Technical Writing
Eliminate Nominalization from your Technical Writing
© Ugur Akinci Eliminate nominalization (i.e., turning verbs and adjectives into nouns) not only from your technical documents but from all your writing. Nominalization is the name grammarians have given to the process by which direct verbs are turned into convoluted phrases by adding suffixes like –tion, –ment, etc. There are other ways (fertile…
Read MoreHow Technical Communication has ruined The Movies for me
© Ugur Akinci There used to be a time when I was simply nuts for the movies… I used to watch them, think about them, analyze and write about them. I actually ended up writing 6 unproduced feature-length screenplays as well. At one point I even started to coach other junior-level writers on how to…
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Localization — Don’t Use Phrasal Verbs in Your Technical Documents
Introduction to Localization Localization of technical documents requires the translation of the technical text into local languages. Some English components do not have corresponding equivalents in other languages and thus are almost impossible to translate correctly. Globalization versus Localization Localization is the process of adapting a product to suit different regional or international markets. It…
Read MoreGraphic Design & Single-Sourcing — Revitalize Your Technical Communication Career in the Post-Writing Phase
© 2010 Ugur Akinci Technical communication is a great exciting field full of material and non-material rewards. But if you’ve been in the business for 5 or over 10 years, things can start getting a bit stale. You’ll know when that time comes to push your career up to a new orbit. You can spark…
Read MoreUse Cases — Revitalize Your Technical Communication Career in the Pre-Writing Phase
© Ugur Akinci The first few years of a typical technical communication career are great. You’re full of enthusiasm for your well-paying job and happy to generate one user manual after another. Yet after 5 or 10 years some of us hit a plateau. All of a sudden, the same job is not nearly as…
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7 Principles of Effective Critique in Technical Communications
Introduction to Principles of Effective Critique The Principles of Effective Critique in technical communications is an important tool to improve the quality of content. Yet improper and ineffective critique is worse than no critique at all since it alienates the receivers and puts them in a defensive mood. From that point on all efforts for…
Read MoreTips for Writing Technical Papers
Here is the outline of a presentation about “Writing Technical Papers” that Jennifer Widom gave in January 2006 at the Stanford Info Lab: Paper Title The Abstract The Introduction Related Work The Body Performance Experiments The Conclusions Future Work The Acknowledgements Citations Appendices Grammar and Small-Scale Presentation Issues Mechanics Versions and Distribution
Read MoreWhy "Game Machines" make Excellent Computers for Technical Communicators
© 2010 Ugur Akinci As a result of my recent research into what makes a good new desktop or laptop machine I’ve made an unexpected discovery that saved me a lot of time and energy, if not money: the category of computers (desktop, laptop, notebook) generally referred to as “game machines” are excellent for technical…
Read MoreMayfield Handbook of Technical and Scientific Writing
There are so many good free resources out there to help technical writers at all levels. Here is one such resource: Mayfield Handbook of Technical and Scientific Writing Authors: Leslie C. Perelman, Edward Barrett, and James Paradis Click here to have free and instant access to this resource
Read MoreHow Learning SQL can Help your Technical Communication Career
© 2010 Ugur Akinci SQL stands for “Structured Query Language” and is pronounced either as “S-Q-L” or “sequel”. It is the most wide-spread language used around the world today for interacting with relational databases. If you already know or planning to learn SQL you have a great advantage over those technical communicators who don’t since…
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