What links spy scandals to technical writing?

Answer: Context. Someone recently said “content is king, but context is queen”. This is true when it comes to actions as diverse as spying and writing technical documentation.

We can illustrate this using scenes from the World War II film “Went the day well?”. It’s a story about spies and “fifth columnists”.

The importance of WHO is asking a question:

Words can have more than one meaning:

The importance of WHEN something is said:

Finally, here’s a non-spy, example in German. The film “Keinohrhasen” illustrates the importance of past actions. Note: this film had a 15 certificate.

The challenge for writers is write content appropriate to the context in which it is being used. The Semantic Web, and to an extent DITA XML, promises to automate this, but, in the meantime, your writers need have a good understanding of the context as well as the content.