Technical writing involves communicating complex information to those who need it to accomplish some task or goal. Technical communication is used in a variety of fields such as computer hardware and software, engineering, chemistry, aeronautics, robotics, finance, consumer electronics, and biotechnology.
The most visible documents that technical writers produce are product manuals or guides that accompany products to customers and instruct them on product assembly and usage. Online help consisting of a series of short instructional blurbs incorporated into the product itself is also common. Some technical writers never write any product documentation meant for external …
The objective of a disaster recovery (DR) plan is to ensure that an organization can respond to a disaster or other emergency that affects information systems – and minimize the effect on business operations. Below is a sample template to produce a basic disaster recovery plan. The following are the suggested steps as found in the DR template. …
Technical writing is a specialized practice where the purpose is to explain a technical concept, instruct the audience or provide help and directions about a particular task. Technical content is created for, and consumed by, users seeking specific guidance on a topic. This type of writing includes documentation, such as user manuals, install/configuration guides, release …
1. Know your audience Written communications are most effective when they are targeted and personal. Build your writing around the needs and interests of the user of your technology product. Most technical documents – blog articles, white papers, manuals, reports, brochures are written for many readers, not just an individual. You may not know the …
A technical white paper is a document that describes how a technology or product solves a particular problem. A good white paper is informative and is written to give readers an idea about the advantages of a product or technology. Writing a whitepaper requires deep understanding of a product’s technology as well as its application …
In my initial days of working as a technical writer, I was advised not to include screenshots of the proprietary software anywhere in documentation. The rationale was that the images could land into wrong hands and competitors would be able to scoop up the features we were adding to the software. That was 2004. Today, practically …