2 Golden Principles of Peer Review
© Ugur Akinci There will be instances in your career as a professional technical writer when you will be asked to “peer review” (which is, yes, a compound “verb” these days) someone else’s or your own work. This may happen in a group meeting (or teleconference/webinar) setting when you may be invited to offer your…
Read MoreTechnical Writing – Use the Method that Untied a 400-year Knot
As a child I grew up only 90 miles away from Polatli, the site of the famous “Knot of Gordian” in Anatolia (what is today modern Turkey). This was such a tough knot that, according to the legend, for 400 years no one could untie it. Then came Alexander the Great, the world-conquering commander with…
Read MoreEliminate Adverbs and Improve Your Writing
© Ugur Akinci You can improve your writing right away by eliminating all the unnecessary adverbs. 1) Eliminate adverbs by using a correct verb instead. EXAMPLE: “He walked into the room cockily.” BETTER: “He swaggered into the room.” EXAMPLE “She walked into the room confidently.” BETTER: “She sashayed into the room.” EXAMPLE: “He looked threateningly.”…
Read MoreInterviewing a Subject Matter Expert (SME)
Introduction A technical writer will periodically need to interview Subject Matter Experts (SME) to gather information about a technical document. More often that not, and especially within the context of software development, most SMEs are engineers and software developers. But they can also be mechanical, electrical and other types of engineers, hardware installers, network engineers,…
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