Posts by Ugur Akinci

I’m happy to announce that I have been selected a FELLOW of Society for Technical Communication (STC), the largest professional organization in my field, technical communications. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my STC Washington, DC – Baltimore chapter and especially my colleagues Carolyn Kelley Klinger, Lori Meyer, Viqui Brown Sherman Dill, and…

  Here are the 3 Top Factors to Make a Living as a Writer… Be humble. Be smart. And have a blue-collar attitude towards your work. HUMBLE The chances are you’ll die nobody knowing your name. Accept that you won’t write the GAN (Great American Novel). Accept that you are not a Sallinger, Faulkner, or…

Is There a Good or Bad Time to Publish a Book? Every day is a good day to publish a book. Why? Because there are just too many variables that we cannot control out there. Trends change. Momentous social events shift the mood and reader interest. What feels like a good and interesting book may look…

There are so many myths about getting rich through copywriting. I’d like to debunk some of them. First of all, copywriting is not about good creative writing in the sense that poem or novel writing is. It is all about helping your client make money. It’s about selling goods and services. To do that you need to write copy…

My readers and students occasionally ask me what type of documents they would be expected to write as technical writers. I’d like to give you a representative list of the many different types of documents that you might be expected to write once you get a job as a technical writer. Obviously, you would not…

Student Question A student of mine asked what she should do to find an entry-level tech writing job in this pandemic environment. I’ve written quite a bit on this topic earlier: https://www.technicalcommunicationcenter.com/?s=jobs However, I understand we live through special times. What has been applicable a year ago might not be valid or practical anymore. So…

101 Questions with Answers to Test Your Knowledge of the Microsoft Manual of Style Microsoft Manual of Style is an important reference in software and hardware industry. Writing conventions adopted by Microsoft in the ‘80s and ‘90s shaped the way technical documents are written form decades. The influence of this style is so pervasive, we…