Writing great documents is more than just inspiration. It involves five very real aspects of document development that need to be understood and included in your writing practice, regardless of the type of writing you do. So, whether you are working on a web page for the Internet, a blog post, a science fiction bestseller [...]

Over the years, I have seen numerous formats and approaches to organizing documents that cover all aspects of a computer software program or system. In short, I believe there are two sides of documentation that need to be covered, to ensure that both “kinds” of users can find answers to their questions. One. The first [...]

All writers need to ask six basic types of questions as they are working on their content. Who What Where When How Why Of all these question types, it is not easy to choose one that is the most important, but for the purpose of this blog post I will: the infamous question “why?“. Why [...]

According to a few different bloggers as well as a few of the Microsoft blogs, the name of Microsoft’s next major release of its Operating System for personal computers is not just any arbitrary name. Quite the contrary. The name “Windows 7″ is perfectly in line with releases of MS-Windows over the years. Here is [...]

Technical Writing is one among many careers in the larger field of Technical Communications. It has been a long and interesting journey since writing my first college newspaper article for the Willamette Collegian in Salem, Oregon. I have met many people and learned from many accomplished professionals. Over the years, I have enjoyed likening the [...]

Technical Writers often find themselves mediating between two departments: Business Development and Software Development. Surely, the Business Development Managers have a good idea about what the product should look like, because they have met with the client, and between the two of them, they have discussed all angles of the software product. So, they are [...]

Today’s post is short like the previous post from this past weekend. The message, also, is short, but powerful: short stories are the best path to improve your overall reading comprehension and writing skills. Why do I say this? It is because most systems today can be broken down into smaller sub-systems. So, if you [...]