By: Barry Millman

Overview

Many organizations produce in-house tools or modify commercially-available tools for their own use. These tools should get documented so they are of use to others in the organization.

If this documentation is not created or is poorly written, it costs you twice:

• The first cost (attributed to any poor user document) is the cost of answering the Users’ questions (technical support).
• The second cost, arises from the lost time of your employees trying to understand the poor User Document.

Psychological costs also affect both the external and the in-house User.

The first cost: Technical support

This is the cost you incur whenever you produce poor (or no) User Documents. It arises for any User when he/she needs technical support. For external Users, the cost is your technical support staff, toll-free telephone lines, etc.

For internal Users the cost is the time spent by the developer or modifier of the tool to answer the questions of his/her fellow employee. This is an expensive technical support cost…these people are usually paid more than your technical support staff. Thus this first cost is even greater for poor in-house documentation than for shoddy documentation released to the public.

The second cost: Users’ time and resources

For Users outside your company, the second cost is assumed by the Users themselves or their employers. These confused Users are expending their company’s time: the time lost trying to get the product to work, and the time spent dealing with your technical support.

For your in-house Users, this cost is borne by your company. It is your employee–on your time– that is wasting your company resources trying to use an arcane product or document. Here is where your deficient in-house documentation costs you twice.

Psychological costs affect all readers

In addition to these time and monetary costs, there are the psychological costs wreaked by poor User Documentation.

For frustrated Users outside your company, your poor documentation results in a negative perception of your company and its products. This may result in loss of business.

For users inside your company, the psychological cost is decreased employee morale, as evidenced from these possible statements:

• Our company produced this junk?
• These people are not a sharp as I thought they were.
• If other employees can produce this confusing stuff, then I can work at that same level.

Thus the ill will outside your company can cost you future sales; the ill will inside your company can cost in decreased employee morale.

Solution: Informal reviews

Once someone writes a User Document for an in-house tool, that document should be informally reviewed.

Self-review

The author can perform the first review on his/her own.

Use your word processor’s spelling checker to correct common errors. You can use the word processor’s grammar checker, however most of these are inaccurate.

Before doing this review, let the document sit for a day or two. This will help you forget what you meant in your unclear writing. When you do the review and you find yourself asking “what did I mean here?” you will have found a place in the document that needs revision.

When doing the review, imagine you are user of the tool and reader of the document. Imagine the tasks that the tool user wants to do. Does the document enable the Reader to find what he/she needs? Is the writing accurate (correctly describes the tool), clear, and complete? Make the changes that would improve the document.

External review

Then, if possible, use an external reviewer (inside your company). To do this, the writer should:

1. Find a potential User of the tool. This should be someone who is not already familiar with the tool, and as similar to the target audience of the tool as reasonable.
2. Have that reviewer use the document to guide him/her in use of the tool. Solicit comments on the document. Note the suggested changes, additions, deletions, clarifications requested by the reviewer. Some questions to ask might include:
   • Does the document tell you what you need to know?
   • Is it easy to find what you need in the document?
   • Does the document answer your questions? If not, what questions are unanswered?
   • Is the document easy to follow? If not, where are the problem areas?
3. The writer should make changes as necessary.

If you cannot perform this “semiformal” review, then get anyone other than yourself to simply read the document, and make suggestions for improvement.

Caution

Make sure that the review process does not become an inhibition to those writing User Documentation for in-house Users. Stress a cooperative—not adversarial—mechanism whose result is quality work. Do not try to create the perfect User Document.

About the Author:

Barry Millman, Ph.D., has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (1966, Carnegie Institute of Technology) and an M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Psychology (Human Information Processing, University of Calgary). He has been a consultant for over 25 years, an instructor, course developer, and award-winning speaker. For the past seven years he has been researching and creating resources to help organizations create great User Documents.

Visit: http://www.greatuserdocs.com/ for resources to help you create the User Documents that your Product needs and your Users deserve.

