Cherryleaf’s Trends in Technical Communication Course – Advanced Technical Writing Techniques will be held on 27th February 2015. If you want to discover new approaches to technical writing, this one-day, hands-on advanced workshop is right for you. You’ll find out how Technical Authors in leading companies are now applying techniques from other disciplines (such as psychology, copywriting, usability… Read more »
Tag: Technical Writing
The four words that account for 19 minutes of a typical Technical Communicator’s day
Peter Norvig has some interesting statistics on word frequency in the English language. It turns out that four words – the, of, and, to – account for 16.94% of the words we write. In field of technical communication, Technical Authors typically spend 50% of their time writing and the rest on researching, planning etc. If… Read more »
Why “What are good and bad examples of technical writing?” is a difficult question to answer
There’s an interesting discussion thread in the ISTC’s discussion forum regarding good and bad examples of technical writing. Incoming ISTC President Alison Peck has been asked by a researcher for a radio programme if she could provide some examples of technical writing: “well done, badly done and particularly innovative or strange”. As it’s a radio… Read more »
What would life be like if there were no instruction manuals you could read?
Illiteracy is, sadly, something that can greatly affect people’s lives. According to The Literacy Trust, less than one per cent of adults in England can be described as completely illiterate and approximately 16 per cent as “functionally illiterate”. There are various articles on the Web that indicate how people live with their illiteracy: They depend on… Read more »
Writing troubleshooting topics
It’s a fair bet that the introduction of the new Troubleshooting information type into the DITA 1.3 technical authoring standard will affect how all Technical Authors write troubleshooting topics, regardless of whether they use DITA or not. That’s because the proposed elements for troubleshooting topics make good sense, and it offers a standardised approach to writing… Read more »