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Technical Writing 101 Introduction To Technical Writing

The document discusses technical writing as a career. It provides an overview of the field, including common deliverables like manuals, online help, and tutorials. It also covers considerations for technical writers such as standards compliance and accessibility. Examples of technical documentation are given for software, engineering reports, and training materials. Resources for technical writers are listed, including professional organizations, article databases, and books on the topic.

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Kyle Cortez
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362 views

Technical Writing 101 Introduction To Technical Writing

The document discusses technical writing as a career. It provides an overview of the field, including common deliverables like manuals, online help, and tutorials. It also covers considerations for technical writers such as standards compliance and accessibility. Examples of technical documentation are given for software, engineering reports, and training materials. Resources for technical writers are listed, including professional organizations, article databases, and books on the topic.

Uploaded by

Kyle Cortez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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See video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=F4zIQ6F_iMI

18+ years of experience as a technical communicator.


Vice President, Society for Technical Communication (STC)
Written and designed documentation for software products in
the documentation, media, industrial automation, simulation,
and pharmaceutical industries.
Speaker at STC, WritersUA, tcworld, LavaCon, and CIDM on a
variety of topics.
Articles published in STC Intercom, tcworld magazine,
TechCom Manager, WritersUA website, and the Content
Wrangler.
Technical Writing Instructor, Community College of Allegheny
County

What is Technical Writing?


Technical Writing Deliverables
Types of Technical Writing
Considerations
Examples and Resources

Technical writing is writing that helps users


solve problems with technologies and technical
subject matter.

(Jeff Grabill, Georgia State University)

US Dept of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics


Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11
Edition
http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos319.htm

Software documentation
Medical Writing
Policies and Procedures (HR)
Grant Writing
Scientific Writing

Manuals (including EPUB and PDF)


Online Help (including versions for mobile devices)
Quick Reference Guides
Tutorials
Training Materials
Release notes (software documentation only)
Troubleshooting Guides
Installation Guides
API Reference documentation (software documentation only)
Videos
Podcasts

Translation
Standards
Internal standards (style guide)
Industry standards, such as HIPAA/FDA, SarbanesOxley, ISO

Accessibility

Word Processing
Help Authoring Tools (Help and manuals)
Presentation
Project planning
Flow charting
Graphics

Software and Hardware:


http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iphone_user_guide.pdf
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/default.aspx
http://helpcentral.componentone.com/Documentation.aspx
http://www.catgenie.com/customer-service/manuals/
Engineering Reports:
Writing Engineering Technical Reports:
http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/documents/ce-trpt/
owl.english.purdue.edu/media/ppt/20061207031120_647.ppt
http://www.dlsweb.rmit.edu.au/lsu/content/2_AssessmentTasks/assess_tuts/tech
nical_reports_LL/samples/Aerospace%20Engineering%20sample%20report.pdf
Training Materials:
http://www.astd.org/
http://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/art3_4.htm
http://managementhelp.org/trng_dev/trng_dev.htm

FLOSS Manuals http://en.flossmanuals.net/


Free manuals for free software (One Laptop Per Child,
Sugar learning platform)
WikiHow http://www.wikihow.com/Main-Page
Document how to do anything.
Wikipedia http://www.wikipedia.org/
Wikipedias 16 million articles (over 3.4 million in English)
have been written collaboratively by volunteers around
the world, and almost all of its articles can be edited by
anyone with access to the site.

Professional Organization:
Society for Technical Communication stc.org
Articles about Technical Communication:
EServer Technical Communication Library tc.eserver.org
Articles about all things tech comm: writing, workplace,
usability, web design, organizations, editing, documentation,
careers

Book
Technical Writing 101 by Alan Pringle and Sarah OKeefe (2009)

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