Posts Tagged ‘Technical Writing’
Duke University offers Technical Communication Certificate
Duke University needs no introduction. It’s one of the premiere learning institutions of the nation. Not only Duke has a great technical communication certificate program but it also turns out that one of our regular readers and contributors, Larry Kunz is on the Duke faculty teaching tech comm. Larry holds a Masters Certificate in Project…
Read MoreHow to Compare Two PDF Documents with Adobe Acrobat
© Ugur Akinci You’ve made changes to a PDF document as requested by your manager (r client) and sent it over for review. But how can the reviewer compare the new document with the old one and decide if all the requested changes have been made? Easy, if you’re using Adobe Acrobat Professional (i.e., “Acrobat…
Read MoreDITA – Bright Promise. Bumpy Ride.
© Ugur Akinci DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) is an XML-based structured authoring platform that I’ve been studying for the last couple of years. Sarah O’Keefe and her colleagues at Scriptorium Publishing Services have been a reliable source in my struggle to understand the landscape of this “brave new frontier” looming over our technical communication…
Read More3 Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Methods
A Standard Operating Procedure, or SOP for short, is documentation that provides step-by-step instructions on how to carry out a task. These are frequently used by all organizations, including small businesses and larger corporations, to ensure quality results with daily tasks. Creating Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) can seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t…
Read MoreEliminate Nominalization from your Technical Writing
© Ugur Akinci Eliminate nominalization (i.e., turning verbs and adjectives into nouns) not only from your technical documents but from all your writing. Nominalization is the name grammarians have given to the process by which direct verbs are turned into convoluted phrases by adding suffixes like –tion, –ment, etc. There are other ways (fertile…
Read MoreHow Technical Communication has ruined The Movies for me
© Ugur Akinci There used to be a time when I was simply nuts for the movies… I used to watch them, think about them, analyze and write about them. I actually ended up writing 6 unproduced feature-length screenplays as well. At one point I even started to coach other junior-level writers on how to…
Read More
Localization — Don’t Use Phrasal Verbs in Your Technical Documents
Introduction to Localization Localization of technical documents requires the translation of the technical text into local languages. Some English components do not have corresponding equivalents in other languages and thus are almost impossible to translate correctly. Globalization versus Localization Localization is the process of adapting a product to suit different regional or international markets. It…
Read MoreGraphic Design & Single-Sourcing — Revitalize Your Technical Communication Career in the Post-Writing Phase
© 2010 Ugur Akinci Technical communication is a great exciting field full of material and non-material rewards. But if you’ve been in the business for 5 or over 10 years, things can start getting a bit stale. You’ll know when that time comes to push your career up to a new orbit. You can spark…
Read MoreUse Cases — Revitalize Your Technical Communication Career in the Pre-Writing Phase
© Ugur Akinci The first few years of a typical technical communication career are great. You’re full of enthusiasm for your well-paying job and happy to generate one user manual after another. Yet after 5 or 10 years some of us hit a plateau. All of a sudden, the same job is not nearly as…
Read More
7 Principles of Effective Critique in Technical Communications
Introduction to Principles of Effective Critique The Principles of Effective Critique in technical communications is an important tool to improve the quality of content. Yet improper and ineffective critique is worse than no critique at all since it alienates the receivers and puts them in a defensive mood. From that point on all efforts for…
Read More