Technical Writing
Three Sources of Employment For Technical Writers
Basically, there are three ways to get a job as a technical writer: 1) On your own, as an independent freelancer. 2) Through a job agency, as a contractor. 3) As a company employee. Each offers different benefits and advantages, depending on your skills as a technical writer, your background and your personality. ——————————————————– 1)…
Read MoreTechnical Writing – How to Use Twitter to Market Yourself As a Technical Writer
If you’re to make a single change in the way you market your services as a freelance technical writer, it should be to get on the Twitter – in case you still haven’t. It’s addictive, informative, and fun too. Twitter is a free social networking service through which you can exchange 140-character messages with the…
Read MoreDo You Just "Shutdown" Or "Shut Down" a System? "Sign In" Or "Sign-In"?
There are terminology errors in technical writing that even some experienced technical writers commit from time to time. The words we use when describing how to turn a system on and off, or how to enter and leave a location, are ripe for such inadvertent errors. Here are the basics: “Shutdown” is a noun. “Shut…
Read MoreTechnical Writing – How to Use the PDF Format Correctly for Print and Online Publications
PDF (which stands for “Portable Document Format”) is one of the most widely used document formats in technical writing. PDF rose out of a real need to read documents created by proprietary software on all kinds of different operating systems and browsers. An advertisement illustration created by Illustrator could not be viewed by the receiver…
Read MoreAnatomy of a Technical Editing Process
Here is the anatomy of a technical editing process. This ORIGINAL SENTENCE is from a software user’s guide: “A prompt will occur prior to deletion that confirms the operator’s wish to delete the selected item and once confirmation occurs the deletion is made final.” Here is a BETTER version: “A warning message displays, prompting the…
Read More
How to Generate Localization Ready Technical Copy and Images in Pre-Production
Introduction Technical writers can help a localization project significantly by following a set of guidelines in the pre-production phase of localization – that is, when the source files are generated at the “home location.” What is Localization? Localization is the process of adapting a product to different languages and cultures. Localization can be done by…
Read MoreTechnical Writing – How to Avoid Unnecessary Granularity & Details
Where do we stop describing the details of a stepped procedure? How “granular” a procedural description needs to be? EXAMPLE 1: When we tell someone “by using an Allen wrench, tighten the screws A, B, and C” do we need to start with instructions to go get the wrench first? Go to your tool box.…
Read MoreWhat's the Difference Between Copy and Technical Writing?
© Ugur Akinci There are four different goals of writing, depending on the writer and the assignment in question. Writers try to 1) sell 2) teach 3) move emotionally, or 4) administer others. And these goals give rise to the following four types of writing: 1) Copy writing (sell) 2) Technical writing (teach) 3) Fiction/Creative…
Read More
The Proper Way to Use "Only" in Your Technical Documents
In a technical document, the meaning of a sentence shifts considerably and sometimes dramatically depending on where the technical writer places the qualifier “only”. Use “only” right next to the word that it qualifies. EXAMPLE 1: 1) “The engineers only wanted to test the engine on a Saturday,” is different in meaning than 2) “The…
Read MoreOpen Source Software – 10 Great Free Tools of Technical Communication
Are you sick and tired of paying hundreds of dollars for writing and design software that does not work? You may want to give the following open-source programs a try. OpenOffice, the king and queen of office suits. Available for PC, Mac and Linux platforms. (Try NeoOffice if you own a Mac.) Totally free and…
Read More