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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By incorporating usability techniques--more commonly used in product design--writers can better understand their audiences and the ways they use (or have problems using) the content. Read on for tips on how to incorporate usability techniques into your work.
Stott, Susan. Intercom (2008). Articles>Writing>Usability>Audience Analysis
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XML authoring is the latest mode of electronic communication of content. XML is about freedom: freeing the content, freeing the author.
Albing, Bill. KeyContent.org (2004). Articles>Writing>XML
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Who can write a book? Timelines. Steps in bringing out a book.
Kahate, Atul. STC India (2003). Presentations>Writing>Publishing
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Autonumbering with RoboHelp and Microsoft Word
Because of a bug in Microsoft Word (both Word 97 and Word 2000), it's difficult to number lists automatically. The Numbering Numbering toolbar button toolbar button doesn't work reliably, and neither does RoboHelp's Topic Text Numbered style. Even if you install Microsoft's SR-1 or SR-2 patch to Word 97 or upgrade to Word 2000, you are still likely to encounter problems with any complex numbered list formatting. As a result of these problems, many RoboHelp users have reverted to “manual” list numbering, which is both time-consuming and error-prone. Using the procedure described here, you can automate the process of creating numbered lists in Word and completely insulate yourself from the Word bug that has plagued so many Help authors. To accomplish this, you'll need to take steps detailed on this page.
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Avoid the SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley) Documentation Nightmare With These Five Tips
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has been called the most comprehensive reform of corporate law since the Securities Exchange Act was passed in 1934. The effects of SOX are far reaching. Its provisions govern actions by management, audit committees, and boards of directors of public companies. Like it or not, Sarbanes-Oxley is here to stay. Its impact on IT departments is major and growing. The reaction of many IT groups is to document everything in sight in an attempt to cover themselves. In the end, this can be counter-productive, expensive and wasteful.
D'Amico, Vin. IT World Canada (2006). Articles>Documentation>Regulatory Writing
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Technical writers live in a state of anxiety. They are charged with creating a work within a specific time period, but they depend on the cooperation of subject-matter experts (SMEs) over whom they have no control.
McKelvey, Paul S. Intercom (2003). Careers>Writing>Collaboration>SMEs
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Academic writing in American institutions is filled with rules that writers often don’t know how to follow. A working knowledge of these rules, however, is critically important; inadvertent mistakes can lead to charges of plagiarism, or the unacknowledged use of somebody else’s words or ideas. While other cultures may not insist so heavily on documenting sources, American institutions do. A charge of plagiarism can have severe consequences, including expulsion from the university. This handout, which does not reflect any official university policy, is designed to help writers develop strategies for knowing how to avoid accidental plagiarism.
Purdue University (1997). Academic>Writing>Ethics>Plagiarism
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Information development organizations are under increasing pressure to implement single-sourcing or other automated and highly structured document development processes. Forces driving this trend include translation requirements, niche marketing, the convergence of software and documentation, and shrinking cycle times and budgets. Initially, these changes threaten to remove everything that is challenging and interesting about the technical writer’s work. However, technical writers who successfully adapt to this new environment will find more opportunity than ever to use their analysis and writing skills and to develop additional negotiation and process management capabilities.
Guthrie, Melissa L. STC Proceedings (2000). Careers>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Technical Writing
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When moving to single-sourcing through XML and SGML, management often spends considerable time on tools evaluation and content management, but not enough on preparing the writers for the paradigm shift to the new environment. This presentation provides some hints for a successful transition for your personnel as well as your documentation.
Gelb, Janice. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Writing>XML>Technical Writing
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After a lifetime's worth of writing, I can file these baby steps under the 'wish I'd known when I started' category. They're vital. If you follow them, not only will you be successful at writing at some time in the future, you'll be successful right now.
Booth, Angela. Digital-E (2003). Articles>Writing
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When the news or topic is most serious, understate. When the topic is least serious, exaggerate.
Clark, Roy Peter. Poynter Online (2004). Articles>Writing>Journalism
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Back to the Future: Instructional Practices and Discourse Values 
When I think of writing-across-the curriculum—especially when asked to look toward the future, I am drawn to looking back to my initial involvement in WAC in the mid-1970's.
Herrington, Anne J. LLAD (1997). Articles>Language>Writing Across the Curriculum
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Freedom of expression is not ruling the blogosphere, because insecure bloggers will block your attempt to post comments, or even read their blog, should they decide you are "too controversial" or "too different from me". Opinionated blogs are the worst culprits of cowardly post blocking.
