David S. How to Write A Manual

What the (explicit)! These are the words that came out of my mouth (well, maybe a little more) last week when I was trying to setup my new "easy to install" printer. I'm sure these words have also come out of your mouth many times when trying to read a poorly written manual. Wouldn't it be nice if the manufacturer of your newly purchased item only cared as much about your manual as they do their profits! Well, if your profession ever ends up being the writer responsible for these beloved manuals, here are a few tips.

1. Be familiar with the process you will be describing.
If you have never done the process before, it is best to practice it before writing about it. If it is not possible to practice it, then at least take the time to read up on it. It may be best to have an expert in the field to review your writing before finalizing it.
2. Start before the first step.
If supplies are needed, list them in order of use and the quantity needed. If the supplies are included, name each piece to avoid confusion and list what steps the supplies are needed.
3. Review your steps
As the writer, you should go through each step as you write it so nothing is left out. If it isn't feasible to actually do the steps, think them through thoroughly.
4. Numbering the steps.
Number the steps, and leave space for additions between each step. Make sure that your steps are in logical order and written thoroughly.
5. Perform your written steps.
After writing your written instructions, do the things you wrote in your manual. As you come to places where your instructions are lacking, add in the necessary information. Repeat this step until you have all the steps written down correctly and can completely perform your written task without any problems.
6. Making Headers.
Once you have all the necessary steps detailed, go through your manual to find the obvious category heads. Mark these so your reader can easily find them. Title your category heads in bold type for ease of use.
7. Write a Table of Contents.
A table of contents makes it easy for your reader to quickly access a certain piece of information. The more detailed your manual is, the more categories and subcategories you will need.
8. Select a title for your manual!
At last, select a title that is best suited for your manual.
These steps that I have written are just the basics of manual writing. Writing a manual can be an intimidating task, but following the few fundamental guidelines I have given you on this page will make you one more step closer to being a better manual writer. Hopefully, by following these steps, you will make the manual easy to read so people that read your manual don’t have to swear, kick, pout, and throw a fit when trying to figure out your manual!

Sources: http://jnd.org/dn.mss/how_to_write_an_effective_manual.html

Jorge C. Do I have to write in my career?

Writing, not that many people like the idea of writing; some people choose their majors by influencing in how much writing that career has to do. Being honest every profession you think about has some writing to do, it doesn’t matter what you do. Writing could be something as complex as a manual to a new software that your company develop or as simple as an email to your boss asking for the day off. There are many things you don’t consider writing such as prescription by a doctor, a ticket by a cop, or a rejection letter by a college, because is not long or complicated, it has been done a tremendous amount time and now is like second nature. After, this being said just keep in mind that you always going to have some writing to do.

One of the most important things we have to remember when writing is rhetoric. Rhetoric is the art of using words to persuade people, or how words work and affect audiences. Rhetoric is how you engaged your audiences into your writing. In order to do that you need to analyze the situation: purpose, audience, stakeholders, and context. Then you use this information to adjust to the situation, instead of just thinking of the document itself. Other important things to keep in mind that importance of establishing your credibility or expertise in the topic, trust, and goodwill. Technical writing in your major has to focus on the expectations, goals, situations, and needs of the readers in order to be effective.
For an example of the use of the rhetoric you could watch the youtube video is really short and it provides two example of how you could persuade people. Also, for a better explanation on rhetoric you could go to the other link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPW00i5CH6E
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/624/01/

Zac L's Tips on How to be Persuasive in Writing

There are countless occasions where I had to convince someone to see things MY way. Whether it be my parents, teachers, or even my peers, the act of persuading someone is always a useful thing to have in your arsenal. Although you may think persuading someone to support your ideas may be easy, it can be a whole different story when writing. Therefore I have compiled a list of tips on using persuasion when writing (1 being most important and 6 being least important):
1. You must first grab the attention of the reader as quickly as possible. (preferably from the first line)
2. You must stay focused on what you want the reader to be convinced on. (don’t get off topic and stay consistent throughout)
3. You must provide examples that support your claim. (the more the better!)
4. You should be concise and to the point as the reader may not remain attentive.
5. You should also compare your claim to other related ideas.
6. Lastly, you must insure that you do not try to manipulate or bribe the reader in any way.(Although this is listed as least important, it is still imperative that you follow it!)
-The cartoon is an example of what not to do!
These tips have proven to be quite helpful for me and I can assure you that they will benefit everyone just the same!

