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Tag Archives: Writing for writers
Recommended Reading: How to Think About Writing
Oliver Burkeman reviews the basics of thinking about writing.
I Wonder That You Will Still Be Writing; Nobody Reads You
Agile got (at least) one thing right: stop writing documents no one’s ever going to read. If you want to honestly assess what will or won’t be read – and therefore what should or shouldn’t be written – you should … Continue reading
Make Yourself a Better Writer: Treat Every Document Like a Writing Sample
The only way to improve, the internet keeps telling us, is to push yourself past your comfort zone so that you’re always learning new things. Writing day in and day out, however, can mean you start to churn out documents on … Continue reading
Posted in Articles, Technical Writing
Tagged Quick writing tips, Writing for writers
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Quick Writing Tip: Don’t Add Images Until the Text is Done
Here’s a quick writing tip for user manuals: don’t add your images to the manual until you’re done writing your text. This has two advantages. The first is that when you add images one at a time over the long … Continue reading
Stump Documents: on Failures to Write Transferable Information
There is a general problem in software, more pronounced in minimalist Agile efforts, of documents that look good at the time of writing, but do a poor job of transferring information. I call these “stump” documents because readers are stumped … Continue reading
Posted in Articles, Technical Writing
Tagged Writing for non-writers, Writing for writers
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Questions to Ask Yourself Before Writing an FAQ
Some technical writers hate FAQs. I rather enjoy them, because they’re the only bit of technical writing most people will ever bother reading. But they’re not always an easy thing to write; since FAQs are never full explanations of the … Continue reading
Posted in Articles, Beginner Tips, Technical Writing
Tagged FAQ, Writing for writers
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Screen-Cap Tips for Beginners
If you’re starting out in technical writing, here are some things to consider when adding screen-caps to user manuals and training guides.
Posted in Articles, Beginner Tips, Technical Writing
Tagged Tips and tricks, Writing for writers
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Communicating an Existing Interface to a New Designer
When a new designer joins an existing project, the temptation to show the designer the interface rather than the spec is hard to resist, especially if the two are not very similar. The problem is that some information that was … Continue reading
Talking to Users: Polite, Friendly and Helpful UI (Part 2)
(Read part 1 here) A helpful UI is not as rare as a friendly one, because being helpful is more of a technical skill than a personality. Helpful means informative and organized, as well as comfortable to use. I’ll discuss organized … Continue reading
Talking to Users: Polite, Friendly and Helpful UI (Part 1)
Because I am both a technical writer and a software tester, one of my pet peeves is an interface that falls apart when it needs to communicate anything to the user. On every project I see code instead of text, … Continue reading
