#20638
Engaging and Educating Readers Through a Progressive Writing
Although technical communication documents cannot possibly be tailored to exactly match the interest, reading level and many-faceted influences of a reader, they can I believe, take measures to engage the reader to believe that the information he or she is receiving from the document is valuable to their experience in some way.
Comstock, Jeanie. Orange Journal, The (2003). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric>Technical Writing
#23341
English Department Service Courses
The service curricula in this survey include institution-wide general education courses, English courses required in addition to institution-wide general education courses for preprofessional students (those pursuing four-year or longer non-arts and sciences degrees), and other specialized preprofessional English courses, such as technical writing.
Fontane, Marilyn Stall. ADE Bulletin (1994). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing
#23330
English Professors as Technical Writers: Experience is The Best Teacher
The future of the English curriculum is being argued and discussed in academic settings across the country. Students, more and more, seek courses of study that will lead directly to jobs. The buzzword is 'relevance.' The bottom line is 'big bucks.'
Barnum, Carol M. ADE Bulletin (1983). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing
#23539
Equations must have a number in parentheses at the right of the page. Must be numbered in the order they appear. Must be able to be read as part of the text.
Young, V.L. and K.J. Sampson. Ohio University (2004). Articles>Document Design>Technical Writing>Mathematics
#22027
The essential equipment and software include a current PC -- should be a Pentium II or better -- and licensed software. Ideally, the PC should have at least 128 MB of RAM, a 19-inch monitor (min.), a high performance video card with a minimum of 64 MB of video RAM, and adequate storage for graphics and photos – at least an 80 GB hard disk. These are general specifications. Your requirements may be different depending upon what area you specialize in and to what extent you work on your own.
Tech-Writer (1996). Articles>Computing>Writing>Technical Writing
#31656
The Ethics of Technical Publishing: Trust Yourself
A researcher needs grit and self-trust to do this kind of work in the first place. Letting someone other than a ghostwriter or a reviewer do it for you will be self-defeating. An unethical deal here will corrupt you, the project, and your employer. You must finish the job in a straightforward accountable manner.
Delm, Jay. WritersWrite.com (2007). Articles>Publishing>Technical Writing>Ethics
#29774
Everything I Know About Technical Writing I Learned by Writing Fiction 
This session is about writing, that daunting task of putting nouns and verbs together to see what they can say. If you are interested in good writing, and if putting nouns and verbs together is essential to what you do for a living, or essential to what your life is about, then you may find this session valuable. We will discuss what fiction writing and technical writing have in common, and how the fiction writer's use of plot, character, narrative voice, and style may be adapted for use by the technical writer.
Ferguson, Paul F. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing
#31870
One of my earlier careers was in manufacturing management, and it grounded me in the principles of project planning and management. When I moved into technical communication, I brought my project management disciplines with me, and I embraced the prevailing tools of my new profession. I dutifully produced documentation plans in Microsoft Word and supported them with detailed project plans in Microsoft Project. However, the problem is that—like bad relationships—these artifacts never gave back results that were sufficient to reward the effort I put into creating them.
Hughes, Michael A. UXmatters (2008). Articles>Documentation>Technical Writing>Microsoft Excel
#20323
Expand Your Income by Writing for Magazines
Technical writers are well-equipped to write how-to articles for magazines. There are many markets for informational articles, and by creating a well-crafted query, a competent technical writer can get an assignment. This work is ideal for generating part-time income and it provides a more creative outlet for writers.. Getting ideas for good articles is as simple as following oneâ*™s own interests. Writing for magazines can become a lucrative â*œsecondâ** career for technical writers.
Agnew, Beth. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Writing>Scientific Communication>Technical Writing
#29351
The Expanding Dimensions of Technical Writing 
Scientific and technical writing as a profession has much greater dimensions than many people realize.
Souther, James W. CCC (1971). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Professionalism
#29647
Experiencing Technical Writing as Textual Coordination
This paper describes a recent study of how of four technical writers managed the many artifacts (existing texts and information technologies for producing and manipulating text) that mediated their writing process. The author describes the study and characterizes several recurrent patterns of mediation, including textual reuse, remediation of information, and the staging of texts and software programs. The author describes the value of a repertoire of information technologies to technical writing and argues that technological skill should be considered a core competency of the field.
