There is an underlying trend to use a Wiki to produce technical documentation. Wikis have been used by developers for a number of years and, as a technical writer, you need to collaborate with the developers, and using this format will make it more palatable for them.

The Wiki format for actually creating documentation could be a problem to certain technical writers. The reason for this is that a lot of writers tend to be very secretive in what they are producing. This has always been possible if you are using desktop software, and the only storage of your current document is on your own machine, rather than using a program such as SourceSafe or ClearCase, though most companies these days, to use some kind of document control management system.

How will the old school of technical writer, be able to cope with the fact that the moment they have written a technical description or procedure have it virtually live throughout the development team.

I believe it will not be long before we see the majority of documentation tools being online, and not being discrete software installed on the user machine. This will be in parallel with the movement of more development applications online, but this will not just be limited to SaaS setups.

The advantages of using a Wiki:

• Easy to install
• Have a simple, consistent page layout
• Easy to create and maintain structured, up-to-date documents
• Easy to access through the web, with simple login or without any login
• Easy to modify, no need to know HTML
• Easy to link pages
• Easy to create simple and consistent pages
• Easy to search
• Easy to extend with external pages
• Easy to distribute for formal reviewing and tracking comments

And from the research side s of writing your documents:

• Easy to get collaborative efforts from the developers
• Easy to grab information directly from the developers witty wiki
• You will be able to see what new ideas are being added to be product you’re writing about or what planned ideas look like they’re going to be non-starters.

So how do you get the finished document from the Wiki to a hard copy manual. Most Wiki types allow files to be exported in OpenDoc format, which itself is compatible with most office suites.

Now are you are you confident enough in your ability to have your “Work in Progress” continually subject to prying and subjective eyes?

Dave Odell Freelance Writer, Technical Authors Resources

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Odell

Getting technical reviews done for technical documentation is becoming noticeably harder. During the last few years, being based at different companies and using different review methods, the phenomenon connected with the problem of getting technical reviews completed by SMEs remains the same.

Theoretically the easy way to get you documents out and reviewed is to distribute it to a pre-determined list, either hardcopy or electronic via email, and ask for comments back by a certain date. This way you are guaranteed to get nothing or almost nothing back, even if you have been chasing them up by email for a response. And if you do get responses they are either contradictory, full of questions or question marks (even more annoying), or they have been editing typos and not the technical stuff.

Another option is to call a meeting. Some people love meetings and will spend the whole day going from one to another because it gives them the air of self importance, and to others they will seem to be at the cutting edge of the company. You will probably find that the people who have not been giving you written feedback to your review requests are the first to respond to meeting invitations.

Not wishing to go into the psychological reasons why this happens, there is one thing you must bear in mind; just because you have a group of attentive project SMEs and leaders around a table do not automatically assume you are going to achieve anything.

SMEs rarely prepare for a review meeting, you are lucky if they even read any part of the document. They leave the reading until the meeting and then comment in real time. This limits their time spent reviewing the document is the length of the meeting itself, instead of the hours they would have spent reviewing the document properly. This approach leads to a poor review of the document for you.

If the SMEs do a read through the document before the meeting, it is still difficult to cover much more than the first 30 pages in an hour long meeting. So if you are dealing with long documents multiple meetings are required and the SMEs attendance will dwindle.

My conclusion of all this is to have a review meeting after a first technical review. Allow the SMEs to do a paper review and send you the comments, making them aware a meeting will be held within one week of you receiving the comments back. When you get the comments back compile them into page order and then redistribute this list with a meeting invitation.

And you have no fear that the reviews will get done as nobody wants to waste time going over a document page-by-page, which they all know they will have to do if no pre-meeting reviewing is carried out..

You can then hold the meeting with the knowledge that a lot of the points have already been resolved. Action points can be made against those that are outstanding. Everybody will know who you are and you will know what is really happening in the project.

Dave Odell – Freelance writer

What kind of writing do you enjoy? If you prefer to be creative, you may wish to pursue a career as a novelist or writing poetry and short stories. You may even enjoy writing fun articles or editorials for a magazine or newspaper. However, if you are more of a detail oriented, fact-based writer, more easily creating factual and scripted articles and other documents that focus on the who, what, when, and how questions of a subject, you may more likely enjoy a career path in technical writing, detailing information that includes a number of factual ideas in relation to specific products and their functionality or usage.

The technical writing market includes a wide genre of applications because there are several industries that require a department purely for the creation of documentation on the various products and services they provide. They need installation information, programming details, white pages on the products and services they are involved with. Directions for use and troubleshooting documents are also prepared by individuals in technical writing departments.

