Posts Tagged ‘Technical Writing’
How to Avoid Obfuscation when Writing a Corporate "Tagline" or Mission Statement
Writing a corporate mission statement is both science and art. Movies Movies come with taglines that summarize the story in a hurry. ALIEN (1979): “In space, no one can hear you scream.” ERIN BROCKOVICH (2000) : “She brought a small town to its feet and a huge corporation to its knees.” FARGO (1996): “A lot can…
Read MoreHow to Punctuate Items Listed in a Table Cell or Unordered List
Punctuation of table cell or unordered list items presents a special problem in technical writing since more often than not such lines include technical specs. Punctuation questions, like whether to end each line with a period or not, acquires a special significance since Parallelism “Parallelism” is one of those cardinal rules in technical writing. In…
Read MoreShould You Use Text or Video in Your Posts & Publications?
We need to make a lot of choices every day. The familiar refrain of “paper or plastic?” represents one such mundane choice that we are faced with when we stop by at a supermarket for shopping. Another choice I’m faced with on a regular basis is “text or video” in sharing useful technical writing tips…
Read MoreWriting Career Advice : How to Become Technical Writer
Personal Story of a Software Technical Illustrator Writer Working in Canada
4 Variables to Determine Your Success at a Technical Writing Job Interview
When a reader asked the “best way” to get ready for a technical writing assessment test and job interview I realized how hard it is to give a satisfactory answer. The reason is, the appropriate and really truthful answer depends not on a single but the following four variables: (1) Historically Specific Job Market When…
Read MoreSTC India Article: "7 Ways to Avoid Misunderstandings When Writing for an International Audience"
© 2010 Ugur Akinci Just published my first article in INDUS, STC (Society for Technical Communication) India Newsletter, October 2010 issue. 7 Ways to Avoid Misunderstandings When Writing for an International Audience Please let me know what you think. Welcome all comments…
Read MoreHow to Create PDF with Acrobat-Alternative: "Smart PDF Creator"
© 2010 Ugur Akinci Adobe Acrobat is a marvel of a tool. The things that you can do with it is too long a list to print here. But what if all you need to do is covert a MS Word or FrameMaker file to PDF? Would you still need Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro (which…
Read MoreHow to Develop Your Technical Illustration Skills
© Ugur Akinci As I mentioned several times in the past, if you are a technical communicator who enjoys graphic arts, you are missing something in your career if you have not developed your technical illustration skills. Our industry is very ripe for those writers who can also draw and create all kinds of technical…
Read MoreEliminate "I" and "You" from Peer Reviews
© 2010 Ugur Akinci I have previously mentioned in another blog post that one of the best techniques to use in a peer review is to eliminate the second-person singular pronoun, “You.” I recommended talking in terms of “me” and “I” in order not to offend the other party. For example, instead of saying “You…
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