Technical Writing For Dummies

Book excerpt: A complete and friendly guide to technical writing! Let’s face it, a lot of technical documentation reads as if it had been translated into English from Venutian by a native speaker of gibberish. Which is annoying for you and expensive for the manufacturer who pays with alienated customers and soaring technical support costs. That’s why good technical writers are in such big demand worldwide. Now, Technical Writing For Dummies arms you with the skills you need to cash in on that demand. Whether you’re contemplating a career as a technical writer, or you just got tapped for a technical writing project, this friendly guide is your ticket to getting your tech writing skills up to snuff. It shows you step-by-step how to: Research and organize information for your documents Plan your project in a technical brief Fine-tune and polish your writing Work collaboratively with your reviewers Create great user manuals, awesome abstracts, and more Write first-rate electronic documentation Write computer- and Web-based training courses Discover how to write energized technical documents that have the impact you want on your readers. Wordsmith Sheryl Lindsell-Roberts covers all the bases, including: All about the red-hot market for technical writing and how to get work as a technical writer The ABCs of creating a strong technical document, including preparing a production schedule, brainstorming, outlining, drafting, editing, rewriting, testing, presentation, and more Types of technical documents, including user manuals, abstracts, spec sheets, evaluation forms and questionnaires, executive summaries, and presentations Writing for the Internet—covers doing research online, creating multimedia documents, developing computer-based training and Web-based training, and writing online help Combining examples, practical advice, and priceless insider tips on how to write whiz-bang technical documents, Technical Writing For Dummies is an indispensable resource for newcomers to technical writing and pros looking for new ideas to advance their careers.