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.

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

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

Engineers and scientists of all types are often required to write reports, summaries, manuals, guides, and so forth. While these individuals certainly have had some sort of English or writing course, it is less likely that they have had any instruction in the special requirements of technical writing. Filling this void, Technical Writing: A Practical Guide for Engineers and Scientists enables readers to write, edit, and publish materials of a technical nature, including books, articles, reports, and electronic media. Written by a renowned engineer and widely published technical author, this guide complements the traditional writer’s reference manuals and other books on technical writing. It helps readers understand the practical considerations in writing technical content. Drawing on his own work, the author presents many first-hand examples of writing, editing, and publishing technical materials. These examples illustrate how a publication originated as well as various challenges and solutions.

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.

Technical Writing equips students with the tools and knowledge required to write clear, concise, and well-organized technical documents. This comprehensive guide encourages students to carefully consider word choice, sentence construction, document organization and formatting, the use of visual queuing, and more to create easy-to-read, high-impact technical documents. The text begins by outlining the major differences between academic papers and technical documents, and discussing critical elements to consider when writing technical documents including audience, the goal of the document, readers' expectations, organization, and more. Later chapters address technical writing style, the importance of design, the basics of cognitive theory, and various types of communication documents. Students learn how to tailor writing for the technology industry, successfully incorporate research into technical documents, and create technical reports. The book concludes by walking students through setting up a professional portfolio of their work, addressing portfolio organization, topical strategy, strategic layout, and potential legal issues. Technical Writing is an accessible and comprehensive guide designed to help students write technical documents confidently and efficiently. The text is well suited for undergraduate courses in technical writing, communications, computer science, and engineering. Suzanne Disheroon, Ph.D., is a professor of English at Cedar Valley College, where she teaches courses in technical writing, composition, and literature. She earned her master's and doctorate degrees in English from the University of North Texas. Dr. Disheroon's areas of expertise include the writing and development of technical manuals, instructional design, grant writing, and editing. Kenneth R. Price teaches graduate and undergraduate professional and technical communication courses at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. He is a graduate faculty member at Missouri State University; California State University, Chico (where he directed the professional/technical writing program); the University of Alaska Anchorage; Western Carolina University; and the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. He was also a software documentation consultant to Macromedia.