Technical Writing
7 Ways to Overcome Writer’s Block
Here are seven time-proven ways to overcome Writer’s Block. They worked for me in the past. I hope they’ll work for you too in the future. Start from any part of your project you like. You do not need to start writing the “Introduction” or the “Overview” first. Try starting from the middle of your…
Read MoreHow to Write a Great Topic Sentence for a Paragraph
© Ugur Akinci A TOPIC SENTENCE is the first lead sentence in a paragraph consisting of multiple sentences. The topic sentence summarize the main idea of the paragraph. It sets the expectation about what is to follow in the rest of the paragraph. You can even say it’s a “commercial” so to speak that “sells”…
Read MoreHow to Write Questions with Binary YES/NO Answer
When the answer to a question is either YES or NO, you need to pay attention to make sure the readers are not confused. One way to do that is NOT asking a negative question. For example, consider the following question: “Do you refuse extra insurance?” Even though “Yes” is an affirmation, if say yes…
Read MoreHow to Write a Conditional Sentence Correctly in Technical Writing
A conditional sentence in technical writing tells the user to do something IF a certain condition is met. That is, the CONDITION always comes FIRST. But sometimes this fine point is neglected. In some if not all cases this may lead to catastrophic results. For example, here is how NOT to write a conditional sentence:…
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What Are the Qualities of a Good Technical Writer?
Introduction The qualities of a good technical writer make a long list but here we’ll focus on a selected few including love for accuracy, the ability to play as a part of a team, and an endless thirst for new technical knowledge. A technical writer is someone who writes technical documentation such as user guides,…
Read MoreBe Careful with Humor in Technical Writing
Humor is great. I love it. Once upon a time I used to write jokes for comedian Joan Rivers as a freelance contributor. Making people laugh is a skill that I respect and truly love. However, when you are writing a technical document or book, you should be very careful before injecting humor into your…
Read More2 Methods to Avoid Gender Ambiguity
One of the hardest things in writing English is to avoid using the third person singular pronouns, unless you are writing for an exclusively male or female group. Every time I see a document with a sentence like “the operator must configure his or her machine according to…” I cringe. Some writers switch back and…
Read MoreHow to Write in “Action Units” in Technical Writing
An “action unit” in technical writing is a series of consequences arising from the same single action. For example, if you drop an apple, it will fall, perhaps roll on the ground and then come to a rest. All of that constitutes a single “action unit.” In a software context, if you click a command…
Read More"How can I get a job as a Technical Writer?"
© Ugur Akinci You can get a job as a technical writer in one the three ways: Work on your own as a freelancer. Work for a job agency or staffing agency as an independent contractor. Work on the payroll as a part- or full-time writer of a company/corporation. Each has its advantages and disadvantages.…
Read More3 Ways To Create Documentation Color Scheme
As much as we would like not to trouble ourselves with inventing a documentation design – there’s no avoiding it. Your documentation is what represents you to your users, so it better look decent. You do not necessarily need a designer to fulfil this particular task. In this post, we are going to show you…
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