I'm sure there are classes you can take on technical writing, but here are a few things to keep in mind.
Good writing requires a top-down approach, just like network design. ;-) You shouldn't just start writing. Think about your goals first and jot down some notes about this. Think about your audience. What is the reading level of the audience? Many Americans have a reading level of about the 7th grade. ;-) Are some of your readers not native English speakers? Will some of your readers have some biases you will need to work around? Develop a hierarchical outline. Develop it incrementally. Maybe it will start as just a simple list, but expand it. Determine subtopics and subtopics of subtopics. Rearrange topics if necessary. Plan to spend as much time designing your document as writing and checking it. When you start writing, start with the outline and build it up. Keep building it up until you get to the point of writing entire sentences. And finally, the most important thing that distinguishes good writing from bad writing is editing. You must read over what you wrote and make sure it makes sense, you haven't left out words, haven't incorrectly used homonyms, etc. It's best to let 24 hours go by before editing. Otherwise, you won't see your mistakes any better than you saw them when you wrote it. Read your work aloud. That really helps you catch missing words, etc. Other than that, I guess I would just say that it's like anything else. You have to practice! ;-) Good luck with it. Priscilla blitzlight wrote: > > Hi all, > > I know some of you in this group are technical writers - you > know who you are ;-). > I respect you guys as one who can explain complex technical > matters in simple and easy to understand statements. > > One of my biggest hurdle, as always is in the area of > "Technical Writing". Be it in the form of RFP, Architecture > Document, Report etc, as long as it involves putting stuff from > my head into words, I'm stuck! I could stare at the screen for > 30 minutes and my word document is still > blank. > > My question is: How do you learn technical writing? where to > start? any good books you would recommend me to read? Any > help/pointers will be much appreciated. > > TIA! :) > Don > > Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=50079&t=50077 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