Perhaps you have some general knowledge of one of the industries in which technical writing is pertinent and feel that you could become a technical writing expert in a particular field. The most important aspect of breaking into the market is knowledge of terminology in a particular field, as well as a great command of language. If you have these skills, technical writing might be something you want to pursue. For example, if you have worked in the past in fields like computer technology, IT, telecommunications, HVAC and mechanical equipment installation, you can probably do quite well in a technical writing position within that field. Since it isn’t necessary for you to understand every function of every product in the field, you can simply be familiar with the terminology used in the field and the format of typical literature found in the industry and be considered qualified.

This means that you can easily enter into the technical writing market and produce similar documents. Assuming you’re well equipped for a position in the field of technical writing, search online for available career opportunities. You’ll find thousands of them available, and you’ll quickly learn that there is plenty of opportunity for success and advancement.

Source: http://www.techauthors.co.uk

A teaser copy is made of two to three short but carefully composed sentences and is similar to blurbs and extracts. In direct mail, they on the outside of a letter while in online copies, they commonly appear right after the headline. If your headline for your online copy isn’t able to do justice to the rest of your article, a teaser copy is definitely called for.

Introduce Yourself

If yours is a new company, your teaser copy could do with a bit more information about your business. If you have certain facts or figures to make your company more memorable, like having a product that’s the first of its kind in the market, or being the industry leader in a specific region, so much the better!

Remember: if you’re going to use a teaser copy to introduce your business, be sure to do so with a bang!

Be Entertaining

It’s hard to be funny, witty, or clever when you’re limited to just one sentence, and that’s often the case with headlines. You have greater leeway, however, with teaser copies so take advantage of it if you dare.

If you’re going to use humor, make sure that it’s in the sense that your target market – and not just you – stands to appreciate.

What? There’s More?

If you think that your products or services are very attractive to your target market and they just need that extra push to make a purchase, your teaser copy can give them just that. For this purpose, your teaser copy must include details that will not just complement but enhance what your headline said about your product.

If it’s a headline’s job to state the main benefit of your product, let your teaser be responsible for stating the additional but much-wanted benefits that only your product can offer and your target market is sure to desire.

Make a Connection

Headlines make people pay attention and teasers build on that by making a connection with the readers. Teasers can be used to create relationships between readers and the products or services you’re promoting.

If this is what you want a teaser for, it’s important to see the bigger picture. Imagine how a person’s life can change – gradually or maybe even instantly – simply by taking you up on your offer. Whatever it is, that’s what your teaser should contain!

Explain the Image

If a particular image is accompanying your online copy and it’s critical to what you’re offering, use the teaser to further explain what that image is about. Pictures may speak a thousand words, but these words can be used to create different meanings. Use your teaser to ensure you’re getting the right image across.

Tease

Last but not the least, use the teaser copy to tease. Give them a taste, but don’t give them all. Let them have a peek, but don’t let them see everything. Use the teaser to give readers tantalizing snippets of information, making it very clear all the while that the only way to get more is by reading the rest of your copy.

Teasers, like every other aspect of online copywriting, adhere to the same guidelines. As such, you need to keep it short, simple, but powerful. Do that and your teaser copy is sure to convince your readers to heed your call to action in the end.

Sometimes, no matter what career you are pursuing, breaking into the field can be difficult and frustrating for you.  In the field of technical writing, this is often the case with aspiring writers, especially those who have no previous experience in a particular industry where technical writing skills are appreciated.  This is also often the case for individuals who have no examples of previous technical writing that are kept in a portfolio.  However, getting into technical writing doesn’t have to be as difficult as it may at first seem.

Keep in mind that any writing experience you have at all places you ahead of the pack when the daunting task of breaking into the technical writing field looms ahead.  Of course, you may need or wish to enroll in some courses that allow you to hone your skills directly related to technical writing, but it is not a career path that requires extensive study and preparation, with the exception of knowledge of the area of the industry you’ll be writing about.  The most important thing is to choose to enter a field where technical writing is required in which you have some sort of knowledge or experience.  This allows you a head start because you have a background in the language and terminology that you will find necessary to prepare the documentation required of the technical writing department by the company and industry in general.

Another opportunity you may want to consider is the utilization of any contacts you have to break into the technical writing market.  For example, if you know someone who is in technical writing, you be able to rely on them as a resource for opportunities to apply for open positions within his or her company or even as a reference when you begin to put in applications for other positions and companies.  Never underestimate the value of contacts and insiders in your search for this kind of position.

