Do you feel to appreciate a document which is error free? Of course a document without any mistakes creates a good impression on the readers. One of the most crucial part in documentation is reviewing. It involves taking care of all the modifications required in terms of product functionality, its grammar, syntax and the layout of the document.  Reviewing follows through many steps from self review >peer review>expert review. After undergoing through all these phases, if mistakes still persist in a document then the reviewer needs to bring some changes in the pattern of his reviewing. Of course you would say there is Word to check for spellings, spacing error or syntax but do remember that word would give us choices as according to their own automation system but it is we who would decide which word or syntax goes perfect with the writing.

Here are some reviewing tips that can be followed when reviewing a document:

Concentrate and Avoid Distraction: 

Try to review the writings in a place free from distractions. Set a target to review a minimum number of pages without distraction of any kind. Make sure that you are not interrupted in between. That hampers your concentration. When your mind is all at peace, then only you will be able to deliver your maximum output.

Pay more attention towards words that sound similar but may have different meanings:

The most common examples to illustrate such word are “accept” and “except” or “then” and “than”. Also take care of Homonyms (that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings). Example of a simple homonym is “left (past tense)” and “left (opposite of right)”.

Pay attention to capitalization of words, numbering and punctuation:

This is one of the aspects which should be taken care of precisely. Imagine a long sentence without any punctuation. The user will be all confused reading the whole sentence. However, if you break the long sentence with help of punctuation, the presentation would seem to be good.

Emphasis on the proper capitalization of word; its important when you want to stress on a particular word. Also, be careful with numbers; adding an extra zero may create a huge difference.

Importance of Contractions and Apostrophes:

Contractions are the shortened form of two word and an apostrophes is inserted for the missing letter. For e.g. we write “do not” as “don’t”. Apostrophes and contraction go along with each other.

Some of the critical Apostrophes mistakes are as follows:

Make sure that you take care of these small mistakes. Though very rare but these mistakes can be made most frequently. Also remember to maintain consistency in your writing pattern. If you are using contractions and apostrophes together, use it all over the content or else follow the simple writing style.

Break the document into small chunks of document:

When we are given a long document to review, it is our tendency to review it in a hurry to finish it as soon as possible. Reviewing a document all at once is a tedious process. In order to overcome this hurdle, break the document into smaller number of pages for a specific limit of time. Take break in between the reviewing so that you could freshen up your mind. Although this might take a bit more time, but the quality of the document would improve as you would review it with more concentration.

Last but not the least; get it reviewed by someone who would be reading it for the first time:

It happens that a writer who reviews his own document may miss out on some of the mistakes while reviewing because his mind has already been saturated with the writing that he may override a mistake. The best thing for such a situation is to get it reviewed by someone else. In that case, there would be more chances of finding new mistakes.

The Other ways of Reviewing:

The Text to Speech software helps with the proofreading part. Installing this software helps to convert your text into audio form. Thus you would be able to hear whatever you have written.

Some other innovative methods of reviewing are to read it backwards,; read from right towards the left or to read it aloud. It a kind of brain working exercises where your mind becomes more alert.

Have you ever read a user guide and wondered what goes on its preparation??? There are lots of processes that are to be taken care to make it readable for the user. For a person who is preparing a user guide, here are some of the points that need to be followed for good user documentation:

Identify the user:

Know the user who would be using the product and know about the extent to which they would be using the product. Give information that will help the user understand the product functionality rather that expressing the knowledge that you hold on the product.

Avoid using words that are too technical:

Using words that are too technical might confuse the user. Use simpler sentences that are easy to understand by a layman. The user need not necessarily be a techie. So create a document keeping the end user in mind.

Have a task-oriented approach:

Write about a product keeping in mind the various functions that can be performed using the product. Functionality understanding is the main key for any product. Write your document giving step wise process for each function.

Understand the flow of the product:

Before beginning to write, understand the flow in which the product would be moving. Analyze which function should be put in first and which should be followed thereafter. Do not write in such a pattern that would confuse the user about how to navigate through the product.

Illustrate one idea at a time:

Do not convey multiple ideas in a single sentence. Break your ideas into small parts and write simple, short and crisp sentences. The more complex your writing style, the more disinterested would be the audience to read your content. It is always better to convey the idea in a clear step wise process. This will allow the user to follow the product conveniently.

Give a comprehensive and well structured Table of Contents (TOC):

If your document has a Table of contents, the user would navigate to this section first to search for sections that he would be navigating through. If the layout of your TOC is good enough, the user will automatically have a positive view about the document. Add all the necessary sections and sub-sections in the TOC. However, don’t make it look too clumsy.

Give appropriate titles, headings and captions (for figures):

The title, heading or sub heading should convey the most appropriate idea about a particular module of your product. They should be meaningful. Similarly, give correct caption under each figure, graphics, etc. These are added efforts but they create a good impression on the document.

Write in a way as you are talking to the user:

Never use words as “should”, “please”, “him/her” in your document. Write as if you are talking to the user on how to use the product but in the most professional way. Avoid using oral communication when writing a guide. Be very specific on how you present your idea.