David B.'s Guidelines to Technical Writing

Have you ever gotten a new T.V. or Video Game console, and could not figure out how to set it up? Have you ever looked in the box it came in and pulled out the instructions or just had your technical suave friend come over and do it for you? Well, anyways, I bet you then learned just how important these instruction booklets are. Now, have you ever gone through the same scenario, except you did read the instructions and still couldn't put together your new Christmas present? This would definitely be from poor instructions. Instructional writing must be very colloquial as to not render too much jargon. The people that write these books have guidelines, believe it or not, and it's dire they follow them to execute purchases to consumers and keep their product in the market. A few basic guidelines they follow are:

• Keeping technical jargon to a minimal
• using pictures if necessary to help explain
• Making sure steps are in precise order
• Giving instruction in appropriate languages
• Using a table of contents
• Using a glossary if necessary
• Writing instructions in the least amount of words possible without depleting importance.

These are just basic guidelines used to assist technical writing instructors, but there's no right way to give instructions as long as the instructions follow a basic form of organization and clearness.

D.Goldstein's Informal and formal reports

Informal reports are important in many workplace situations and can be used in the following ways:

• Introducing a proposal or plan to investors


• Describe a problem to a client


• Explain a new policy to an employee


• Announcing the status of a project to a manager

Informal reports can also be written for many different people and purposes and can be written for both internal and external audiences. Informal reports can be composed in different genre types such as:

• Memos


• letters


• Emails

The main types of informal reports that most of us have seen or been around are progress reports, lab reports and incident reports.

Formal reports on the other hand, solve problems that meet the audiences needs and expectations. Formal reports also tend to be much longer , more in depth and formatted in a different way than informal reports. The most important factor in writing formal reports is the research! Formal reports are also composed collaboratively.

The main type of formal reports are:

• Recommendation reports


• Feasibility reports


• Evaluation reports

Sources:

http://learn.seoeng.com/images/reports-available.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovN0qzF48vI

David S. Interviews with Professionals Who Do Professional Writing

I have recently conducted a “virtual” interview with professional writer Christopher Moore. I asked him for some tips on how to become an accomplished professional writer and how difficult it is to become one. The following is a short script of our conversation.

Me: “How easy or difficult is it to become a published writer?”

Moore: “Becoming a "published" writer isn't that difficult. If one has a little talent and is willing to work, it's not that tough to get published in local magazines and papers. Now becoming a NATIONALLY published writer, that's a different story, and very often takes years of work and tons of luck as well. It's obviously easier to publish non-fiction than fiction, simply because there's so much more of it, but it's still not easy.”

Me: “What is the key ingredient to success in the publishing industry?”

Moore: “Honestly? Luck. I read authors every year who are better than I am and are not as successful. On the other hand, there are authors who are just horrible and they sell many, many more copies than I do. (I really only have my own experience as a measure.) The difference, as far as I can see, is luck.”

Me: “What advice would you give to an aspiring writer who is not currently a good writer or has nothing interesting to write about?”

Moore: “Well, not being very good can usually be fixed, but having nothing interesting to write about can't. If you can't think of anything to write about, it's best, probably, to learn another skill or aspire to a different career. (I'm talking about fiction here. If you want to write non-fiction, you can always work as a journalist. Then they tell you what to write.) So my advice would be, and is, if you're not very good, but you'd like to be, then take five years, learn your craft, do some writing, and if you're still not good, go do something else. You'll live a lot happier life that way. Writing is too hard to do if you aren't enjoying it and getting better.”

As you can see from this virtual interview, anyone can become a professional writer if they aspire to be one. As long as you have the will and motivation to write, your dream of becoming a published writer may just come true.

Sources: http://www.chrismoore.com/on_writing.html