Visit http://www.greatuserdocs.com/ReadingRoom.htm for more articles like this one.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – How Poor In-house User Documents Cost you Twice & What to Do About it

by Barry Millman

Overview

In your User Documentation, you direct your Reader to perform tasks with your product. If you don’t tell your Reader what to expect when performing those tasks, you will have a baffled Reader, resulting in dissatisfaction and expensive calls to technical support.

Example: Reverse osmosis water filter

I bought and installed a Reverse Osmosis water filter. The instructions told me to fill, and then empty (the instructions foolishly used the term dump, which would have caused the destruction of the system) the tank.

The filter had a capacity of about 100 gallons per day. Thus I expected the initial fill (4.5 gallon tank) to take less than one hour. After about an hour the tank was still filling. Worried, I called the technical support. I was told that it takes about two hours for the tank to fill.

One line in the User Documentation would have eliminated that call: “The tank initially takes 2 hours to fill.” Not knowing what to expect I, and perhaps other Users, wasted the time and money to call the technical support line.

Example: Upgrading a router’s software

I had some problems with my Cable/DSL (Internet-Ethernet) router. The internal control panel made it easy to check for and download updates to the internal software. The system told me that it would take a few minutes to check for updates (good), but it did not tell me how long the update would take to perform once I downloaded the file.

Not telling the User what to expect in terms of time is a mistake. I started the update and after a few minutes of operation (was it working?) I canceled the process. I re-started it again, and decided to wait longer to see what happened. It took a few minutes longer, and successfully completed.

It would only take a simple phrase such as “the software update can take up to five minutes to complete” to reduce the User’s anxiety.

Progress indicators (as displayed in a windowing environment) are often useless. Some go beyond 100%, others are logarithmic: they move quickly in the early processing and wait, seemingly at the end, for a long time while processing is completing. Consider making progress indicators relate to the time of operation, not number of files.

Some progress/activity indicators have nothing to do with the program they are associated with. I have used virus checkers that have abnormally terminated, yet the activity indicator kept on moving. Make sure that progress/activity indicators do reflect activity of the associated program.

File downloads do it

Telling the User what to expect is not a new concept. If you have ever downloaded files, the download site will often tell how long the file will take to download, based upon your Internet connection.

Example: Your product’s indicators

While most examples of telling the User what to expect deals with the time needed to complete an activity, others can be related to the indicators and performance of the product.

I have a small smart battery charger that has a red light for each of the battery positions. Unfortunately, the operation of these lights is impossible to understand, and there is no description of how they work.

Here’s what happens. When you first insert the battery, the light illuminates. A short while later (the charging still has many hours to go), the light goes off. Sometime toward the end of the charging cycle the light may go on again.

This is clearly confusing to the User. The User’s expectation is that when the light goes out, the charging is completed. This would result in a lot of User frustration, as Users would try to use “charged” batteries that were not charged. The developers of the battery charger should explain the operation of these displays.

The bottom line

Tell the Users what to expect as they use your product. Often this information is the amount of time it will take for an operation to complete. For other products, you may have to tell the User what the indicators mean.

Don’t leave your document Readers confused or left to figure things out on their own. Doing so will reduce your Users’ comfort with your product, and increase your technical support costs.

About the Author:

Barry Millman, Ph.D., has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (1966, Carnegie Institute of Technology) and an M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Psychology (Human Information Processing, University of Calgary). He has been a consultant for over 25 years, an instructor, course developer, and award-winning speaker. For the past seven years he has been researching and creating resources to help organizations create great User Documents.

Visit: http://www.greatuserdocs.com/ for resources to help you create the User Documents that your Product needs and your Users deserve.

Visit http://www.greatuserdocs.com/ReadingRoom.htm for more articles like this one.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Great Technical Writing: Tell your Users What to Expect

by Barry Millman

Overview

Incomplete User Documents disappoint your Readers. Two attitudes of many Technical Writers result in incomplete User Documents. These two attitudes are:

• Everyone Knows That, and
• The User Can Figure It Out

This article describes these attitudes and presents methods for overcoming them. The result is more effective User Documents and more satisfied Users.

1. Everyone Knows That

The Everyone Knows That attitude makes assumptions about your Reader’s knowledge. These assumptions cause your Reader grief.

