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Category Archives: technical writing
Tech Writing Questions from a High School Robotics Team, Part 2
A year ago or so, my fiction-writing buddy Ciara Knight‘s high-school-aged son sent me some questions about my career as a professional technical communicator for his FIRST Robotics competition. This year, the Eagle Robotics team is still at it, and they … Continue reading
The Art Behind Technical Writing
Just as engineering can be part art and part science, so too can technical writing be a mix of disciplines. The scientific part, of course, would be the facts: ensuring that the content is described accurately and precisely using correct … Continue reading
Document Trimming: Cramming Ten Pounds of Stuff into a Five-Pound Bag
Tech writers and editors are often asked to trim content from a document so that it meets a specific page count requirement. Depending on the amount of content you’re facing and the compression requirements, I’ve heard this task called, “Cramming … Continue reading
Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Technical Writer?
This question has come up a couple times recently, in person and online, so I thought I’d take the time to address it. I’ve talked on this page about technical skills needed for the job, as well as soft skills and … Continue reading
Was That Covered by the User Agreement?
Have you ever read that very long user agreement that appears whenever you download a piece of software? I haven’t, but I’m tempted to do so in the future. I’m appealing to the lawyers and technical writers who put those … Continue reading