Technical Writing, a form of technical communication, is a style of formal writing and business communication, used in fields as diverse as computer hardware and software, chemistry, the aerospace industry, robotics, finance, consumer electronics, and biotechnology. Good technical writing clarifies technical jargon; that is, it presents useful information that is clear and easy to understand for the intended audience.
#28342
After ensuring that content is useful, well-written, and in a format that is suitable for the Web, it is important to ensure that the information is clearly organized. In some cases, the content on a site can be organized in multiple ways to accommodate multiple audiences. Organizing content includes putting critical information near the top of the site, grouping related elements, and ensuring that all necessary information is available without slowing the user with unneeded information. Content should be formatted to facilitate scanning, and to enable quick understanding.
Usability.gov (2006). Design>Information Design>Web Design>Writing
#10233
Contentious is a Web-zine for writers, editors, and others who create content for online media – Web sites, e-mail publications, intranets, and so on. These people view online media not simply as a new way to practice their skills, but as a way to make a living. Also, they primarily are concerned with what online venues have to say, and how well they say it. The design, coding, and technologies used to present information online are, for these readers, of secondary importance (although often these topics are closely related to content).
#13508
Contexts and Criteria for Evaluating Student Writing 
Of all responsibilities you have as a composition instructor, evaluating student writing occupies most of your time and has furthest reaching material effects. Though you may spend lots of hours preparing for class, conferencing with your students, and actually teaching, chances are you'll spend many more grading. Though we instructors often place the highest value on the content and methods of our classrooms--be they critical pedagogy and Marxist interpretations of Clinton's impeachment trials or traditional grammar drills and a New Critical reading of Paradise Lost, the grades that we assign our students are the only concrete, as well as the most valuable, cultural capital that our teaching creates.
Hindman, Jane. Lore (2001). Articles>Education>Writing>Rhetoric
#31787
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
#20760
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
#22231
Contracts: An Introduction to the Skills of Legal Writing and Analysis 
Contracts is a computer program designed for first year undergraduates studying Obligations in Glasgow University's School of Law, written by Paul Maharg and Professor Joe Thomson. It aims to improve students' written work.
#13842
A Contrary View of the Technical Writing Classroom: Notes Toward Future Discussion 
Rather than acting as training departments for students’ future employers (a mission reflected in most textbooks and journal scholarship), technical writing programs should be teaching skepticism, critical thinking, and paradigm-breaking. They should be highlighting the agendas and “narratives” inherent in any text, rather than sustaining a positivist faith in neutrality and objectivity, because students who understand the power of language to shape the workplace (not simply to transmit information) turn out to be the most effective, most successful professionals. This article questions the widespread, largely uncritical importing of corporate paradigms into the technical writing classroom and calls for the university to remain separate from the corporation in its purpose. The article goes on to describe a recently developed senior seminar that challenges students’ assumptions about scientific and technical writing, including their own. Through courses like this, it is hoped that students will enter their professions as savvy, questioning thinkers rather than simply as efficient, problem-solving doers.
Bushnell, Jack. Technical Communication Quarterly (1999). Articles>Education>Writing
#27339
Control the pace of the story by varying sentence length.
Clark, Roy Peter. Poynter Online (2004). Articles>Writing>Grammar>Rhetoric
#24105
Conversation by Blog: Expanding Personal Technology into the Academic Community
In the last two years, individuals on the Web have begun to maintain personal Web sites which are referred to as Weblogs (blogs). A blog is distinct from other forms of electronic documentation in that it functions as a public, electronic diary, consisting of short, frequently-updated personal reflections and reports of activity. A typical blog is composed of daily entries of no more than a paragraph. Blogs are often accompanied by and supplemented with image galleries, curricula vitae, and archives of past postings. Blogs are also subject to trends: for example, many blogs in December include Christmas wish lists. Like e-mail and unlike other traditional forms of publication, blogs often include a comments feature which allows the reader to engage in discussion with the blog's writer and other readers by directly attaching a posting to the daily or topical entry. Although this approach to Web site design has been widely adopted by technophiles under the age of thirty, it also holds promise as a mechanism for a conversational form of knowledge development that previous technologies have not readily facilitated. This paper outlines the potential expansion of the blog as a venue for professional and philosophical discussion by the visual communication design community and other similar professional groups.
Radzikowska, Milena. University of Alberta (2003). Articles>Writing>Online>Blogging
#25492
Conversations in the Blogosphere: An Analysis "From the Bottom Up"
The 'blogosphere' has been claimed to be a densely interconnected conversation, with bloggers linking to other bloggers, referring to them in their entries, and postingcomments on each other's blogs. Most such characterizations have privileged a subset of popular blogs, known asthe 'A-list.' This study empirically investigates the extent to which, and in what patterns, blogs are interconnected, taking as its point of departure randomly-selected blogs. Quantitative social network analysis, visualization of linkpatterns, and qualitative analysis of references and comments in pairs of reciprocally-linked blogs show thatA-list blogs are overrepresented and central in the network, although other groupings of blogs are moredensely interconnected. At the same time, a majority of blogs link sparsely or not at all to other blogs in the sam-ple, suggesting that the blogosphere is partially interconnected and sporadically conversational.