Here’s an example of a possible Everyone Knows That. Do you know this:

Tomatoes. Most of us keep them in a refrigerator. However, storing them in a refrigerator will ruin the taste and nutrition of tomatoes. Tomatoes should be stored on a kitchen counter at room temperature, until they are cut. Once cut, tomatoes should then be stored in the refrigerator.

Does everyone know that? What do you assume that everyone knows about your product?

Sometimes your User Documents have to overcome previous User experience. Everyone thinks that they know how to properly (safely) shut off a barbecue…they don’t! The safe shutdown method is described in most barbecue User Documents, but it is not “advertised” (forcefully presented) in the User Documents.

It’s rarely true that Everyone Knows That. Just because you find something to be obvious, it does not mean everyone knows that something.

Here’s another example: How do you use a (combined product — two-in-one) shampoo and hair conditioner? When shampooing, the shampoo is massaged into the scalp and immediately rinsed. When conditioning the hair, the conditioner is massaged into the hair, and remains on the hair for about two minutes. Now, what do the Users do for the combined product: rinse quickly, or let the product remain in the hair?

If you have the Everyone Knows That attitude when you write, you will tend to leave out needed material from your User Document. You will be doing a disservice to your Readers, and to your writing.

When in doubt whether everyone knows something, assume that they do not. Then,

• add some text explaining the topic, or
• tell the Reader where to find information that will explain the topic

Another Caution

Be careful about assuming that just because you explained something earlier in your User Document, your Reader will remember (or even have read) that information. It is rare for Users to read product documentation from start to finish.

When in doubt, add a reference to that earlier (background) information. Tell your Reader where to find it, or provide a link to it if your document is electronic.

Here’s a Thought Experiment: You are a User of products: How often do you read the product documentation from start to finish? If you always do, then ask some other people. (The great thing about this fact — that Users do not read the documentation from start to finish — is that it results in great flexibility in writing, formatting and editing the product documentation.)

2. The User Can Figure It Out

The User does not want to have to figure things out. The User is not reading a mystery novel or any other literature, where he/she wants to think about what is happening.

When someone uses your product, they are using it to meet their own needs. Your product may be central to your life, but to your Users, your product is a means to an end. And they do not want to have to decipher your product documentation.

Here’s a simple example. An e-mail tells you to call someone, but the message leaves out the phone number. You are expected to find the phone number on your own. The writer probably knew the phone number, but left it out. This information oversight gets expensive within a company when the e-mail is sent to many employees…each looking up the phone number on his/her own.

My favorite pet peeve: dates. Within recent memory we “survived” the Year-2000 transition. Yet we still write dates sloppily. We use “06” for a year, instead of “2006.” When we see things like “07/11/04” what is the date it is referring to? Is it November 4, 2007, April 11, 2007, or some other permutation of the numbers. The standards for the format of dates vary around the world. This is an example of both assumptions:

• everyone knows that (because there is a “standard” date format — there is not), and
• the User can figure it out (by seeing if my other dates provide clues to the format)

Don’t leave things for the User/Reader to figure out for themselves. It takes you only a few moments to include the material your Reader needs, and will save many Readers many hours in figuring things out.

Do It:

The writing literature tells you to know your Reader. Here is where you use that knowledge to improve your writing.

Either

• find someone who is like your intended Reader, or
• do your best to act like your intended Reader (you can do it if you need to)

In reading and evaluating the document, look for places where

• the writing assumes that everyone knows that
• the writing expects the Reader to be able to figure it out
• the writing makes jumps that your Reader cannot follow
• the writing makes the assumption that the Reader has read and remembered the entire document

Fix these places. It only takes a few words or sentences.

Everyone will be happier.

About the Author:

Barry Millman, Ph.D., has been a consultant for over 25 years, an instructor, course developer, and award-winning speaker. For the past seven years he has been researching and creating resources to help organizations create great User Documents. Visit: http://www.greatuserdocs.com/ for resources to help you create the content and access that your Users want and need.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Great Technical Writing: Banish These Two Attitudes

Author: Barry Millman

Overview

The User-Product Life Cycle (U-PLC) is a powerful tool for the User Document writer. Use the U-PLC to generate the high-level topics for your User Document.

