Technical Writers: Use Templates for Efficiency

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I love templates. Just like Oscar the Grouch longs for garbage, I have an ongoing love affair with templates and the act of templatization (don't go looking for it in Merriam-Webster; I coined it). If you don't dream about templates, you should. Because they can improve your IT or technical writing career.

For those not familiar with templates, they are basic draft documents used to create an individual instance and final version of a document for a particular audience, function, or purpose. They not only result in markedly faster document development, but also help ensure parallel structure and adherence to style guides and company standards.

In a nutshell, templates give you greater control over your communication and documentation.

In a nutshell, templates give you (or your IT or marketing department) greater control over your communications and documentation. And control, when you're striving for accuracy and completeness , is a valuable thing.

Templates = Efficiency

Templates are great because they provide efficiency. Like AI, they allow a professional technical writer to do more with less. Increases in productivity are one of the biggest goals of corporations and their IT departments, so this efficiency is critical. It separates the pros from the amateurs and, if developed and leveraged correctly, can give a person or company a tremendous competitive advantage.

Job Seekers Need Templates

I know, there's little rejoicing in the task of finding a new job or attracting clients. It's tough, arduous work that requires patience and resiliency. However, the task can be made significantly more efficient by leveraging the power of templates.

Because the value of a template is proportional to the volume of its use, repetitive tasks benefit most from templates. If you're applying for dozens or more likely hundreds of job positions, templates allow you to apply for more each week, increasing your chances of landing something.

If you're investing hours into a job application cover letter, you're doing it wrong. Particularly if you're a technical writer.

I recommend templatizing your cover letter. Some say you should tweak your resume for each individual job for which you apply, basically turning it into a template. However, I choose to work with a single polished resume and a cover letter template that can be quickly and accurately modified.

I recently saw a post from a frustrated job seeker on LinkedIn who mentioned that they were tired of getting blow offs from recruiters and hiring agents after investing "hours into writing a cover letter." If you're investing hours, you're doing it wrong. Particularly if you're a technical writer.

Reusability: A Lesson From SpaceX

Aerospace company SpaceX in Texas has based its entire existence on the reusability of its rockets. Company officials have preached that the key to successful space travel is dramatically lower costs and that this will be achieved only via reuse. Likewise, technical writers and IT professionals can gain a serious advantage over their competition and more adeptly satisfy their clients and employers by regular use of templates.

In the modern world, any time savings that does not sacrifice quality (or your sanity) is something worth pursuing. Even if it requires a bit of time and money.

Doc Types That Readily Templatize

Standard operating procedures , or SOPs, are a great example of a document type that requires use of one or more templates. On a recent six-month SOP development project for a financial client, I employed a template that helped the project team develop and publish more than 100 SOPs.

Other examples of document types that benefit from templatization are process and procedure documents.

Other examples of document types that benefit from templatization are process and procedure documents. Process docs should all feature similar formatting and make clear to any employee using them what is required to complete the document and what is supplemental and not necessary for management approval. You can even embed short training videos and other helpful information into your templates (simply include user instructions that such content is to be removed prior to final draft review or publication).

I've developed several white papers ; while they feature a basic structure, I wouldn't say they require a template. Much internal reporting can be templatized for speed and accuracy. The same thing applies to help files and a variety of email communications. I even have a template that I use to expedite communications with recruiters who send me job postings that aren't aligned with my experience set. Instead of simply trashing the recruiter email, a template allows me to network with the recruiter in a hyper-fast manner that doesn't disrupt my workflow.

Don't Rush Template Development

Don't rush or cut corners in your template development efforts. Here's why.

If you use a poor quality template to develop dozens or even hundreds of documents and then update that template to improve it, you'll be burdened by the task of revising perhaps hundreds of documents created with the original template.

While the update of templates and any type of IT documentation is both encouraged and inevitable, avoidable updates typically create a boatload of additional work. On the project mentioned above, about two months after launch we received some feedback from passionate stakeholders in the company that was spot on. This naturally led to multiple updates to the template (all of which were unplanned, but also unavoidable). Revising several dozen existing SOPs developed under the old v1 template required many days.

Good Luck

While I could bloviate verbosely for another several hundred words, I think it's better that I let you go now so you can investigate your template inventory. Think about all of the types of documents employed in your company or among your clients (I realize this may be thousands or even tens of thousands; nobody ever said this project would be easy). Then imagine if you can expedite the development of any of those document assets using a template.

Let me know if you need help developing your templates; they've been a staple of my technical writing career for decades.

Note that not all templates are MS Word or Google Docs documents. A template may be a Visio flowchart or even a Photoshop image or Illustrator file that serves as a time saver when developing recurring publications such as quarterly reports, newsletters, and podcast episodes.

Let me know if you need help developing your templates; they've been a staple of my technical writing career for decades. Plus: All images in this article generated by Ideogram 2 (thanks peeps).

But that's just my opinion. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

— Curt Robbins, Senior Technical Writer

P.S.: I'm currently taking on new clients. I enjoy helping companies with their documentation and communications strategy and implementation. Contact me to learn about my reasonable rates and fast turnaround.