Streight, Steven. Blogger.com (2004). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Blogging
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Baselining Documentation on a Wiki
The dynamic nature of wikis can cause a few headaches when you need to baseline documentation that's on a wiki to correspond with the release of your product. This blog post looks at some ways in which you can try baselining wiki content.
DMN Communications (2008). Articles>Documentation>Technical Writing>Wikis
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Most writers have no idea how much money they can expect when their book is published. The formular, however, is fairly straightforward. To begin with, a writer generally receives an advance. An advance is payment, in advance, based on the expected initial earnings of the book. Royalties (ranging from 4% to 8% in most cases) are generally based on the cover price of the book, but that does not include books that are discounted or remaindered. So, for the sake of argument, say you sold 20,000 full-price copies of a paperback priced at $7 (I know it would more likely be $6.95 but I am going to use round numbers.) If your royalty percentage were a generous 8% you would make a total of $11,200.
Hewitt, John. Writer's Resource Center (2004). Articles>Writing>Publishing>Writing
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The purpose of this lesson is to introduce the basic concepts of plain language.
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With constantly changing deadlines and last minute major revisions, how can technical writers ever hope to create quality documents? Members of the STC Quality Special Interest Group (SIG) will present some basic concepts that will provide insights into ways you can improve the quality of your documentation. They will look at what is meant by 'quality documentation', how documentation quality can be measured, how quality can be implemented in documentation processes, how ISO 9000 requirements can be adapted to help improve the documentation process, and how the relationship between developers and writers can impact documentation quality.
Rupel, Roberta A., Lori H. Fisher, Donald S. Lenk, Ralph E. Robinson and Richard Colvin. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Writing>Quality>Technical Writing
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Battlecat Then, Battlecat Now: Temporal Shifts, Hyperlinking and Database Subjectivities
Like all media forms, the blog is not transparent. The technological code of the software contains affordances that filter and, in part, determine the constitution of the private/public Self represented in any weblog. And so, what kind of Self (or Selves) are made possible or enabled by typical blogging practice?
Jarrett, Kylie. Into the Blogosphere (2004). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Blogging
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Be An Author, Not a Writer: Breaking Into Retail-Market Computer Book Publishing
Many experienced technical communicators already have the skills and experience required to be successful authors of retail-market computer books. What they generally lack, however, is an understanding of the retail computer book publishing industry: the roles of the various players, options and techniques for landing that all-important first contract, navigating the ins and outs of money and contracts, developing book proposals, and working on their own. By learning more about the industry, technical communicators gain two things: an increased chance of becoming a first-time author and, more importantly, whether this is an appropriate career choice for them.
Benz, Christopher J. and Michelle Corbin Nichols. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Writing>Publishing
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When giving overview information, be concise. Save the details and flowing language for those that want them or have the time, but don't slow down the skimmer. This doesn't mean skip the details, just keep them from people who don't need them.
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Writing>Workplace>Technical Writing
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Be Succinct! (Writing for the Web)
The three main guidelines for writing for the Web are: be succinct: write no more than 50% of the text you would have used in a hardcopy publication; write for scannability: don't require users to read long continuous blocks of text; use hypertext to split up long information into multiple pages.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1997). Articles>Web Design>Writing
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There has been a tremendous growth in the software industry and some growth in technical writing. Most of my columns ten years ago were rants about the poor state of our manuals and our software. Today, I think the humblest of companies is producing great stuff. The reason for it is simple--globalisation and the Internet.
Kamath, Gurudutt R. IT People (2002). Careers>Writing>Technical Writing
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Becoming a Freelance Technical Writer
If you're considering a move to the contract side of the fence, you might want to think about the questions in this blog post before making a decision.
DMN Communications (2008). Careers>Freelance>Writing>Technical Writing
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This session will help participants understand how to write and submit a manuscript for publication in Technical Communication. It covers the types of articles the journal publishes, its audience, and suggestions for choosing topics, doing research, and preparing a manuscript.
Hayhoe, George F. STC Proceedings (1998). Presentations>Writing>Publishing
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This session will help participants understand how to write and submit a manuscript for publication in Technical Communication. It covers the types of articles the journal publishes, its audience, and suggestions for choosing topics, doing research, and preparing a manuscript.
Hayhoe, George F. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Writing>Publishing