The User-Product Life Cycle (U-PLC)

Usually, when we think of a Product Life Cycle, we think in terms of the development and production of the Product itself. When writing User Documentation, consider the U-PLC to help you generate all the topics necessary for a complete document. User Documentation should support your Users in all of their interactions with the product.

The User-Product Life Cycle refers to the full range of interactions between the User and the Product itself. This is more than simply “how to use the product.” As you will see below, Use the Product is only one stage in the U-PLC.

Stages in the U-PLC

Here are the stages in the U-PLC (assuming that the User as acquired the Product):

Transport the Product to its working location

Unpack the Product

Transport and Unpacking of the product are listed here just for completeness. These are currently displayed on the packaging itself, usually in pictorial form, and do a good job.

Overall knowledge about the Product.

This is information that is presented to the User early in the User Documents.

Topics here include safety, legal, and disclaimers related to the product.

The description of the product should indicate how the product may change the way that the User currently does things. For example, an analog voice recorder will require the User to listen to all the stored items to find a particular one; a digital voice recorder will enable the User to quickly jump from one message to another.

Set up or Install the Product

Environments

It is important for the writer to think of the various environments where the product will exist. For example, how should a computer program be installed in a Windows, Mac, or Linux environment?

Environments includes other things that the product must work with. For example, how should a DVD player be installed in a system currently composed of a TV and a VCR? How about installation to a TV & VCR system where the TV has only one video input?

User Capabilities

The capabilities required for the User to set up the product are also important. Since the assumptions related to the User for set up may be different from the assumptions about the User in using the product, the wise writer will present the skills (and perhaps regulations) needed to set up the product. A section entitled Can You Set Up This Product? will enable the User to make the decision about whether to set the product up themselves, or find outside help.

For example, suppose the product is an electrical light dimmer that is intended to replace the light switch in the User’s home. Using the product merely requires adjusting the dimmer’s single control to set the desired light level. Installing the product requires experience with home electrical wiring–does the User have these capabilities?

Sometimes, the limitation may be legal. In some jurisdictions — Quebec, Canada, for example — only qualified electricians are permitted to install or modify electrical circuits in the home. Thus in Quebec, the general User of the dimmer will not be able to (legally) install the light dimmer.

Use the Product

This component is the focus of most User Documentation. It should contain at least these three sub-topics:

Starting the product

Actual Use of the product

For most products Actual Use is the central focus of the User Document.

Ideally, this should be divided into basic or common product functions, and advanced functions. A good example is photo-editing software. Most Users want to crop, rotate, and adjust the brightness and contrast of the image. These are basic functions. More advanced functions might be combining the parts of one picture with another.

Shutting down the product

Is there any maintenance to be done at shut down? List it here and in the Maintain section.

Maintain the Product

Consider breaking this down into time periods, such as: after each use, weekly, monthly, yearly, as applicable.

Move the Product

For a computer software program, how the User should move the program and its data to another computer; computer users often upgrade their computer hardware. While it is often assumed that the User should re-install the product on the new computer, there always is the question about moving the data related to the product: where is it located, and how should it be moved so the newly-installed program can recognize it on the new computer?

For a physical product, are there any special considerations in moving the Product to another location?

Discard the Product or its By-Products

Here I would like to mention only selling the used product. It might be wise to mention that by keeping the User Manual, the seller may find it easier to sell, and possibly get a higher price, for the used product.

Using the U-PLC in Your Writing

As you generate the topics for your User Document make sure that you keep the U-PLC in mind. Ensure that you include topics in your User Document Outline to assist your User in all phases of the U-PLC.

Great User Documents can assist in the U-PLC section that I did not present here: acquisition of the product. Your marketing department may be able to use your Great User Document as part of its marketing campaign.

About the Author:

Barry Millman, Ph.D., has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (1966, Carnegie Institute of Technology) and an M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Psychology (Human Information Processing, University of Calgary). He has been a consultant for over 25 years, an instructor, course developer, and award-winning speaker. For the past seven years he has been researching and creating resources to help organizations create great User Documents.

