Expressing your thoughts can be tough, let's explore how 'Technical Writing' can be dealt easily...

Hello Readers,

Do you always feel lost while writing (or generating content) and you don't end up finishing the document?

Do you feel, being an engineer does it make you in a difficult position to conclude a message? or document takes a lot of time (like endless efforts and correcting messages again and again)?

If so, this article could be helpful, it's an honest attempt from my side to explain good things which I have learnt from my mentor Mr. Juan Tobias

Before you start writing any document you need to answer four basic questions

1. Who am I writing for ?
2. Why am I writing ?
3. What message do I want to pass ?
4. How will my document benefit the reader ?

Seek first to understand your readers:

• Your audience are busy people that are not obliged to read what you have written. If they struggle to understand the point you want to make, they will stop reading.
• Spend time finding the answers to these questions about your potential audience.

? What are their goals and priorities ?

? What constraints do they face ?

? What will motivate them to read my document ?

Make sure that you know why you are writing a document

1. The purpose of the document must be clear in your mind
2. Define the issue to be tackled and what the document intends to accomplish
3. In every paragraph ask yourself if you are advancing the cause

Write down the three main messages that you wish to convey to your readers

1. Write in full sentences and spell out the logic as clearly as you can
2. Imagine that you are talking informally to a non-specialist member of the audience that you are aiming for
3. The objective is to force you to think about the messages before you start writing

Once the above exercise is complete, the next task is to generate content, the writer needs to develop four different characters in his/her mind:

Stage 01: Madman

i.e., it begins with gathering material, so the writer needs to do thorough research (literature survey) and present a value proposition for the content being addressed.

Stage 02: Architect

Once the research is done, information and ideas need to be organized, firstly as an outline. It can be detailed as initially as a PowerPoint presentation, you can get the first set of expert feedback from experts who are knowledgeable on this topic.

Quality Check During Step 02

The reviewer can help the writer and express that if he is not satisfied with the 3 key messages, then the writer needs to go back to the Madman mode and continue the literature research (hunting and gathering) and then further draft a refined outline.

Stage 03: Carpenter

In this step, the writer has to turn thoughts into sentences following the architect’s plan, where it needs to be made sure that 3 key messages are still intact, for sure we can't deviate from this !

The biggest challenge in this stage is time management, so it is advisable to work with a timeline... remember engineers tend to think a lot and keep on writing... so time and discipline are vital !

Stage 04: Judge

The writer in this stage needs to provide a critical assessment of the article and need to ensure the quality of content.

Once the first draft is ready, the writer will need to read it again and again, to get the first impression of the flow. In this activity, the writer needs to identify points to be amplified or eliminate info which provide no value

Self Review

During the review process, do not feel exhausted, it is suggested to read again and again, while doing this always keep your reader’s perspective and ask yourself below 3 questions:

1. Will it be clear to someone who is not an expert on the topic ?
2. What words could I trim without losing the message ?
3. Are there any boring passages that can be expressed more vividly ?

Peer Review

It is always advised to pick people who are not experts in the topic, they will be the closest to your intended audience. if they can digest and take away 3 key messages then your content has done its intended job.

The reviewer can also provide his feedback on what parts of the content were difficult to understand, with this feedback you can make one more attempt to detail it in a clear & concise manner.

Be suspicious of reviewers who hand it back to you without corrections with a simple comment “looks good to me” and always thank people for their editorial comments and accept their feedback gracefully.

Further Reading

Couple of links which can help on the same topic (technical writing):

A Simple, Sure-fire Way to Create Great Content – The 5 W’s & the H

Writing clearly and concisely

Credits:

The cover picture is copied from the blog:

Best Regards,

Shailesh