documentation
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The Key Elements in Technical Communication
The bent towards information design is on account of its applicability – A picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words. The use of graphics minimizes the use of content. Rather, it squeezes the underlying message of the content into a graphics. Despite the usually observed bent of mind, I believe that the key Continue reading
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The All-Important: Redundancy
Redundancy is inseparable. But, it is still important to make mutual sense. Your reader wants to search for content that resolves the purpose of the search. But, that sadly isn’t always on our list of goals. This article tries to see the possible definition and cause of redundancy, and suggest the probable solutions to resolve Continue reading
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Parallelism: Comprehension is Parallel to Reading
This article focuses on the use of uniform writing structure and tone in order to improve comprehension and promote correct action. The thought of writing this post came to me as I searched through the pages of the legacy documentation for one of our products. I think the idea of maintaining a uniform structure is Continue reading
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Is Technical Writing Skill or Ability?
I often say this to myself: Anyone can write, but everyone cannot become a writer. But, when we can (and do) learn to write, why can’t we learn to become writers? Language is a skill, which can be learned and mastered over a period of time. We must learn to follow the rules. Although subconsciously, Continue reading
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Tech Comm and the Glossary of Biz Economics
Premise In the regular classes on Business Economics, during my graduation, I learned about certain concepts that still apply. Two of such concepts, Buyers and Users, are applicable in technical communication to a great extent. Can those concepts lend any insights to us? Do we prepare our documentation considering the buyers or users? Or, do Continue reading
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FAQs 2.0
This article focuses on the pin-pointedly accurate ad hoc solution – in the form of a FAQ – that saved the day for our customers. This document, which I’ve called FAQs 2.0, is a combination of troubleshooting information, FAQs and configuration settings. Read the full post here. Note: The stub contains link for the article, Continue reading
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What do you get paid for?
Within the last 18 months, I’ve had a chance of making some new friends. And, just as any usual conversation begins, one of the first few questions is about what I do for a living. The more I try to explain what I do, the harder it becomes for them to understand. “So, basically you Continue reading
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My must-refer list of books.
This is one post, which every technical communicator has in their blog: A list of the must-have, must-read, and must-refer books in technical communication. I see that the list of books, which is although basic, will soon have some more names. But, I know you will like this one! Note: This stub contains links for Continue reading
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Key to Quality Documentation
In this post, I’ve combined my understanding of the topics of rhetoric and minimalism to create two basic, understandable parts of the purpose of documentation: mean what you say and say what you mean. I’ve also talked about how the use of these two parts can improve the effectiveness in documentation. Note: This stub contains Continue reading
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Customer-Loyalty Dartboard
When I released this post, I had just shipped one of the biggest releases for my company since 2012. The dartboard approach, which I have designed, has helped me produce effective documentation for that release. I will use the approach in the next release as well, and would appreciate if you can see its effectiveness Continue reading
The Wordsmith 