Visit: http://www.greatuserdocs.com/ for resources to help you create the User Documents that your Product needs and your Users deserve.

Visit http://www.greatuserdocs.com/ReadingRoom.htm for more articles like this one.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Great Technical Writing: the User-product Life Cycle – a Documentation Tool

Author: Ugur Akinci

Specification (spec) sheets are like maps for the captain of a ship or the blueprints for an architect. No project can start without first putting the specs on paper.

Here are two spec sheets with which a technical writer should be familiar:

Design specs – This is a document that builds on and follows closely the “functional specs” document. It basically describes what a product should look like when it is manufactured. It takes all the functions and detailed features specified in the functional specs sheet and translates them into a visual language.

For example, if the functional specs describe a configuration function, the design specs describe the button or the navigational link that should launch the configuration interface; what it’s colors and fonts should be; where exactly the fields and buttons should be placed on the dialog boxes; etc. Design specs may also specify a product’s maintenance schedule and the service requirements, etc.

Testing specs – This document specifies the unit and system integration testing that needs to be performed on the product before it is released to the market. This document sometimes also includes the testing scenarios (or scripts) that the test engineers should follow step-by-step to reveal the weaknesses and discover the bugs before consumers can find them.

Technical writers sometimes contribute directly by writing such testing scripts and actually participating in the tests as well. Testing specs and the testing results are precious since they reveal for a technical writer all the vulnerable points of a product and become the input for the Release Notes that accompany every major release of a product, especially in the software industry.

If you are interested to read more about technical writing as a career and how it can help you earn a steady living, visit http://www.learntechnicalwriting.com. You might be pleasantly surprised with what you’ll find out. Join the thousands who are already helped and inspired by this information provided by a Fortune 500 Senior Technical Writer. Visit today and claim your free report “How Much Do Technical Writers Make?”

About the author

Dr. Ugur Akinci is a Fortune 500 Sr. Technical Communicator http://www.technicalcommunicationcenter.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ugur_Akinci
http://EzineArticles.com/?Technical-Writing—Why-Should-a-Technical-Writer-Be-Familiar-With-Design-Specs-and-Testing-Specs?&id=1894071

Author: Warren Wong

When speaking or writing English, it is important to make the subjects and the verb agree. Let’s go over some rules using basic sentences. These rules will help you choose the correct verb based on the subject.

Rule #1: Subject usually left of verb

Before you know which verb to use, first you need to know what the subject is! As a general rule, the subject is usually immediately to the left of the verb.

Example: That tree grows fast.

Here, the subject is immediately to the left of the verb. The verb is “grows”, making the subject “tree”.

Example: Sometimes dogs bark for fun.

The verb here is “bark”. As you can see, the subject, “dogs”, is immediately to the left.

There are exceptions to this rule. One big signal of a sentence where the verb comes before the subject is when the sentence starts with “There”.

Example: There are apples everywhere.

“Apples” is the subject. The verb, “are”, comes before the subject.

Rule #2: “Or” use singular, “and” use plural

This is for sentences with two or more subjects. If the subjects are connected with the word “or”, you want to use a singular verb. If they are connected with the word “and”, use a plural verb.

Example: Tom or Sally is picking it up at noon.

Our two subjects, “Tom” and “Sally”, are connected by the word “or”. Because of this, our verb needs to be singular (is)

Example: Tom and Sally are picking it up at noon.

By connecting our two subjects with “and”, we now use a plural verb (are).

In these examples, the subjects were singular. What happens if one of the subjects is plural?

Rule #3: When in doubt, verb agrees with nearest subject

When a singular and a plural noun are connected by the word “or”, the verb should agree with the nearest subject. Remember, “are” is used with plural while “is” is used with singular.

Example: The players or the coach is in the gym.

Example: The coach or the players are in the gym.

Let’s look at two examples that use verbs different than “is” and “are”.

Example: Tom or the cats run for dear life.

Example: The cats or Tom runs for dear life.