Use correct font, style and format for your document:

Using the most correct font and style are very crucial in documentation. The first thing that a user sees when opening a document is whether the format of the document would make it readable for him/her. Using too small font or too large font is inappropriate. Similarly using styles that are unprofessional irritates the user. Create your style using Arial, Verdana or Times New Roman. These are mostly used. Make your document look clean and tidy.

Use images and graphics:

Users, now-a-days, are not happy with documents that have only text. Document without images are not appealing to them. An image attracts a user’s attention to further the reading. Add flowcharts, images, pictorial representation, etc to your document. It will keep up the interest of the user.

Edit and Review your document:

Before the final release of the document, make sure that proper editing has been done and that they are reviewed well. Documents with spelling mistakes, incorrect punctuation, wrong syntax and unstructured format create a bad impression on the user. Make sure that the document is all perfect before it reaches the user.

                 Today Technical Writing has become one of the most flourishing and promising careers. Be it a graduate in English or bachelors in Engineering, a vast diversity in terms of qualification is found among people opting this as a career.

        Technical Writers are people who would derive knowledge from the people who are specialist/expert in a particular technology and convey it to people who would like to know about the technology without going much into the complexities. So, basically a Technical Writer is expected to have an aptitude towards knowing various technologies as well as having good writing skills. And this is not an end line. You are supposed to have a good analyzing, documenting and designing skills. A Technical writer is supposed to write documents that are good at layout, easy to understand, as well as can be updated with much ease.

 I have listed  some of the basic skills for a technical writer that are required to get into the profession:

Writing skills: If you are someone who likes writing, then this career option is suitable for you. A technical writer needs to be good at grammar, punctuation and syntax. The document that you would prepare should be error-free from spelling and grammar mistakes.

Analyzing Skills: Technical Writers are not people who would simply put down their own thoughts and start documenting. If you are someone who can extract the most important information from a heap of documents and resources, frame it and interpret it in the simplest way, then you are at the right profession.

Adaptable to Technology Change: Technical Writers are by default expected to be adaptable with the technology change. You work for a specific technology for a certain period of time. As you move yourself to some other domain, you should be willing to learn about the prevailing technology of the concerned organization.

Know the Software Tool: This is one of the most important factors if you want your work to execute smoothly and effectively. Knowing the software tool is one of the most crucial things. Even if you have good writing and analyzing skills, creating a Help File in a particular output format would require that you should be a master of the tool which produces the desired output. The Help Authoring Tools have incorporated many advanced features that a particular task can be accomplished with much ease if you are familiar and proficient on how to use it.

Some of the important tools that are basically used in Technical Writings are:

Microsoft Word: This is the most powerful and easy tool for a Technical Writer. Know the basics of creating Styles, TOC, Cross References, Headers and Footers to make a simplified user document.

RoboHelp:  Using this tool you can produce various outputs for a single document as Printed doc, Online help, Web Help, HTML Help, AIR Help etc. It is basically used for Online Help output generation.

Frame Maker: Produces the output same as the RoboHelp. However, it has some advanced features that manage lengthy manuals as the Aeronautical Manuals etc.

Snagit: It is basically used for taking screenshots with a better resolution.

MS Visio: Used for producing flow charts in a much easier and effective way.

For someone who would just be starting as a career in Technical Writing, these skills are enough to give a head start to their career. With the years of experience more and more technologies and advancement of Technical Writing will be added up. The learning curve fir a Technical Writer is never ending.

Insert Captions in Word 2010:

Go to the Reference Ribbon and click Insert Caption.

In the caption dialog, under Options choose Label as figures, table or equations. Select Position as “Below selected item” or “Above Selected Item”.

Selecting Exclude label from caption will not include the label in the Caption textbox.

You can also name the label of your choice. Click New Label, enter a name for the label and click OK.

You can also delete the label that is created by selecting the particular label and clicking Delete Label (only labels that are created by the users can be deleted).

Click Numbering. The Caption Numbering dialog will be displayed. Choose a format and click OK.

If you wish to include chapter number in the caption, select the checkbox Include chapter number.

Select the style in which the chapter was formatted from the drop-down box.

Click Use separator to choose from a range of separator to be included between the format type and chapter number. The various separators available are hyphen, period, colon, em-dash, en-dash.

Insert Cross-References in Word 2010:

Cross-reference is used when you want the user to refer from one part of the document to the other. However, it happens within the same document.

First of all select the text, figure or object that you want to cross reference to. Suppose for the given diagram I want to refer to the heading at the end of the figure so that they have an idea on what the figure is all about.

Keep the cursor where you would want the reference to appear. Go to the Reference Ribbon and click Cross-reference.

The Cross-reference dialog appears. Select the Reference type from the options as numbered item, figure, heading, bookmark, footnote, endnote, table and equation.

Select the Insert reference to corresponding to the reference type selected.

Select the checkbox Insert as hyperlink if you want the cross-reference to be hyperlinked.

Select For which caption to select the specified reference type.

Click Insert. The cross reference will be inserted. The cross-reference appears at the end of the diagram.

You may shorten the long heading and give it a short name.

In the given figure, when you click on Note, it will take you to the top of the page.