Posts Tagged ‘Technical Writing’
How to Write a Great Topic Sentence for a Paragraph
© Ugur Akinci A TOPIC SENTENCE is the first lead sentence in a paragraph consisting of multiple sentences. The topic sentence summarize the main idea of the paragraph. It sets the expectation about what is to follow in the rest of the paragraph. You can even say it’s a “commercial” so to speak that “sells”…
Read MoreHow to Write Questions with Binary YES/NO Answer
When the answer to a question is either YES or NO, you need to pay attention to make sure the readers are not confused. One way to do that is NOT asking a negative question. For example, consider the following question: “Do you refuse extra insurance?” Even though “Yes” is an affirmation, if say yes…
Read MoreHow to Write a Conditional Sentence Correctly in Technical Writing
A conditional sentence in technical writing tells the user to do something IF a certain condition is met. That is, the CONDITION always comes FIRST. But sometimes this fine point is neglected. In some if not all cases this may lead to catastrophic results. For example, here is how NOT to write a conditional sentence:…
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What Are the Qualities of a Good Technical Writer?
Introduction The qualities of a good technical writer make a long list but here we’ll focus on a selected few including love for accuracy, the ability to play as a part of a team, and an endless thirst for new technical knowledge. A technical writer is someone who writes technical documentation such as user guides,…
Read More2 Methods to Avoid Gender Ambiguity
One of the hardest things in writing English is to avoid using the third person singular pronouns, unless you are writing for an exclusively male or female group. Every time I see a document with a sentence like “the operator must configure his or her machine according to…” I cringe. Some writers switch back and…
Read MoreHow to Write in “Action Units” in Technical Writing
An “action unit” in technical writing is a series of consequences arising from the same single action. For example, if you drop an apple, it will fall, perhaps roll on the ground and then come to a rest. All of that constitutes a single “action unit.” In a software context, if you click a command…
Read More"How can I get a job as a Technical Writer?"
© Ugur Akinci You can get a job as a technical writer in one the three ways: Work on your own as a freelancer. Work for a job agency or staffing agency as an independent contractor. Work on the payroll as a part- or full-time writer of a company/corporation. Each has its advantages and disadvantages.…
Read More3 Ways To Create Documentation Color Scheme
As much as we would like not to trouble ourselves with inventing a documentation design – there’s no avoiding it. Your documentation is what represents you to your users, so it better look decent. You do not necessarily need a designer to fulfil this particular task. In this post, we are going to show you…
Read More4 Questions When Entering Job Market
A reader who has just received his Bachelor’s degree (congrats!) sent the following letter the other day:“I would like to break into the technical writing/communication field, though I have some questions: 1) What should I have as an entry level technical writer? That is, what should my portfolio contain? 2) What are some alternate job titles for…
Read MoreHazards of Poorly Written Technical Documentation
© Ugur Akinci I don’t like to whine and be negative in general. Life is too short to go around fuming about things that we can’t change. However, there are times when we all need to be critical in order to improve things; especially if they fall within our area of expertise. The other day…
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