Benchmarks for all the burgeoning writers!!

Clarity is always a king in documentation, whether you are writing any technical standards or composing a simple email. A technical writer always poses a challenge to transform a complicated information into an accessible document, with consistent quality and brevity. Technical writing always has a clear, direct and neutral style. 

To ensure that all your write ups or articles are clear, succinct and simple, one needs to follow some guidelines or protocols. If you’re just looking for a few good tips, below are some tried and true methods that will help you to nail down the technical writing world.

Do Research:

There can be no content written without doing an adequate research. Be it any topic, try to ‘READ’, and deeply, study about it. Research gives you an added knowledge, healthy understanding, and help you to make your content rich. Do not forget to read the client’s website you are writing for – there could be a lot of information which you are missing out. The goal and scope should be clearly outlined in the initial document planning. Thus, in nutshell, keep your thought process simple, and lucid.

Create a Persona:

All writing is writing for someone. Technical writing takes the high-level information and processes into a digestible content for a specific audience. The audience is always at the forefront of the technical writers’ mind.  The audience, and their needs, can vary, and you need to be conscious of that.

In other words, with technical writing, you’ll want to include only what your reader needs to know, while excluding any gratuitous detail. Thus, the crux of good technical writing is primarily writing for the audience.

Be Clear and Logical

This does not mean you need to be a full-blown expert, but you need to know the ins and outs well enough that you can clearly explain it to someone else and anticipate any questions that might arise. You may need to explain the basic concepts and avoid complex jargon in your artifacts. It is also required to consider what is necessary to include and what can be skipped over.

In nutshell, your writing should present a clear path of development, smoothly transitioning from one point to the next without any major jumps or hiccups, and it should clearly emphasize the most crucial ideas.

Sentence Construction:

At the online platform, no one has time to read Shakespeare. Avoid complex sentences, usage of tough words, and long sentences. Being simple is the thumb rule. Usage of longer sentences is permissible in rare cases wherein you are bound to cater two, or three messages in connection to each other.

Use Global Language

English is an international language. Writing technical documents in English allows them to be broadly read and shared. However, many readers will be non-native speakers. In order to accommodate all readers, it is advisable to incorporate Global English. 

In addition, writing globally means being aware of the content that can be difficult to understand or simply misunderstood. For example, avoiding idioms and the subjunctive, as well as being careful with words that can be both a noun and verb (e.g. display or guide).

Command on Grammar

It is the right arm of any content. Make sure, you use the right tense, verbs, adjectives, conjunctions, prepositions, consonants, and vowels. Do not take twists and turns. Write in the most direct fashion you can to get your message across clearly, leaving as little ambiguity as possible. Remember, you’re not writing a mystery novel. There should be no plot twist or surprise ending. Don’t use unnecessarily complicated language. Get to the point with use of defined syntax and correct semantics.

Cite Examples

Don’t be totally theoretical in your writing. Be sure to use examples that not only clarify and describe what you are discussing, but present the topic in terms of a realistic scenario. These are especially useful when the information you have presented implies potential problems that might arise. 

Incorporate Graphics/Visuals

Visuals and graphics can be wonderful tools when used right, and a major point of confusion when done improperly. In technical writing, the goal of graphics is to help convey information not act as decoration. Clearly marked visuals that show statistical trends or provide examples of how to perform a specific task, when balanced with well-developed writing, can make for extremely useful documents. Be careful, however, not to rely too heavily on visuals.

Don’t sacrifice clarity or cut corners in your writing in exchange for more visuals. You’re not writing a picture book. Moreover, if it is a messy visual, it will cause more trouble than good.

Cite Your Sources

Where are you getting your information from? Does it come from a series of scientific studies? Perhaps you rely on statistics published by a federal agency? Are you drawing from an article, or a book? Strong writing incorporates reputable outside sources and accurately cites them. Don’t borrow information from somewhere else and forget to cite it. That’s plagiarism, and can be grounds for legal action. Learn how to cite and do so where appropriate.

Revise. Revise. Revise.

This applies to all forms of writing, and technical writing is no exception. Nothing is perfect the first time around; you need to revise, and then you need to revise again. This doesn’t mean you can just run spell check and call it a day (although that is part of revision). You need to step away from a draft for a little bit, and return to it with a critical eye. 

Conclusion

The article stated above will thus provide you with a selection of these distinct, action-oriented strategies in a step-wise manner. All these strategies and bullet points will directly help to improve your technical writing.