Technical Writing for Business People

By (author) Carrie Marshall

Publication date: 12 Nov 2018

Technical writing is about communicating key information to the people who need it. It might be a manual for an application, a guide to using heavy machinery, a diagnostic aide for medical practitioners or a guidance note about new legislation. It needs to be clear and it needs to be precise. This book shows you how to achieve this and more. Whatever the content or context, in this book you’ll discover the essential tools and resources that you need to create technical writing that works for everyone.
Carrie Marshall is an author and freelance journalist, columnist, copywriter and scriptwriter. She writes features, news and tutorials about technology and has been published in many industry magazines including 'PC Plus', 'Digital Home' and 'What Laptop'. Since 2003, Carrie has also regularly spoken on technology and social media on BBC radio.

Dimensions: 198x129mm

Print ISBN-13: 9781780174464

Ebook ISBN-13: 9781780174488

70 pages

Imprint: BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT

  •  What is Technical Writing?
  •  Seven Steps to Heaven: The Technical Writing Cycle
  •  Know Your Audience
  •  Break It Down: The Importance of a Task-Based Approach 
  •  Assume Nothing
  •  Vanquish Vagueness
  •  Don't Be Yourself
  •  Stick To The Story
  •  Be Active: Why You Should Avoid The Passive Voice and Weak Verbs
  •  Diagrams, Lists and Graphics
  •  Everybody Needs An Editor
  •  The Technical Writing House of Horrors  
'Trying to convey technical information of various levels of complexity to audiences of varying knowledge levels who may not even have a technical background, can be very challenging. This is where this book comes into play, teaching you in a way that isn’t overbearing how to communicate your message effectively.'

Cliff Hobbs
CEO and Founder of FAQShop.com

'A short no-nonsense guide to technical writing in any context. Writing informational texts is about clarity and results and getting the message across as quickly and accurately as possible, which this book does. This is a useful guide for those who aren’t in the profession of Technical Writing but need to do technical writing as part of their role. Processes and procedures are worthless if the user cannot replicate the desired outcome. This guide provides a useful formula to get good results every time, emphasising the importance of audience perspective, including accessibility considerations. Accuracy and brevity have never been more important in a world of information overload and multi media options. As advocated in the book, this guide helps information providers make others’ lives easier, which translates to good customer service whether they are inside or outside the organisation. This is a handy companion to “Business writing for technical people”, drawing the distinction between the two styles for the growing need to be able to do both.'

Tracey Torble
ITSM specialist, manager and writer