Rule #4: Don’t become confused of the subject

This can be a tricky thing to remember. Some sentences have a phrase after the subject but before the verb. These phrases can make identifying the subject an adventure. In the below examples, the subject and the verb are in italics. Notice how the words in between could change the verb usage if they were falsely identified as the subject.

Example: The quarterback, not to mention the rest of his teammates, is worried about tonight’s game.

Example: My neighbor with all the birds is running for Sheriff.

Example: The dogs who watch the cat are getting tired.

Example: That girl who likes the flowers jogs twice per day.

Example: One of the trees is dying.

Rule #5: Everybody is singular

Although they sound plural, subjects such as everybody, anybody, no one, somebody, nobody, each, either, and neither are singular and use singular verbs.

Example: Everybody who came tonight is to be commended.

Example: Anybody is welcome to attend.

Example: Nobody I love came to my party.

Example: Either will do.

Example: Each of these cars is a fine choice.

As you work towards mastering English, there will be times of frustration. But don’t give up! Just remember, practice makes perfect.

About the Author

Warren Wong writes for 1-language.com, a website dedicated to helping people Learn English.

Article Source: Articles Engine

Author: Bryan S. Adar

Ralph Waldo Emerson (19th century American essayist) said that a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. He thought that what he called a great person doesn’t have to think consistently from one day to the next. Maybe so, but a great tech writer does need to think consistently – and write consistently, too.

Being consistent is very important in all types of writing from memos to technical manuals. The area we’re looking at today has to do with using numbers, abbreviations, and symbols. Each of these elements can be written in a variety of ways. For example: five feet, 5′, 5 ft., five ft. They all mean the same thing. Which one a writer uses is important, but using them in a consistent way is just as important. Five feet in one place should match five feet in another. This is poor usage: Five feet is enough space in front, but 5 ft. doesn’t allow enough space behind.

A style that is often suggested is that in documents where a word like foot shows up only once or twice, it’s written out. In documents where it appears multiple times, ft is better usage. That may be the writer’s call, or it may depend on the client’s style guide.

In the following sentences, it’s up to you. Use the style you prefer, but be consistent. Then, write a “rule” or “rules” that cover the situation. We’ve provided one preferred way of writing each sentence.

Example: We’ll arrive on 25 April and depart 06/05. We’ll arrive on April 25th and depart on June 5th. Rule: Be consistent in how you write dates. Rule: It’s safer to spell out month names.

1. The winning fish weighed 16 1/2 lb and was about 1.75m long.
2. These units are called MHz.
3. The base units come in boxes of ten @ a quarter each or $2 per box. measurement, or of specific importance.
4. 27 hourly employees will be involved in the transfer.
5. Check the % of items with values of less than .75.
6. The shipment will arrive between 11:00 am and 14:30.
7. Be sure the space is at least 6 1/2″ wide, 5.75 in. deep, and 11 inches long.
8. Use 300 pounds of type one, one thousand lbs of type 2, and 2 thousand kg of type three.
9. We need 50# of #5 widgets stet.

Exercise – Answer

1. The winning fish weighed 16 1/2 lb and was about 1.75m long. The winning fish weighed 16 1/2 lb and was about 5 3/4 ft long.
   Rule: Don’t mix metric and English measures.
2. These units are called MHz. These units are called megahertz (MHz).
   Rule: Write out the full word with the abbreviation in parenthesis the first time it’s used.
3. The base units come in boxes of ten @ a quarter each or $2 per box. The base units come in boxes of 10 at the cost of 25 cents each or $2 per box.
   Rule: Use numerals when the amount is a key value, an exact measurement, or of specific importance.
4. 27 hourly employees will be involved in the transfer. The transfer will involve 27 hourly employees.
   Rule: Don’t begin a sentence with a numeral.
5. Check the % of items with values of less than .75. Check the percent of items with values of less than .75.
   Rule: Use symbols only with specific values, not as a substitute for the word.
6. The shipment will arrive between 11:00 am and 14:30. The shipment will arrive between 11:00 am and 2:30 pm.
   Rule: Don’t mix 12-hour and 24-hour time designations.
7. Be sure the space is at least 6 1/2″ wide, 5.75 in. deep, and 11 inches long. Be sure the space is at least 6 1/2″ wide, 5 3/4″ deep, and 11″ long.
   Rule: Use abbreviations consistently. Rule: Don’t mix decimals and fractions.
8. Use 300 pounds of type one, one thousand lbs of type 2, and 2 thousand kg of type three. Use 300 lb of type 1, 1,000 lb of type 2, and 4,400 lb of type 3.
   Rule: Use numerals when the amount is a key value, an exact measurement, or of specific importance. Rule: Don’t mix metric and English measures.
9. We need 50# of #5 widgets stet. We need 50 lb. of no. 5 widgets immediately.
   Rule: Write out symbols that have more than one meaning.
   Rule: Avoid abbreviations that are not universally familiar.

