Technical Writing is NOT "Creative Writing"

© 2010 Ugur Akinci Technical writing fails when it tries to become “fine writing” or “creative writing.” Why? Because one of the main tools of “fine writing” is attributing human-like qualities to non-human actors and agents. That’s a definite taboo in technical documentation. (“Anthropomorphizing” is the $100-word that says the same thing.) For example you…

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Technical Writing – Anticipate Resistance. Eliminate it in Advance.

©  2010 Ugur Akinci Technical writing shares one very important structural feature with copy writing: anticipation of resistance. To write a good technical manual, you have to anticipate why the reader might doubt the veracity of your instructions; why they might resist it. Then, like a skilled bomb-removal expert, you have to defuse and remove…

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How to Write Technical Documents for an International Audience

Writing technical documents for an international audience means writing documents that translate easily to the target language, and are understood easily by the speakers of the target language. In the world we are living in, technical documents are increasingly translated from one language to another since customers of most goods and services transcend national boundaries.…

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