Hyderabad Technical WriterA blog for Technical Writing Tips and Tricks, Quick Reference Guides, Technology, Hyderabad, and India
Information About Indexing
An index performs a unique function. It accesses the information from the user’s point of view. When users can use their own words, they will need less time to find the correct information.
Barker (1998) gives five guidelines for designing a good index:
Decide on the index methodology
You can generate your index manually or electronically. Manual index [...]
Technical Writers books
Technical Writing – Process and Product
S. J. Gerson
Pearson Education Asia
Mastering Technical Writing
Josef C. Mancuso
Addison & Wesley Publishing Co.
The User Manual Manual
Michael Bruner
ISBN- 0-9669949-1-4
Untechnical Writing
Michael Bruner
ISBN- 0-9669949-0-6
A Technical Writer’s Guide to Instructional Design and Development
Rives Hassell-Corbiell
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Process phases in creating a document
Task assignee
Write first draft Technical Writer
Create rough graphics Technical Writer
Internal review Technical Writer and Editor
Create working draft Technical Writer and Editor
Create working graphics illustrator
Technical review technical liaison
Create formal review draft Technical Writer and Editor
Formal customer / user review customer / user
Produce final baseline document Technical Writer and Editor
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What should a successful documentation work contain?
Meets the business and technical needs of the client
Responds to and resolves the identified documentation issues
Proceeds through to final delivery without undue difficulty or unexpected Problems
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Responsibilities of the Technical Writer
Technical writers have a variety of responsibilities in the documentation process. They generally include:
Effective documentation
Writers should create documentation that is complete, accurate, and accessible to the user in style and presentation. Writers should obtain all available information and convey it to the target audience accurately and in an effective manner as defined by the audience [...]
A good starting point to document XML schemas
The http://www.docbook.org is a really a good starting point in how to document XML schemas.
For more information refer to DocBook Element Reference chapter and to to see example of how the elements are documented. Click this URL.
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Estimating Documentation Time
The information below displays average times to complete the various stages of the project. It assumes that the writer is entering the text directly into a computer sytem and that the desktop publishing is used.
Stage [...]
Corporate Communications
Corporate Communications includes marketing collaterals, press notes, logos and promotions; handling the intranet. It is geared to create and maintain a corporate image. One may even have to face television cameras, in the worst-case scenario.
Thus it involves, besides writing skills, the kind of skills advertisement people are supposed to have – visualization, creativity, [...]
Product Development Life Cycle (PDLC)
Generally, PDLC has the following phases:
1. Scope
2. Design
3. Manufacturing
4. Quality Assurance
5. Packaging and Distribution
6. Product Maintenance
Each of the above phases involves a lot of documentation. The following are some of the documents that are created during PDLC:
1. Product requirements specification, Scope document, product version plan (Scope)
2. Functional design, Technical Design, Projected plan (Design)
3. Manufacturing process, [...]
Good Writing Leads to Good Testing
Good Writing Leads to Good Testing
By Mike Alexander
Summary: Writing isn’t easy–let me just make that perfectly clear. Anyone who tells you that writing is easy is either lying to you or doesn’t understand what quality writing entails. Writing requires careful thought, a great deal of planning, constant review of your work-in-progress, and a great deal [...]
