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Say Less, Offer More in Technical Writing
It’s common to find technical documents that are more than a few hundred pages. That alone can cause a reader to step away, quickly, from the document. While there are cases when more details are...
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Fewer Written Words Often Reap Better Results
When you were in school, you had to write papers that were a certain page count, no matter if you ran out of things to say on page one or page ten of twenty. You simply babbled on about something that...
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6 Considerations in Hiring Technical Writers
When it comes time to hire technical writers for your team, the easiest part of deciding whom you will hire is likely to be the skill sets you need to get the job done. But beyond specific skill sets,...
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Crossing the Content Divide: What to Expect on the Other Side
Editor’s Note: This was the feature article in this month’s TechCom Manager newsletter, reprinted here with permission. Click the previous link to subscribe to the newsletter. by Rahel Bailie...
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How Great Documentation Saves Money
Technical documentation has many diverse drivers, but ultimately, it all strives to perform one function: assist users so they can do what they want to do with the product. Sometimes they already know...
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Writing Great Standard Operating Procedures
Standard Operation Procedures, or SOPs as they are commonly known, are snapshots of a company’s life force, which is always in a state of flux and change. When SOPs are well-written, they become one...
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The Importance of Well-Documented Processes
As business grow and become more successful, the need for well-documented processes expands. This need is driven by a variety of factors including, but not limited to: Refinement of work duties as...
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Consultative Selling Within Your Organization
Editor’s Note: This was the feature article in this month’s TechCom Manager newsletter, reprinted here with permission. Click the previous link to subscribe to the newsletter. by Kerri Barber One of...
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Why Developers Write Horrible Documentation
While you might expect developers to get stuck with writing the documentation in a smaller or newer organization, even an established company can end up with developer-written documentation. It’s not...
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Hiring the Right Technical Writer
Great technical writers take things one step further than good technical writers. They create documentation that lets users find answers right away, maybe even to questions they hadn’t considered....
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Measuring the Productivity of Technical Writers
In reality, all performance evaluations of technical writing are subjective. However, if your team is working on related projects with similar outputs, it is possible to develop standard metrics to...
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Eliminating the End Game from Technical Publishing Deliverables
When it comes time to “Just Publish It”, technical communicators may find themselves going through an end game to get the job done. The steps needed to get deliverables published electronically in a...
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How Technical Writers Can Get Good Reviews in Bad Times
Luanne Oleas points out: “All the old standards are out the window. We are left with our wits, if we are lucky, and the wiles we’ve developed over the course of our careers. But sometimes, just...
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Teaching Single Sourcing to Bridge the Gap Between Classrooms and Industry
Editor’s Note: This was the feature article in this month’s TechCom Manager newsletter, reprinted here with permission. Click the previous link to subscribe to the newsletter. by Robin Evans, Ph.D....
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Technical Writers Who Support You Now – and Later
When you’ve created technical documentation with the help of a skilled writer, you can have a mixture of emotions: relief, excitement, pride, and fear. After you finish any project, you may be happy...
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What Do Technical Writers Bring to the Table Today?
A few years back we published an article, How Technical Writers Add Value to Your Team. As most technical writers and documentation managers know, the technical writing environment has changed fairly...
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Do You Need Technical Help or Something More?
When it comes to outsourcing your writing needs, there are often two reasons for taking this route: You or your existing employees don’t have the time. You or your existing employees don’t have the...
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Training Technical Writers for Management
As in most professions, an excellent technical writer might not make a very good documentation manager. Different personality types respond differently to managerial roles. For some, such a promotion...
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The Technical Writer’s Role in Localization
It goes without saying that if you are writing for a global audience, your deliverables are most likely going to end up being translated in more than one language. But localization takes that a step...
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What to Consider When Hiring Technical Writers
If you are considering expanding your documentation group or are hiring one or more technical writers for the first time, what should you look for in candidates? Knowing what to look for before you...
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