Every complex product needs to be explained to its users, and technical writers, also known as technical communicators, are the ones who do that job. A growing field, technical writing requires multiple skills, including an understanding of technology, writing ability, and great people skills. Whether you're thinking of becoming a technical writer, just starting out, or you've been working for a while and feel the need to take your skills to the next level, The Insider's Guide to Technical Writing can help you be a successful technical writer and build a satisfying career. Inside the Book Is This Job for Me? What does it take to be a technical writer? Building the Foundation: What skills and tools do you need to get started? The Best Laid Plans: How do you create a schedule that won’t make you go crazy? How do you manage different development processes, including Agile methodologies? On the Job: What does it take to walk into a job and be productive right away? The Tech Writer Toolkit: How do you create style guides, indexes, templates and layouts? How do you manage localization and translation and all the other non-writing parts of the job? I Love My Job: How do you handle the ups and downs of being a technical writer? Appendixes: References to websites, books, and other resources to keep you learning. Index

If you can write clear, concise instructions, then you can be a technical writer. Learn, step-by-step, how to turn your creative writing talent into a highly lucrative career, where you get paid big money consistently to use your writing skills.

"Plan, structure, write, review, publish"--Cover.

Details the skills you need as a technical writer to create both printed and online content. This valuable reference describes the entire development process-planning, writing, visual design, editing, indexing, and production. You also get tips on how to write information that is more easily translated into other languages. You'll learn about the importance of following templates and about how structured authoring environments based on Extensible Markup Language (XML) streamline the content development process. This updated third edition features new information on the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) standard for structured authoring, and it explains the impact of Web 2.0 technologies-blogs, wikis, and forums-on technical communication.

Comprehensive and truly accessible, Technical Communication guides students through planning, drafting, and designing the documents that will matter in their professional lives. Known for his student-friendly voice and eye for technology trends, Mike Markel addresses the realities of the digital workplace through fresh samples and cases, practical writing advice, and a companion Web site — TechComm Web — that continues to set the standard with content developed and maintained by the author. The text is also available in a convenient, affordable e-book format.

On Writing Well, which grew out of a course that William Zinsser taught at Yale, has been praised for its sound advice, its clarity, and for the warmth of its style. It is a book for anybody who wants to learn how to write or who needs to do some writing to get through the day, as almost everybody does. Whether you want to write about people or places, science and technology, business, sports, the arts, or about yourself in the increasingly popular memoir genre, On Writing Well offers you both fundamental principles as well as the insights of a distinguished practitioner. How to Write a Memoir tells you how to write the story of your life. Everyone has a story - whether you're a professional writer or just want to validate your personal and family reminiscences, William Zinsser explains how to do it, and do it well.

The focus of this text is to teach engineering students the skill of technical writing. It takes a project oriented approach and covers writing functions that are of particular use to the engineering student. This book is part of the B.E.S.T. Series.