The Art of Technical Writing 2.0

Two posts in one day is a first for me. At least on this blog

Was reading this post on the Men With Pens blog and it made me think. Do read that, it is a nice post.

For the past few days I have been observing the variety of styles in which emails are written. Here are a few:

Subject = Email

This is not bad at all but one must append “<eom>” at the end of the message. It’s not a good idea to put a link in the subject though, for the simple reason it may not be clickable in some Emailing services.

No Salutation

I actually like the absence of salutation. though it could come of as rude. I might not do it unto others but don’t mind it done to me. For office communication ‘Dear XYZ’ is out, one must just reserve it for their dear ones. A ‘Hi’ or ‘Hello’ is what I use usually, but I will gladly do away with it, if we all do. It isn’t reeally required. Don’t you think so?

Endgame

This is treacherous and it looks really silly, when person has signed name and has a signature below with the name again. And a good way to sign off is, ‘Best’, ‘Regards’, ‘Thanks’ (but there should not be more than one thanks in one email. Again we can do without it. But this a personal touch, and sometimes in a dry email, this is all there is.

Body

I came across this site suggested in one of the comments on men with pens blog - five.sentenc.es - and I like the idea of keeping the email size, 2-5 sentences. Though don’t make the sentences long and winding like a bad school boy. Once in a while when you have more to tell it can’t be avoided.

Multicolored In-line Comments

Have you come across such mails? They are the most fun. And are close to being an online catfight. It’s best avoided as it shows aggression. It can be met with only two reactions, the calm will laugh at you and the angry will write back with equal fervor (much to the amusement of the calm, who could be the third person on mail). If you have to answer things, I would suggest make bullets and keep the message in the thread.

Gmail Threads

Gmail is worth being purely for this feature.  It can be used as a social messenger (alongwith the Reply All capability). Though this is not recommended in official correspondence, only amongst friends who have loads of time.

Reply All

This is scary. I am never sure when to reply and when to reply all. Sometimes it’s not a difficult decision, when pure information is being distributed. But when you are distributing what you “think”, be sure you are not offending anyone.

And finally, don’t use these tips for love emailing. Remember your target audience here too.

Theory: A technical writer gives good directions.

Why?

A good technical writer needs a few skills to do the job well and while some of this can be something that one can be born with, one can also have developed it over the years. The skills I am talking about are described below.

Assimilation - The power to understand things quickly. To give good directions, one needs to know their way around. For being good at giving directions in particular, having a good visual memory helps. Making a mental note of things and putting it on a map in your head and marking it with specific landmarks is quite a droolable quality.

Good grasping power helps to understand what you are going to talk about. While this skill is not a rarity, it definitely is either inherent within a person or a person has to consciously develop it. It need not come with a particular type of education.

Simplification - There could be ten ways of reaching point B from point A. But the best way will be different for different people. As the crow flies, he might have a totally different take on the best route. ‘Simplification’ here would mean, avoid the short cuts if they are too confusing and state landmarks that are visible to the eye. Your aim is to get the person to the destination quickly and without him/her losing the way.

One can develop this skill, solving math problems in school. If one gets a hang of simplifying math problems, the skill can be applied almost anywhere else. And definitely in providing good directions or in technical writing.

Translation - ‘Translation’ here would mean actually telling what one assimilates and simplifies. This is not an easy task. One needs to be able to speak the language of the person who is receiving the directions. A good communicator will make the language appear as small a barrier as possible.

One could have grasped these skills while learning languages at school. A good hand at grammar would definitely be invaluable.

A good question to ask —

So if you meet a technical writer and want to hire him/her, ask for directions to a local book store and tell the writer that you don’t speak his/her language. A good tech writer should overcome the challenge.