 ® and three different third-party manuals explaining this product. Then I set up three main tasks for the user in a usability test. For each task, I provided the task description in blue type, and then copied the appropriate documentation in black. Documentation for each of the three tasks was reprinted from a different book.

Stieren, Carl. Simware (1998). Articles>Documentation>Technical Writing>Minimalism