Technical Writing Blog

Do you often watch How-to videos on YouTube? I am sure you do it from time to time. As for technical communication, video has already become widely spread in user manuals. Statistics show that up to 75% of users do watch video content while almost everyone neglects text. Let’s discuss in this post how to…

“The tendency of remote working in 2020 is blended into 2021”. And, the field of technical communication continues to grow since this sphere is one of those that are not tied to a certain workplace. Worldwide demand for simplified technical English also keeps growing because developing countries (i.e., India or China) export great amounts of…

What Is DITA? DITA is short for The Darwin Information Typing Architecture. It comprises the principles of specialization and inheritance that are much like the Darwinian theory. “Information typing” means the classification of information into topics, not “typing” as in keyboarding 🙂 “Architecture” is a hierarchy of elements or adaptable set of structures. It provides…

Last year was a huge challenge for the whole world. So many people had to change their careers as the global lockdown deprived them of their income. And, many people got stuck at home working. But I guess that is not the worst thing that might have happened. At least they do not have to…

As everyone says today, 2020 has drastically changed everything: our private lives, hobbies, relationships, habits, and careers. Technical writing is no exception. Unexpectedly, the pandemic has brought so much new in this sphere that we all need to figure out what is going to be a trend next year. More User Guides! Yes, in 2021,…

It is the end of December, and we are approaching the close of this atmospheric year for sure, time for some wrap-up. So what did 2020 bring us? Of course, first that pops up in one’s head is the pandemic. That event has changed the lives of the entire humanity. No person left untouched by…

Implementing password-protected user guides is something that any company may need. You may ask why someone would need to hide their online user documentation behind a login page? The answer is simple. Documentation can be different. Let’s say we talk about a coffee machine manual – it has to be public. The more users have…

One of the most common things users say about technical documentation is that it describes the information they already know. This fact reduces the value of the content to the minimum. Now, when thousands of software products and cloud services appear every day, some things and features seem to be common and widely spread. There…

Being a technical writer means getting writing tasks from other departments, not only your manager. It’s not like you don’t have enough on your plate already, but since you are really good at creating documentation, helping other teams out seems only natural. So, cross-team communication is an important part of this role. What’s more interesting…

Robots are often described as some kind of intruders in fiction books, movies, and games. They are soulless creatures that were invented by humans with the best intentions in mind, but it rarely ends well. If there’s no apocalypse, then there’s the robots-taking-our-jobs idea. And, quite frankly, it is not too far from the truth….