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.
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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
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Five Questions to Ask Yourself While Creating a New Documentation Department
Being asked to take the reins of a brand new documentation department is a challenge that many professional technical writers relish, even though the training and development activities they participated in may never have prepared them for such a rewarding challenge. This article looks at forming a new documentation department and determining what's needed, when it's needed and what resources are available to help the new department carry out its mission.
Butow, Eric. Writing Assistance (2006). Careers>Management>Documentation>Technical Writing
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Five Reasons Freelancers Make More Money Writing White Papers
Are you looking to drum up some new business? Want to get more dollars from existing clients? Are you a starving writer? White paper expert Michael A. Stelzner provides the following reasons white papers could dramatically increase your writing revenue:
Stelzner, Michael A. Content Wrangler, The (2008). Articles>Freelance>Writing>White Papers
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Five Reasons Why I Write for a Living
This article isn’t so much about copywriting itself, but about the reasons why I choose to write for a living.
Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2004). Careers>Writing
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Five Steps to Developing Your Writing Brand
If you're wondering about an alternative solution for revitalizing your writing business, consider branding. It's a popular concept that you're most likely familiar with, but probably think of as a marketing strategy used only for the true brick and mortars. If so, think again.
Carmichael Jones, Sonya. Writing World (2004). Articles>Writing
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The Five W's: An Old Tool for the New Task of Task Analysis 
An audience pays attention to your attempts at communication because they have certain needs that they expect you to solve. As journalists have long known, it's possible to meet the majority of an audience's need for information by answering five 'W' questions: what, who, where, when, and why. Although this approach is a core element of journalism, it has obvious applications to technical communicators, who must create information in the context of meeting an audience's needs.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Technical Communication Online (1996). Articles>Writing
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Five Ways to Ensure White Paper Success
How can a business ensure that its white papers will successfully help further the sales process? Effective, high-quality white papers follow these five golden rules.
Emond, Sue and Gwyn Finnell. WhitePaperSource (2006). Articles>Writing
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Fixing the Flaws in the Ten Principles of Clear Writing
More importantly, most lists of ten principles of clear writing are not really principles at all, but rather tips and technique. Understanding why you are doing something, i.e., the benefit you will gain, helps ensure that you will actually do it and do it consistently. Too often, when we are told only what to do, we follow the instruction half-heartedly, inconsistently, or not at all.
Yaffe, Philip. IEEE PCS (2008). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric>Minimalism
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Fluency, Fluidity, and Word Processing
Despite the above maxim, numerous studies have been conducted over the past five years to determine whether student compositions improve significantly with the use of a computer. As Gail Hawisher (summarizing Seymour Papert) suggests, our field is so new that we seem lobe in a technoúcentric phase comparable to the egocentric phase through which Piaget’s children must pass on the way to maturity. We are searching for “THE effect” of the computer on the product (the text) rather than “the effects” of the computer both on the writer and on the context in which the product is produced. We have already passed judgment on what the computer should do (improve the product) rather than investigate what it does do. Thus, the results of the studies conducted to date appear contradictory.
Boiarsky, Carolyn. JAC (1991). Articles>Rhetoric>Computers and Writing
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Focus On WHAT You Are Going To Say
Focus all your energy on figuring out WHAT to say. Get that right and everything else will fall into place.
Usborne, Nick. ClickZ (2002). Articles>Web Design>Writing
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Focus on What You're Trying to Say
Deciding on WHAT to say sounds easy, but rarely is. When you concentrate on the 'what' of the message, it makes you start asking a lot of the right questions.
Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2002). Articles>Writing
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The essentials for the budding tech writer including reference, style manuals, optional recommendations, and other various books on Technical Writing.
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Formalism and its Impact on Technical Writing
Discusses briefly the work market for technical communicators and their careers.
Baumert, Andreas. TC-FORUM (2000). Careers>TC>Multimedia>Technical Writing
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Forum Topic Titles: How To Write Them
Internet discussion forums contain topic titles that are vague, silly, amateur, too long, or too emotional. How to write clear, relevant, succinct topic titles that command attention and attract replies that can provide the answer you seek.
Streight, Steven. Blogger.com (2004). Articles>Internet>Discussion Forum>Writing
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Four Things Every Web Site Headline Must Achieve
Here are four things you need to keep in mind, four elements that demand your attention, four separate ‘audiences’ you need to satisfy.
Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2003). Articles>Web Design>Writing
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Four Tips on Writing a Web Site Home Page
Home pages can be tricky, simply because your page not only has its own job to do, but also has to support a group of second level pages. Here's how I approach writing home pages...whether a site has a total of ten pages or a thousand pages.
Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2006). Articles>Web Design>Writing
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Four-Dimensional Writing: Creating Content for Interactive Media 
The medium is an integral part of the message when writing for interactive delivery systems. Interactive media requires attention to details on several dimensions for communication of the content. Writers must focus not only on words and meaning, but also on how the content is presented. We can look to other disciplines for models of how they document the translation of ideas into reality. The detailed design document or storyboard is the essential tool for describing multimedia content in all four dimensions.
Wirth, Frances. STC Proceedings (2003). Design>Multimedia>Interaction Design>Writing
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The Four-Point Writing Project Success Guide
Have you ever worked on a truly awful writing project? Maybe you're working on one right now. Too often, what could be a simple project becomes a morass of shifting requirements, last-minute changes, and expanding scope. In almost one-hundred percent of such cases, however, a well-run writing project can negotiate the most challenging terrain.
Knowles, Michael. Write Thinking (2001). Design>Project Management>Writing
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Teachers often emphasize the importance of the 'three Rs'--reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic. For people who earn a living through writing, as well as for those whose writing is a pastime, a solid grasp of the first two R's is indispensable. There is, however, a fourth 'R' critical for writers--research.
Zvalo, Peter. Writer's Block (1997). Articles>Writing
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Free Terminology Management: The Better Alternative?
In projects like 'Wikipedia', collaborative work also necessitates a common language. This was one of the reasons why a 'Wiktionary' or a 'Wikiwoerterbuch' came into being. Thus, the open source community has already set out to develop ideas for the management of terminology and its implementation.
Herwartz, Rachel. tekom (2006). Articles>Writing>Glossary>Controlled Vocabulary
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While writing attention-grabbing, informative queries--a much-covered topic in the freelance writing arena--is important in landing assignments, don't overlook one important aspect that can help you continue landing assignments time after time: Establishing and maintaining good relationships with the editors you work with. This article offers advice, how-to and why-to information, and techniques to apply throughout the publishing process that can help you build good relationships with magazine editors. Although the following sections provide specific details and steps, the message is simple: A little understanding, consideration, and effort go a long way.
Ray, Deborah S. TECHWR-L (2001). Articles>Writing>Collaboration
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The Freelance Copywriter's Six-Pack
This 24-page e-book is a compilation of six articles, all focused on starting and growing a successful freelance copywriting business. In addition to the articles, there is also a resource page with suggestions for courses and further reading.
Usborne, Nick. FreeIQ (2007). Careers>Freelance>Writing>Business Communication
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Freelance Copywriters: Double Your Income
Freelance copywriters are a strange group of people when it comes to running their own businesses.
Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2005). Careers>Web Design>Writing
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If you're a freelancer/contract tech writer, you need to promote yourself. Think of yourself as a store with exactly one product, namely your time. You can only sell that product to one customer at a time. What you need to do is make sure each sale is a good one, and that you sell as much of your time as possible, because no one pays you for down time if you're independent.
Tech Writing Jobs. Careers>Freelance>Writing>Technical Writing
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A web portal for freelance writers, with career advice and articles about a variety of topics.
