Technical Writing
How to Write a Quality Control Plan (QCP) — Part 1
Introduction Quality Control Plan (QCP) is an important document for those hoping to secure a U.S. government contract. A quality control plan is a document that ensures the safety and accuracy of a product. Quality control plans can be applied to any type of project, from building houses to developing new software. A quality control…
Read MoreARGUMENT: Why Technical Writers Shouldn't Be "Writers"
Excerpts: Technical writers love the written word. Perhaps, we love it a little too much? We need to ask ourselves is the written word the best thing for documentation? Is it the best thing for us as an industry, and is it the best thing for you as a content developer. Over the last several…
Read MoreSTC Releases 2008 Annual U.S. Salary Survey of Technical Writers
STC (Society for Technical Communication) has released its 109-page comprehensive 2008 Annual U.S. Salary Survey, available free of charge to STC members. In the email that introduced the survey, STC acknowledged the hits our profession received in 2008. But then, which profession did not suffer during the last year? So we have to place such…
Read MoreNew Cities in China = More Technical Writers
© 2010 Ugur Akinci We are living in a rapidly urbanizing world which means there’ll be more need than ever for techncial writers who can make sense of technology and who can explain technical procedures to others in plain language. United States has only 9 cities with population over a million and some, like Detroit,…
Read MoreWhat is "Cloud Computing"?
© 2009 Ugur Akinci Technical communicators need to stay abreast of developments in the IT field. “Cloud Computing” is one such development that’s taking the world by storm right now. It’s the way commercial giants like Google, eBay, and Amazon are handling their data and juggling their enormous system loads. Cloud computing is an example…
Read MoreWrite for Niche Markets to Earn More
© 2009-2010 Ugur Akinci We live in a world of specialization and specialists always earn more. There are neighborhood car mechanics who fix any old car and those who repair only Jaguars, BMWs and Porches. Guess who charges more? Your family doctor may know a lot about a number of different diseases. There’s also your…
Read MoreDocument Menu of Adobe "Writer" (Professional)
I know — the good and hard-working folks over at Adobe do not like me refer to Adobe Professional as “Writer” but there are 2 good reasons why I do so: 1) “Writer” is a term well-established within the technical writing community. Every tech writer I know refers to Adobe Professional as “Adobe Writer.” I’m…
Read MoreHow to Write a Software Installation Guide
© 2009-2010 Ugur Akinci An installation guide is written to describe the installation of either a mechanical/electronics system (like a child’s swing or a hi-fi set) or a software product. Here we will focus mainly on the latter. A software installation guide overlaps with System Administration Guide since it covers similar configuration tasks. That’s the…
Read MoreA Basic "RoboHelp 8 for Word" Tutorial
© 2010 Ugur Akinci A. Introduction This introductory Adobe RoboHelp tutorial shows the basic steps required to create a RoboHelp 8 for Word project. (Robohelp comes in two basic flavors: Robohelp for Word, and plain Robohelp HTML). In this tutorial, we will use RoboHelp 8 for Word and generate a Help file in Winhelp 2000…
Read MoreAn Organization for Technical Writers Doing Business with U.S. Government
There is an organization that all communicators working for the United States government might consider joining: the National Association of Government Communicators (www.nagc.com). Contact: 201 Park Washington Court, Falls Church, VA 22046-4527. Telephone (703) 538-1787 >>> What is it? NAGC is a national not-for-profit professional network of federal, state and local government employees who disseminate…
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