Posts Tagged ‘Technical Writing’
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…
Read MoreShould You Always Write to Communicate? How About Good'Old "Talking"?
© Ugur Akinci OK, I admit the irony upfront: this is a written argument about talking 🙂 But given my daily workload, I unfortunately still don’t have the time to create well-produced videos. So writing is still the quickest way for me to put an idea across. Yet, this is an important issue that also explains…
Read MoreIndoition Honors TCC as a "Top 50 Blog" in Technical Communications
Recognition is always nice. We all do what we do because we’re fascinated with the topic. We love it. Chances are we’d continue doing it even if nobody was aware of it. But still… we’re all human. And a little recognition does not hurt either 🙂 We are happy and proud to share with you…
Read MoreHow to Map Out a Process for a Successful Technical Communication Department
© Ugur Akinci How do you run a technical communication department? How do you make sure your team works on a documentation project as it’s supposed to and pulls the oars in the same direction effectively? One way to do this is to draw (mentally or literally) a Process Map. Here is one offered by Chris…
Read MoreA Great New Career for Nurses – Medical Writing and Illustration
There is now a great career for Nurses — medical writing and illustration. Say you’re a nurse. An RN. A highly-trained and capable health care professional. And again, say you’re a bit sick and tired of the hustle and bustle of a hospital… Yes, the pay is good but there are nerve wrecking responsibilities. You’re…
Read MoreA 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…
Read MoreOn the Idea of “Product Evangelist” in Technical Communications
I love product evangelists for two good reasons: (1) I love software products. I have no idea how we lived back in the 60s and 70s without any software doing all these wonderful things on our desktops, laptops, and mobile devices. (2) I like and admire the product evangelists that I’ve met both in person…
Read More3 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…
Read MoreFuture 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…
Read MoreHow to Use Google for Simple Arithmetic Operations and Unit Conversions
Do you know that you don’t really need a calculator for simple arithmetic operations and (selected) unit conversions? You can do the four basic operations comfortably by typing it directly into Google Search Window: You can do square roots and exponents as well: You can use Google for some simple unit and currency conversions as…
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