Tag Archives: Technical

Who Makes More Money? Technical Writers with Language or IT Skills?

Kai raised an interesting point about which skill (writing/technical) takes longer to master. Knowing how to structure and present information to users? Or knowing how to use a product or application? That got me thinking. If you want to make money as a technical writer, which area should you focus on? Sharpen your writing skills or deepen your technical knowledge, for example, learning how to document an API?

Mistakes to Avoid when Evaluating Technical Content

How do you evaluate the quality of your documents in a way that’s impartial, accurate, and easy to implement? Recently we looked at how to create scoring frameworks (usually in Excel) to evaluate and score technical documents. From one angle, the scoring is the easy part. What’s more difficult is getting people onside. Encouraging them […]

Do Technical Writing projects need a Documentation Plan?

Gordon McLean asks: do you plan to review your plan? This is in relation to the Documentation Plan (aka Information Development Plan) that most technical writers prepare in advance of starting a major project. Granted, on smaller projects you can get away with this if you know the product, have the resources and the deliverables […]