Technical Writing Videos

Williams Technical Writing Videos

Free short videos are available from TWFred (an author of Wikiversity's Technical Writing Course) explaining technical writing strategies and techniques. These videos complement the contents of this Wikiversity course. Topics include the following:

• Using Active Voice
• Structuring Descriptions, Steps, and Outcomes
• Avoiding Ambiguity and Exaggeration
• Choosing Terminology
• Writing for User Personas

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Ego and the technical writer

Technical writing relies on delivering accurate and precise information. Commonly, management and designated subject matter experts review all work performed prior to a documentation release. It is important to understand that a documentation review is not personal; diction and style is always a point of critique.

The famous English actor and scriptwriter Michael Knowles once said:

"Leave your ego at the door. Big egos cause big problems. Give me one good, persistent writer with a small ego and the two of us will do the work of ten"

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The Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a logical process that helps to design good new products and software efficiently. The SDLC system emphasises planning.

The SDLC system was developed because:

• Before the SDLC many government projects failed.
• Many projects were delivered to the Sponsor' late ( the Sponsor is the Person or organisation that pays for the project).
• Many projects cost more than double the original estimate
• Inventors invented what they imagined, not what was needed.
• Products were designed without market research.
• The inventor or developer did not know if anyone would buy the product until the end of the process.
• Inventors and developers did not have a logical systematic method when they started to design and develop ideas.
• The inventor or developer added features to the product that delayed the product launch (many of these features did not improve the performance or make the product easier to use).

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Tools are only tools...

This Technical Writing course focuses on methods and processes that are tool-independent. Organizing writing, editing, and graphics in a usable manner is your primary task and is essential to the user experience.

The primary tools a technical writer needs are:

• Interpersonal skills. If you cannot get along with people, you have no chance of succeeding as a technical writer.
• Language skills. Your English (or other language) must be of a very high level. You must be constantly reading, learning, and improving your writing style.
• Curiosity. Technical writing is about learning, and then passing on what you have learned. You must have an unending desire to know new things.
• Organizational skills. Unstructured data is useless. You must be able to take a mass of facts and turn them into understandable information.

There are a number of tools that have been developed over the years specifically for the job of technical communications. In this section we will discuss these tools.

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