If you can write a simple sentence in English and organize your thoughts then technical writing may be a rewarding field. You can easily make it a second income stream in your spare time.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the average salary for technical writers is $60,380. Freelance technical writers can make from $30 to $70 per hour.

The field of technical writing is like a golden city. It’s filled with wealth, rewards and opportunities. After learning technical writing you can branch out into business writing, marketing writing and communications writing. All of these can become additional income streams.

But to succeed you must learn how to market yourself to clients. You have to prove to them that you are an invaluable asset. That’s where ProTech – Your Fast Track to Becoming a Successful Technical Writer can help. It’s a technical writing course that does two equally important things:

1. It teaches you the skills to become a technical writer in the shortest time frame. You’ll learn to create manuals, procedures, tutorials, processes, proposals, spec sheets and other documents that businesses need.
2. It shows you how to market yourself to clients so you can start your income stream as soon as possible.

In fact, you’ll get a complete marketing toolkit which has templates and technical writing job sites to get started immediately!

You can download two sample lessons by clicking the link below.

This could be your chance to create a prosperous future.

Click the link below to download your two sample lessons.

https://www.techwritingcourse.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bryan_S._Adar
http://EzineArticles.com/?Learn-Technical-Writing—Exercise—Consistent-Use-of-Numbers,-Abbreviations-and-Symbols&id=1458926

The field of content writing serves as a very important feature in a website. The main reason people visit the site is to search for information on different goods and services. Audiences will be satisfied if they get informative and satisfactory content on one’s site. Besides this, a site needs to be well designed as well with information-rich content in order to drive more traffic.

Easy and simple language is the prerequisite of any content. There are a few pointers that need to be reminded at all costs in order to excel in the field of content writing. The first and foremost point is to ensure that the language of the content is in accordance with audiences for whom the articles, reviews or blogs are meant.

For example, if a content writer intends to write a promotional article, then he needs to know the nature and services offered by that particular business and its technical terms in order to make the best promotional style content. Also, a very simple and easy to understand language needs to be used in writing content for the sites so that even the lay man can easily get to know what the content is all about. The writer needs to think from the place of the reader and offer complete information.

Essentials of content writing – authenticity, organization and numbering.

Organization of content is also very crucial and includes proper designing and formatting of the information gathered from various sources. The writer can write an entire article in a single paragraph or can even make the content easy to read by arranging the headings. The relevancy of pointers needs to be properly handled so that the audiences can analyze distinction of paragraphs.

Numbering and bulleting needs to be used in the content to highlight the most important points. This will automatically make the article effective along with breaking the visual monotony.

It is wise to use the conversational language as it helps the readers to feel more involved in content thereby motivating them to continue reading the article.

In addition, the authenticity and originality of the content needs to be considered wisely because offering wrong or prejudiced information to readers can in turn provide negative or incomplete impact.

Needless to say, to be a successful and popular content writer, it is very imperative to have that passion and flair to write. Until the writer is extremely passionate about his or her job, they can produce only mundane and dull content. so, follow these simple and beneficial tips in order to write exceptional content for the targeted audiences.

About the Author

Visit sem-infotech.com for content writing services, ppc management and professional seo services.

Article source: http://www.articler.com/

Author: William Meikle

A lot of beginners go off the rails when they’ve got a nice clean sheet of paper or a blank screen in front of them and they’ve got to fill it with words – meaningful words.