Technical writing may be a more specialized field of work than you originally intended to pursue, but it doesn’t have to be difficult to enter the field, since it covers such a wide variety of industries.  If you work on your writing skills and can offer a portfolio with examples of your work, perseverance can help you in pursuing the profession.

  When you enter the market in technical writing, you will immediately notice a need for intimate knowledge of industry jargon and typical terminology.  Besides having these terms be familiar to you, those in the field of technical writing also need to have a strong command of language, a broad vocabulary, and excellent communication skills.  Grammar, spelling, and punctuation skills are a must, and technical writing also requires a specific format that is both detail-oriented and easy for end users to follow.

To begin with, to pursue a career in technical writing, you should concentrate on studies in English, writing, and marketing, as well as choosing electives that relate to the field of technical writing specifically.  Depending on which industry you plan to be involved in, you may opt for courses in that industry to familiarize yourself with some of the products you’ll be supporting, as well as the typical terminology related to the subject.  Keep in mind that technical writing can involve production of some hefty documents, and many of these will require knowledge, perhaps not of the specific product, but of the industry standards.

For example, if you are entering into technical writing in the electrical field, you’ll need to understand the use of terms such as voltage, wattage, grounding, neutral wires, and more.  Without at least some knowledge of these terms, you cannot possibly write installation instructions or troubleshooting guides for ceiling fans, light switches, or the simplest of electrical devices, much less more complex units.  The same is true of telecom, HVAC, and other service and manufacturing industries.

Equate it to the knowledge that a mechanic must have.  In general, a mechanic needs to know how to change the oil, flush the cooling system, and replace timing belts on a vehicle.  This does not mean, however, that he must know the exact manner in which to go about such a process in every single type of car manufactured.  In technical writing, you would need to know what a timing belt is and where it belongs in the car, though you wouldn’t have to know its exact functionality or what it is made of.  The more familiar you are with the terminology of an industry, the better you’ll be in the market of technical writing.

The educational background required in technical writing is demanding, because of the inherent difficulty of the job. It can be quite difficult to write a technical report, but with the right research and knowledge of basic report formats, you should be on your way to writing a good one. If you enjoy reading and writing, an education in Technical Writing can prepare you for an exciting career as a proof-reader, editor, or technical writer.

Online Technical Writing training may be provided by accredited and non-accredited career education schools and technical writing courses prescribe a dominant format and organization to make information readable, available, and accessible. These programs may include courses in prose, technical disciplines, advanced technical skills, and documentation, among others.

If you like explaining hard-to-understand processes and concepts in a plain language and with a consistent vocabulary, and like simplifying complex processes and make them easily accessible, then you’ll enjoy technical writing while saying goodbye to your financial worries. Unless you are already an expert in a technical field and limit the scope of your writing to that, you will probably be required to quickly learn the details of certain processes – even entire industries. Depending on where you live and the local economic conditions, you’d be surprised at the number of employers who would be willing to give a novice with no track record a head start in technical writing.

If you are the type of writer who is more creative than systemic, you will find it hard to succeed in a technical writing job. In other words, the job profile of a technical writer involves writing and designing user guides, brochures and white papers for a plethora of products.

Business plans, technical report writing, grant writing, instruction manuals, and business correspondence are just a few of the more common types of technical writing jobs available. So, in the present world of complicated gadgets, technical documentations require more than just writing. This trend, may give the Technical Writing profession the impetus it requires.

Substance is, of course, ever the more important part of technical writing. Accuracy in technical writing means that the technical writer puts out the effort to ensure that the information provided in the document is accurate. Translation in this context means that a technical writer should have the ability to gather technical information and translate it into language at the level of the intended audience.

Do not overuse humour, better still do not use it at all – People do not read technical documents to be entertained, they read them in the hopes of successfully completing a process, or extracting information. By the end of creating a piece of technical documentation, you will probably be sick of the sight of it but it has to be proof read, did you give the same screen, action part a different names in different parts of the document, all important not to do this as it confuses the reader and they are probably confused by the technology already.
To get a technical writing job you have to prove you are accurate and organized in everything you do. When you apply for a job ensure that your resume scrupulously accurate, down to the smallest details, and organized in a clear and logical way?

A tech writing manager I know developed a 30-column spreadsheet to assess technical writing candidates. Officially, I can say that technical writing has no beginning because any person could conclude “the hieroglyphics” were writings of technical calibre to communicate to an audience. All writing styles evolve over time; technical writing is no exception.

Freelance technical writers find themselves in different jobs, from the fields of healthcare, to engineering, to consumer manufacturing, to business, and then back again. Believe me I have done it, but as a job to be involved in a variety of fields and work in varied situations you cannot beat it.