How to Slide Sideways into Technical Writing

©  Ugur Akinci “Ugur, I know technical writing is a good niche, it pays well, and I want to do it. But how and where do I begin? I have not done it before and any time I apply for a technical writing position they ask me to show what I did earlier…” is a…

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A Source of Potential Component Conflict when Multiple Authors Work in Structured Authoring Environment

Multiple authors writing “components” instead of “pages” is the future of technical communications (if not technical training and e-learning). When it comes to documentation, it really makes sense to “write once and publish multiple times”, as the saying goes. And that’s only possible if we all get used to writing “components” (sometimes also referred to…

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3 Reference Guides I Use Regularly for my Technical Documents

As a technical communicator, I rely on a few reference volumes to keep my technical writing as clean, compact, and correct as possible. Here is my list of three most-favored reference volumes to settle any documentation questions or disputes regarding style, usage, or terminology: 1) Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications, 3rd Edition Curiously…

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Future Trends in Technical Documentation

Let’s look briefly at Future Trends in Technical Documentation, shall we? There used to be a time when the question of whether to use FrameMaker or MS Word used to pass for a discussion on the future of technical writing. I’m guilty as charged as well but that was then and this is now. Right…

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