The way to avoid the cold feeling of panic is to have a plan of action. The type of plan that works best for you depends on your personality. Some of you will make structured lists, with every small detail itemized and all T’s crossed. Or you may have a vague set of instructions, sometimes little more than remembering to have a beginning, middle and end. Others of you will find that the best way to work is just to start writing and see where it takes you.

The way to find what will work for you is to plan out some example pieces of work. You might never write them, but the practice will benefit you. For example, how would you go about writing an episode of your favourite TV show, or an article on a local photography exhibition, or a review of a best-seller? By writing a plan of approach, you’ll give yourself an idea of what the final piece of work would require. When I started writing short stories I used to deconstruct famous stories and plan how I’d re-write them.

The planning step also gives you a check as to whether or not you actually want to write the piece. And remember, if you plan not to have a plan, you’ve still decided on a plan. And don’t stop here.

It’s now time to plan your opening sentence. To get readers to keep reading you need a hook, something that will lead them in and keep them there until you’ve told them what they didn’t know they needed to know. Crime writers kill people, romance novelists have people get divorced, good writers hint at a conflict to come but hide it in the middle of something else. Journalists scream at you in huge type and article writers ask you rhetorical questions, all in the first five seconds of reading.

Go away and study the structure of some writing. Look at how writers grab you and reel you in like an expert fisherman.

And ask yourself, “How would I do that?”

Source: http://www.articlecircle.com/ – Free Articles Directory

About the Author:

William Meikle is currently planning his ninth novel. Read more articles at his website at http://www.williammeikle.com

Author: Bernardamhkopecky

Today every business, whether big or small, needs to handle a great deal of information. This is the main reason why they need access to reliable data management software. Data management solutions offer help in filing, securing, retrieving and sharing information. The system is an organized, methodical process that stores and recovers the documents whenever required, thereby reducing manual work hours considerably.

Data Management — Defined

Data Management is an electronic filing system that involves various systems like electronic production, storage and retrieval of files.

The system provides secure access to only those who have the authority to admission. Besides handling paper documents and text files, data management solutions also effectively manage data capture of all audio, video, faxes, reports, emails, fonts, graphics, photos and images through electronic scanning and electronic imaging.

Data Management — The Need

Data management solutions were first created to overcome the confusion and time it took to retrieve documents manually. Their creation was an effort to develop a “paperless” office wherein the filing system of the entire organization could be managed electronically.

Benefits of Document Management

Document organization solutions effectively streamline the entire working process of any office environment.

The benefits of document management software include:

• An effective means to transform all paper filing systems into electronic ones. This enables greater and faster information access.
• It optimizes the business processes that ultimately increase the efficiency and productivity of the workforce.
• It simplifies record retention and destruction procedures.

Document Management — Components

Here is a brief description of the data management solutions offered by the system:

1. Metadata: Also known as data capture, metadata includes the date the document was stored and the identity of the user who stored the document. Modern systems make use of optical character recognition or perform text extraction for all electronic documents. Data capture helps users locate the documents by identifying specific keywords. It also helps convert all digital images into machine readable ones via electronic scanning and electronic imaging.
2. Integration: Document management systems effectively integrate the system with other applications. This helps the user retrieve data from the repository, make changes, and save it back as a new version.
3. Indexing and storage: Indexing helps keep track of the documents by providing a simple classification of the stored documents.
4. Retrieval: Retrieving the electronic documents from storage involves simple recovery of the unique documents. Complex systems today also make use of partial search items, so that the user can access parts of the required metadata.
5. Distribution and security: All published documents in the system cannot be easily altered. The documents are accessible to only those who successfully complete the entire security process.

In summary, document management solutions have become an indispensable part of organizations today. Advanced techniques used for data capture like electronic scanning, electronic imaging help strengthen the entire business process.

Article source: ArticlePros.com

About the author

Our document management solutions help companies save money by better managing, accessing, and maintaining their electronic and paper based documents through our document imaging, data capture and document storage and retrieval capabilities.

• www.octacom.ca
• Other articles by bernardamhkopecky