Herring, Susan C., Inna Kouper, John C. Paolillo, Lois Ann Scheidt,Michael Tyworth, Peter Welsch, Elijah Wright and Ning Yu. (We)blog Research on Genre Project, The (2005). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Blogging
#15051
Conversations: Computer-Mediated Dialogue, Multi-logue, and Learning
The purpose of this [text] is to argue in favor of a 'pedagogy of textual conversation,' a pedagogy made possible in large part by electronic technology, by computer mediated communication. Informing the argument is a deep philosophical commitment to conversation itself as the primary mode of meaning-making in both social and personal life. Material presented in support of the main argument is drawn from current and past pedagogical and communications theory as well as from ethnographic research conducted in the fall semester of 1994 in which students in an English composition class were linked to students in an education class via a single VAX electronic conference. Actual experiences in the electronic medium are forwarded to suggest that those who engage in extensive textual conversation with one another benefit from improved rhetorical skills, understanding of course content, the ability to make connections between ideas, and a liberalization of ideological views. But this [book] is not meant only to argue this issue in a classical or academically authorized sense, i.e., as a monological exercise of logic and reason with its inevitable linear development and closure. It is meant also to enact a conversational model. Thus it is a hybrid form of writing, a fugue-like composition which, like its musical counterpart is a polyphonic (multi-vocal) composition based upon several related, but different themes enunciated by several voices or parts in turn, subjected to contrapuntal treatment, and which gradually builds up into a complex form having distinct divisions or stages marked at the end by an open-ended climax rather than a conclusion. In other words, the work as a whole is in great part the subject of itself.
Baldwin, Beth W. RhetNet (1997). Books>Writing>Computers and Writing
#24592
Converting Print Read to Web Scan Text
Web sites are full of print media text. Shame on them. Users are in a hurry. They hate dense blocks of lengthy blabbering. They ignore most text on their hunt for Relevant Content. Find out how to convert Print Read text into easily consumed information for the web.
Streight, Steven. Blogger.com (2004). Articles>Web Design>Scanning>Writing
#11891
Converting Science News for the Web
With the Internet emerging as a primary newsgathering source, many traditional media outlets have converted their products for online viewing. This paper explores how two science news magazines, New Scientist and Science News, have approached this challenge. Elements of hyptertext theory are also included.
Carsten, Laura D. EServer (2001). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Scientific Communication
#20553
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
#28081
Corporate Blogging and the Technical Writer
Corporate blogging is rapidly becoming another way for companies to communicate with their customers and increase internal communication. Learn about the advantages and future of blogging and how to get started.
Johnson, Tom H. Intercom (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Writing>Blogging
#27731
Research on the state of corporate writing and its impact on organisational health has revealed that the quality of writing is in bad shape, and that this matters a lot.
#27732
On average two thirds of employees spend approximately 80% of their time writing emails and other documents at work.
#23456
Council of Science Editors: Reference Links
Links to thousands of reference sites, most of which relate to science writing.
CSE (2004). Reference>Writing>Scientific Communication>HTML
#27594
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
#27964
A selection of writing samples for cover letters, CVs and resumes.
#30360
This site is for anyone who is interested in technical writing, proofreading, creative writing, or teaching.
Leigh, Heather. Crazy for Words (2007). Resources>Writing>Technical Writing>Blogs
#25949
Create Effective Brochures (Paper-Based and On-Line)
In business circles, the value of brochures is a topic of endless debate. Are they effective marketing tools, or a waste of time and resources? The answer is that it depends very much on how they're designed.
#22742
Creating a New Microsoft Word Template
When you open a new file in Word, the font is probably set to Times Roman size 12. It doesn’t have to be like this; maybe you’d prefer a more glamourous font! In this tutorial, we'll explain how to create a new Word template.
#14523
Creating A Paradigm Shift In Managers And Professionals Who Use Standards
Organizational standards are often just a set of documents put into place for auditors or regulatory bodies. In such instances, the standards usually do not reflect current practices, which are passed along by word-of-mouth. Unfortunately, even if the information is up-to-date, it may not be easily retrievable by the person in immediate need of it. In a hospital setting, this situation can be extremely costly. It can also provide immense opportunities for the technical communicator to become a vital part of a cross-functional team.
Richardson, Verna. STC Proceedings (1994). Presentations>Writing>Policies and Procedures
#19450
Creating a Writer's Identity on the Boundaries of Two Communities of Practice
In this case study, we explore the way one student, who aspired to become a professional writer, learned through her writing activity in two communities: academia and public relations. We use activity theory to conceptualize the student's learning as an activity that balances between individual agency in meaning making and the social, historical and cultural forces that shape how individuals make meaning. Perceiving the two settings as communities of practice that provided opportunities for pursuing shared enterprises and engaging in collective learning, we show how the student's simultaneous participation in these contrasting communities challenged and refined her understanding of what it means to be an effective writer . We discuss how the work she engaged in on the boundaries of two writing communities enhanced her developing identity as a professional writer as she became aware of and tested the limitations of writing in these two communities. Our study shows the benefit of providing opportunities for teachers and students to explore how contrasting communities of practice define successful writing activity and how writing activity operates in the cultural and political sphere of each community.
Ketter, Jean and Judy Hunter. WAC Clearinghouse (2002). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric
