Writing Tips for a Diverse Audience

Today, at ProEdit's technical writing course at SPSU, the following question was asked:

"What can you do if the audience you are writing for includes a mix of nonspecialists, technicians, and experts?"

Jacque Henson, ProEdit's Manager of Information Development, offered these great tips for addressing the challenge:

1. State which audience you are addressing in the heading of each section. Make the headings bold so they're easy to see.
2. Create modules. This introduces the flexibility to proceed quickly and skip sections.
3. Include navigational aids, like a table of contents, site map, appendix, and a list of figures and captions.
4. Use examples. This will help the novice apply the new information in a real-world setting and allow advanced users to confirm their knowledge. 
5. Include graphics.

What are your tips for addressing this issue?

Having Problems with Your Internet?

Starting on Friday, Aug. 5, 2011, communication media, including the Internet and cell phones, experienced brief inoperability due to a solar storm. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that solar flares would interrupt some satellite communications over the weekend, and additional solar flares are now expected to impact the Earth’s magnetic field on Wednesday or Thursday.

These solar flares were only medium-sized, but they won’t be the last. According to the NOAA, the worst solar flares occurred more than 150 years ago, and a similar storm is brewing for 2013.

Have you thought about how your business will continue to run if your network went down, or worse, something happens to your physical building? How will you gain access to critical data? Do your employees know your company’s protocol in case of a national disaster? Do you have a Disaster Recovery Plan or Master Recovery Policy and Plan?

Every business needs a recovery plan, but very few take the time to develop and document a detailed plan. Do you have the right personnel to create this valuable document? At ProEdit, we make it our business to know the best technical writers in the industry. With more than 50,000 talented professionals in our network, we can help you find the perfect person for the job. ProEdit's contractors can be ready to work for you at a moment's notice so you’ll be ready the next time the power flickers or the sun flares.

NOAA Website:  Read more about solar flares and what you can expect.

Solar Flare 2011: See amazing pictures and videos of the recent solar flares. Read additional details about the effects of the recent solar flares.

ProEdit Staffing: Learn more about the benefits of ProEdit’s staffing services.

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Mention discount code "solar flare" and receive
15% off your first staffing invoice.
Act fast! Offer ends September 15, 2011.

www.ProEdit.com | (678) 861-0229 | (888) 776-3348

It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s Your Tech Comm Team!

Maybe they aren’t faster than a speeding bullet (although that would be nice) or more powerful than a locomotive. Maybe they can’t burst into flames, turn invisible, walk through walls, fly, or read your mind (that would be nice, too). But that doesn’t mean that your technical communications team can’t save the day.

As a business, you have a product or service to offer, and to let the world know how, when, where, and why to use it, you need an expert technical communications team.

“I work alone.”
Wolverine was cool, but without the X-Men, he could never have accomplished the things he did.

A team is made up of individuals, so it stands to reason that an effective team is made up of effective individuals. The Justice League needed the best of the best. They needed members who were able to fly, live under water, wield a golden lasso, or run faster than the speed of light. You need the best of the best, too—a tech comm team that can write, design, edit, and work together to accomplish every project you send its way.

In developing documentation, writers and designers need to gather information, identify project requirements, become familiar with the subject, and most importantly write and design effectively. Editors need to be grammar, syntax, and style guides experts as well as observant, careful, and patient in order to improve writing for publication.

A talented, dedicated, and experienced staff of writers, designers, editors is essential to the success of all documentation projects.

“Set phasers to stun.”
Okay, so Captain Kirk and Spock weren’t superheroes, but what would they have been without their weapons? (Plus, the phrase was catchy.)

An effective tech comm team needs to be familiar with leading technology in the communications field. Companies develop new software daily that simplify processes from designing an illustration to creating a rapid eLearning environment.

Thirty years ago, the latest and greatest asset to technical communications was a copying machine that allowed an instructional designer to draw an illustration on paper, tape it to the document, and then copy it to produce a completed page. What then took half of a day’s work to accomplish now takes minutes with software like Adobe Illustrator and InDesign.

Tired of sitting in the conference room of yore and listening to a long-winded instructor explain your new training policies and procedures? Imagine sitting at a computer viewing an interactive learning environment with audio, visual, video, and assessment features allowing you to control the pace! If your tech comm team is familiar with Articulate Rapid eLearning Studio or similar software, then such a scenario could be a reality.

Using the up-to-date, industry-leading software can make all the difference in efficiency and presentation quality.

“With great power comes great responsibility.”
Peter Parker had to learn this lesson the hard way, but the writers, editors, and designers on your payroll should know this from the start.

Once research and development are through, the tech comm team is in control of your project. It is their responsibility not only to meet deadlines and budgets, but to ensure that they meet every objective to produce a product you will be proud of. While the writers are busy writing, the designers are busy designing, and editors are busy editing, who has time to coordinate all the details of project cohesion?

Projects need managers. Someone needs to oversee all areas of documentation development in order to meet every objective. Because managers are accountable for what they oversee, they push their teams to go beyond the status quo, creating products that clients can be proud of.

If you do not have a documentation department on site, there are companies who have super technical communications teams, ready and willing to save the day for your project.

Written by: Johnathan Cunningham, ProEdit


Need help with a project?  Contact ProEdit for a free quote or give us a call at 1-888-776-3348.

Is Ben Franklin to blame?

Did you know that 259 years ago (in 1752, do the math) Benjamin Franklin allegedly created all your issues with gadgets and gizmos? If the legend holds true, when he flew that famous kite and got the shock of his life, his discovery of electricity started the ball rolling for all the electronic doodads and addictions that plague us today and make our digital communication so difficult and important. So the next time you want to smack your iPhone around for autocorrecting your texts or throw your laptop out the window when spell check fails you yet again, just take a calming breath and whisper curses at Poor Richard and all that he hath wrought upon us. (And tell him you still haven’t forgiven him for wanting to make the turkey our national bird.)

Written by: Sean Taylor, ProEdit

What other things happened on this day in history?


Learn more about ProEdit's services. 

Managing a Successful Brand: The Importence of Producing Error-Free Content

Did you notice the spelling mistake in the title of this piece? Chances are you did. In fact, it probably sprang from the page almost immediately. These types of editorial errors play a big role in how your company is perceived. From the first page to the last, error-free content is of the utmost importance. Communications documents, whether internal or external, that are riddled with spelling, grammar, or formatting errors can pose a potential threat to the future of your company! When these types of errors continuously pop up in your content, you can be sure that your clients or potential clients are making negative judgments about your company, employees, and services. These kinds of perceptions, however harmless they may seem, can hurt the top-notch brand you worked so hard to create.

Negative Judgment #1: Your Company is Unprofessional
You know that your company is professional. You’ve worked hard to develop an image that your company’s services are at the top of your field. Content that has a lot of errors is a red flag that your company is not carefully and thoroughly reviewing materials for publication. This can indicate a level of unprofessionalism, since the way you present your company to the world should be high on your list of priorities for creating and managing a positive brand. If you can’t take the time to ensure that your own products are perfect, how can potential clients know you won’t do the same to them?

Negative Judgment #2: Your Employees are Not Skilled
Of course you employ only the best in your field. But even skilled writers and editors make spelling and grammar errors in initial drafts. Tight deadlines make people work faster, which means the important quality assurance phase of document production is often foregone to deliver the product on time. Producing error-free content is as simple as carefully reviewing any material you’ve written. Enlist the help of a colleague or two to give the document additional pairs of eyes and make sure to use the “Spell Check” function in your word processor.

Negative Judgment #3: Your Services and Deliverables are Low-Quality
Imagine opening an issue of Time magazine and finding multiple editorial errors on the first page. You turn to the next page, which is just as plagued by spelling and grammar mistakes. Regardless of what the article is actually saying, it’s hard to really trust content that doesn’t follow the basic rules of spelling and grammar. It’s like the old saying, “It’s not what you say; it’s how you say it.” Readers get distracted by mistakes on the page, and no matter how profound what you’re trying to say is, they will determine that your services are low-quality.

Everyone makes mistakes in their writing; it’s a natural part of the drafting process. However, you have to be ready to give your final product that finishing polish before presenting it to the public. No matter how small you think the errors may be, these kinds of mistakes speak volumes to your contacts. Protect your brand by making sure you are producing only the highest quality material!

Are writing and editing just not your company’s strong point? Contracting with a writing and editing service like ProEdit can help improve your content at a low cost and with a fast turnaround.

Learn more about ProEdit's services or request a quote. 

Branding: Your Message Needs a Word Tuxedo

Did you watch the royal wedding?

Think of what you didn’t see amidst all the grandeur and pomp and beauty: not one single pair of blue jeans, not one tank top, not one T-shirt with a funny caption. Why not? Because the dress code matched the event—formal, fancy, classy. Anything less than a suit or a tuxedo would have been out of place. Imagine jeans, tank tops, and funny T-shirts scattered throughout the church. That would have created a far different atmosphere and knocked formal, fancy, and classy down to informal, casual, and tacky.

What does this have to do with editing and branding?
Just like the wrong dress code can reduce a royal wedding extravaganza to a stereotypical shotgun wedding, the wrong dress code in your business communication can reduce your professional, informative, and unique company image to something cheap, unhelpful, and commonplace.

How do you dress your business communication properly to send the right message? Make sure your work has had “alterations” for the best fit. Only instead of seams and fabrics, use the tools of proofreading and editing.

Proofreading – Getting Rid of the Wrong
“But I ran it through spell check,” some may say. Well, as nice a tool as spell check is, it falls short in one vital area—it doesn’t think for itself. It’s only as good as its dictionary. Because of that, trusting it to make your copy foolproof is a risky proposition.

For example, spell check fails to understand the differences between “it’s” and “its” (though it does mark it while you’re typing, be careful—it’s often trying to “correct” it into a wrong usage) or “they’re” and “their” and “there.” It also doesn’t catch the common mistyping of words like “or” for “of” and “up” for “us.” And that’s the just the beginning. When it comes to proper usage, it doesn’t recognize the differences between “which” and “that” or “less than” and “under,” among other common grammatical mistakes.

Just ask the editors of the Brigham Young University student paper. In 2009, they trusted spell check to “proofread” their copy and accidently accepted the word “apostate” for a misspelling of “apostle.” Then they went to press without proofreading the “corrected” text—and quickly recalled 18,000 copies of the paper (http://www.sunjournal.com/node/85717). As honest a mistake as it was, it did cause the paper a lot of embarrassment.

Suppose you’re driving home and pass a billboard that reads “Better then our competitors.” That’s not exactly going to fill you with confidence in that company’s ability to do its job.  It doesn’t matter if that job is laying bricks and has nothing to do with writing or editing. It still reflects poorly on that company’s quality of work. “I wonder if they hurry through their brickwork too, and make similar mistakes,” you might think.  Sure, it is a simple mistake and a common error, but it speaks volumes about the business that made it. In other words, it hurt the brand in the eyes of a potential client.

The bottom line: Read your work to proofread it. Sure, use spell check and grammar checkers as tools, but yours must be the mind at work behind them to think beyond where their abilities stop short.

Editing – Making What’s Right Even Better
There’s a common misconception that editing and proofreading are just two ways of saying the same idea. The truth, however, is that editing picks up where proofreading ends.  Editing goes beyond correcting spelling and grammar to make your copy the best it can be. (To continue our analogy of getting dressed for the royal wedding, think of proofreading as taking a shower and getting clean—the basics—and editing as visiting your closet to choose the right suit or dress—adding the finishing touches to look your best.)

Good editing looks at style, tone, and voice. It makes sure your professional company has a professional image. It makes sure your casual surf shop has a casual tone in your communication. It makes sure your instructional copy is easy-to-follow and written simply and directly.

Good editing aims first for the ultimate goal of any written message—understanding. It aims for the simple instead of the verbose, the clearly defined instead of the esoteric, and the concrete instead of the abstract. It enables you to speak plain language to the average person rather than speaking jargon understandable only to those with doctorates in your field. Good editing helps you “determine the best options” rather than “delineate the most advantageous possibilities intrinsic to the market.”

Taking the time to edit your documents (or have them edited by someone else) will ensure your brand maintains the image you want to show off to your current and potential clients.

We’re often told that we “clean up well” when we put on something nice to wear, which for me usually means a coat and tie. It’s a cliché, but it’s true. When I go out, I want to put my best foot forward and talk and dress in a way that says something about me. In a word, I “edit” myself to send the right message.

Put Your Message on the Best Dressed List
Are you looking to improve your company's communication and ensure that your brand is seen in the appropriate light? Don’t let simple, common errors undermine your materials. Make sure to get your point across clearly and directly, and don’t hinder your message with a tone, style, and voice that doesn’t match your image.

In short, don’t show up at the royal wedding in jeans and a T-shirt.  It’s not pretty, and you’ll get all the wrong kind of attention.

Written by: Sean Taylor, ProEdit

Request a price quote for your editing project or give us a call at 1-888-776-3348.

Learn about ProEdit's services.

Technical Communication: Love It or Leave It

By Doug Davis

Our industry has more than its share of grumpy practitioners to whom the art of creating technical information means nothing more than a paycheck. They spend their days daydreaming of what their careers might have been if only this and that had happened. They go to sleep each night dreading the thought of another day working on that manual or with that person. To them I say, “Enough is enough.” Love it or leave it!

In this column, we are going to talk about why some technical communicators just plain hate their jobs. To aid me in my quest, I’m going to employ the aid of one of my favorite philosophers, Roseanne Rosannadanna, of Saturday Night Live fame.

“Well, Jane, it just goes to show you. It’s always something. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.”

We all know them and see them every day at work. They can find more reasons to complain about their job than there are ants in an anthill. “My boss is a jerk.” “I have to work too much overtime.” “My computer is too slow.” “This deadline is ridiculous.” Or my personal least favorite, “We don’t get any respect for what we do.” To them I say, “Shut up and get over it!” You are draining the life right out of your coworkers with your negativity.

Here’s the deal. Whether you want to admit it or not, everyone is ultimately self-employed. You are the one who decides how you are going to spend your day. Are you going to go to work today, or will you call in sick? Are you going to keep working at your current job, or will you go somewhere else? It doesn’t matter whether you are a permanent employee or a consultant. You are the only one that’s in charge of you.

You are probably familiar with the U.S. Army’s “An Army of One” slogan. Well, you are a “Company of One.” And you have a client ― your employer. If you can’t stand working for your employer any more, don’t complain. Fire them! Go somewhere else!

“Boy, Mr. Feder, you sure do ask a lot of stupid questions for a guy from New Jersey.”

I would encourage you to reevaluate your relationship with your client/employer at least once a year. If you work at a company that conducts annual performance reviews, this is a good time to do this. Your employer is taking this opportunity to assess how well you are doing for the company. It only stands to reason that this would also be a good time for you to assess whether you want to sign up for another year working with them. Question your assumptions about your job and your career. Give yourself a reality check.

For some, this can be very empowering. However, you have to accept the fact that you are accountable for your decisions. You are in control of every aspect of your career. Not your employer. If you hate your job, you have only yourself to blame.

“What are ya tryin' to do, make me sick?!”

If you ask technical communicators if they enjoy their jobs, one of the comments that makes me want to power barf is, “Well, what can you say? It pays the bills.”

I think this is the worst reason in the world to stay at a job. You spend such a huge part of your life at work ― is paying the bills really that fulfilling? When your days are numbered, do you really want to look back on your life’s accomplishments as a series of debits and credits to your bank account?

We live in a time of unprecedented prosperity. There is a whole world out there full of careers that you can be happy doing, if you are wired up to be a happy person. If you read this column and you are one of those grumpy practitioners who just enjoy being disgruntled, then I can’t help you. Perhaps nobody can.

However, if you are unhappy in your job and honestly want things to change, then there are ways to dig yourself out of the hole you’ve stumbled into. Start with some good books. My favorites are What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard Nelson Bolles and Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. Also, it may be worthwhile to seek out a therapist or good friend to help you assess where you are and where you’d like to be.

The bottom line is to not just stay in that unhappy place. Make up your mind to do something about it. Make your job into what you want it to be.

I’d like to close by explaining why I love my job. First, I love my coworkers. It sounds corny, but we are really like extended family. Second, I love my job because I have an insatiable curiosity about how things work. Much to my family’s dismay, I love to watch TV shows about how this, that, or the other works. I love to tour assembly plants and see products coming together. I love talking to people about what they do. My heroes are Edison, Einstein, and the Wright Brothers. The quest to build a better mousetrap just fascinates me.

That’s why I love my job, and I’m not planning to leave anytime soon.

Who’s Next? Making Your Job Outsource-proof

By Doug Davis

Fellow technical communicators, what I’m about to say is not going to win me any popularity contests. It’s the 1000-pound gorilla in the living room. It’s the emperor’s new clothes. Here it is. Ready? Outsourcing is here to stay. But why? Because a whole lot of the time, those outsourcing relationships work out just fine for the companies that choose to pursue them.

Of course, if you end up on the wrong end of a pink slip because of some outsourcing arrangement, you are in for one of the most traumatic times of your life. But if you stay ahead of the prevailing wind, there are some things you can do to help prevent your job from being the one that’s axed.

And just to liven things up a bit, I’ve included some song lyrics in italics. 


In the Beginning...

“The change it had to come. We knew it all along.”

Where did all of this outsourcing stuff come from anyway? The outsourcing fire was fanned by two big trends in our industry. The first was economics. During the nineties, the cost of experienced technical communicators kept going up, up, and up. Then, when profits within the technology sector started to fall, bean counters started looking for ways to cut costs. Outsourcing was perceived to be the answer to their financial woes.

The second big reason was the advent of telecommuting. In our industry’s eagerness to embrace telecommuting, we unwittingly set ourselves up for our jobs to be outsourced. The downside of being able to telecommute is that jobs that are able to be done remotely can be done by someone who is, well, remote. Low-cost computers, high-bandwidth Internet connections, standardization of toolsets, and countless presentations to upper management on the benefits of telecommuting set us up for outsourcing. Ready … aim … shoot your own foot.

So, for those of you whose jobs haven’t been outsourced, what can you do to help reduce the likelihood that your job will be outsourced? Here are six techniques you can use to help outsource-proof your job.

Technique 1. Ex-telecommute yourself.

“I’ll move myself and my family aside.”

If you are a telecommuter, you can easily find yourself out of the rumor loop. Make sure to have regular face time at the office and around the water cooler. Keep your ear to the cubicle wall. Learn what’s happening in other parts of the company. If outsourcing is happening elsewhere, be on red alert. It’s probably being considered on a much more widespread basis.

Technique 2. Suck up big time.

“Smile and grin at the change all around.”

When you were in school, did the teacher’s pet ever get expelled from school?  Hmmm?  It’s not pretty, but sometimes it just pays to do extra stuff for your boss. Offer to edit his/her memos or help with presentations (after hours, of course, lest they think you don’t have enough real work to do). Through doing extra stuff for your boss, you’ll get some extra face time and may even get a tip that something’s afoot. Let them vent to you about the stresses and problems they are encountering, but be sure to keep quiet about what you learn. Information is a precious thing until everyone knows it. Make your move to another job if you need to, and then try to help your coworkers. It’s like what they say on airplanes, “Put your mask on before helping others.”

Technique 3. “I’d like mine with extra SMEs, please.”

“I’ll get all my papers and smile at the sky.”

If you’ve read any of my previous columns, you know that I’m a real advocate of technical communicators becoming subject matter experts. If you know your company’s products and services inside and out, it’s going to be hard for your employers to see you walk out the door with a cardboard box. One reason is that you may take your cardboard box right across the street to their top competitor. Knowing the industry you write about is much more important than knowing about the writing industry.

Technique 4. “Wrong, wrong, wrong … better … nope still wrong.”

“Sit in judgment of all wrong.”

It’s a common scenario for companies to outsource the writing functions but retain employees for editorial and quality control functions. If you think your department could be the target for future outsourcing, it would be wise to align your job duties as closely as possible with that of a lead editor or the last check before the work goes out the door.

Technique 5. Get bossy

“And the men who spurred us on …”

In most cases, the manager is the last person standing. Writers are more likely to get outsourced than editors. Editors are more likely to get outsourced than managers. But, managers, be forewarned. Always be a manager who does real work. Edit something. Write a chapter now and then. Keep your skills current so you will be viewed as a utility player, not as overhead.

Technique 6. “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”

“Meet the new boss. The same as the old boss.”

Let’s say that all has failed, and your job is about to be outsourced. Consider contacting the firm that’s going to provide the services to your employer and inquire about a job. You may be a very valuable commodity to the outsourcer because you know the stuff they are going to need in order to do the work, and you have an immediate project to work on for them.

Here’s one last thought on the subject of outsourcing. Don’t burn bridges with your former employers. They may need you back later. Then, it will be time for you to decide whether working with them is a good match for your long-term strategic goals. 

(Song lyrics, "Won't Get Fooled Again," Written by Pete Townsend, Performed by The Who. On Wikipedia)

© Copyright 2010, Doug Davis