Slattery, Shaun. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Writing>Technical Editing>Technical Writing
#29150
While the importance of "expressive writing," or informal, self-directed writing, has been well established, teachers underutilize it, particularly in technical writing courses. We introduce the term expressive/exploratory technical writing (XTW), which is the use of informal, self-directed writing to problem-solve in technical fields. We describe how engineering students resist writing, despite decades of research showing its importance to their careers, and we suggest that such resistance may be because most students only see writing as an audience-driven performance and thus incompletely understand the link between writing and thinking. The treatment of invention in rhetorical history supports their view. We describe two examples of using XTW in software engineering to plan programming tasks. We conclude by discussing how a systematic use of XTW could shift the technical writing curriculum, imbuing the curriculum with writing and helping students see how to problem-solve using natural language.
Warnock, Scott and Michael Kahn. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2007). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Engineering
#24197
I labeled wordiness the most obvious fault in technical writing. In retrospect, I think I was wrong. I believe the greatest fault our writing can have is vacuity, or lack of substance. We too often write words that say nothing.
Bush, Donald W. Intercom (2004). Articles>Editing>Technical Editing>Technical Writing
#24696
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
#31727
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
#22229
Five Aims and Purposes of Technical Communication
An outline about the the Processes and the Results of Technical Communication.
#27499
The Five Powers of a Champion Technical Writer 
Whenever you set a goal to achieve something, are given a work assignment or are presented with a challenge, five factors are involved in determining whether you will be successful in the activity.
Kurtus, Ron. School for Champions (2005). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing
#31579
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
#20331
From Technical Writing to Knowledge Engineering
This paper describes one writer's journey from capturing disparate bits of information as a technical writer in a large corporation to creating knowledge bases of related and evolving data, information, and knowledge. It illustrates how information development professionals can leverage their communication skills into highly-valued, interactive positions, working on teams with domain experts, information technology and information retrieval professionals, and end-users.
Knodel, Elinor L. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Writing>Knowledge Management>Technical Writing
#27901
For some time now, machines have been constructed and built using modules. i.e. encapsulated and reusable standard components. In manuals, the modular approach has only slowly been gaining acceptance. With XML and a wide variety of editing tools, the technical prerequisites for the change are by now only a matter of the individual requirements – a right solution can be found for virtually every purpose. But for technical communicators the question arises what needs to be considered when texting under these changed conditions. This language tip is intended to be a basic aspect: how can one determine whether a text component is suited as a module?
Nickl, Markus. tekom (2005). Articles>Language>Technical Writing
#25342
The Front Line of Tech Writing
Tech writing for browser-assisted online help systems does resemble 'writing for the Web' in some significant ways – but there are substantial differences, too.
Roberts, Jennifer. Contentious (1999). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing
#19648
Functional Spec Tutorial: What and Why
Functional specifications (functional specs), in the end, are the blueprint for how you want a particular web project or application to look and work. It details what the finished product will do, how a user will interact with it, and what it will look like. By creating a blueprint of the product first, time and productivity are saved during the development stage because the programmers can program instead of also working out the logic of the user-experience. It will also enable you to manage the expectations of your clients or management, as they will know exactly what to expect.
#26842
The Future of Technical Writing in India
It is not surprising that India will have to go through the process of creating academic programs in the field and you all are the evidence that this is happening.
Pathak, Pratul. TWIN. Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>India
#22132
Gender-Neutral Technical Writing
In recurring discussions on the TECHWR-L list, many technical writers argue that they write in 'correct English' and are not going to change their style just to suit the political-correctness police. 'I won't use 'they' as a singular pronoun because it's not grammatically correct' and 'Using contrived phrases such as 's/he' is just too awkward' are arguments I've heard frequently in the debate. But using 'incorrect English' or contrived phrases is neither the goal nor the outcome of gender-neutral writing.
Hollis Weber, Jean. Technical Editors Eyrie (2002). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Gender
#18650
Gender-Neutral Technical Writing
Gender-neutral writing uses language that does not stereotype either sex nor appear to be referring to only one sex when that is not the writer's intention. In this article, you'll see why gender-neutral writing is important for technical writers to use, what gender-neutral writing is not, and how you can use gender-neutral writing in the documents you develop.
Weber, Jean Hollis. STC Northeast Ohio (2002). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Gender
