How do you create a technical piece that people want to read?
1. Identify Your Audience
Knowing your audience is super important, especially when writing technical content.
For example, the new dad learning to build his first crib may have a different level of medical knowledge (and sheer focus) than the experienced doctor reading a medical research paper.
When you have a clear idea of who you expect to read your piece, you can adjust your vocabulary, tone, and framing accordingly.
This allows you to meet your reader at their point of knowledge.
2. Dig Deep in Your Research
As a technical writer, you’ll be guiding your reader through entirely unfamiliar territory.
You might be explaining how a new electronic tool works, what to expect from their new workplace, or what happened before their firm took on a new legal case. It is essential that you fully understand your subject matter.
You can only teach what you know, and knowledge gaps show when you aren’t thorough in your research.
Place yourself in your readers’ shoes. Imagine you had zero knowledge of the topic at hand and ensure your research covers all potential questions that come to mind.
3. Create an Outline
We recommend creating an outline to give you a sense of what you need to cover in your piece. This can also help identify knowledge gaps as you conduct your research.
When you’re writing longer-form content like white papers or case studies, an outline can serve as a marker to remind you of what you need to include.
In lieu of an outline, you can use a template. Some technical writing, such as business plans, have industry-accepted formats, including sections like an executive summary and competitor analysis.
4. Focus on Readability
Technical writing is not creative writing—you're writing to teach, not inspire or entertain. When tackling complicated topics, using readable sentences can make your work more enjoyable to read.
On the other hand, if you’re verbose or use words that are hard to understand, you’ll only frustrate your reader. If you want to improve readability in technical content, try these tips:
- Use simple language: Strive for shorter, direct sentences that are easy to follow, and avoid passive voice wherever possible.
- Use subheadings: For longer-form content like user documentation, white papers, and research papers, adding subheadings can break up long text walls.
- Add bolded sections and callouts:Bolding text and highlighting paragraphs or callouts for emphasis will make reading easier.
- Hyperlinks and jump links: If you’re writing technical content for webpages, add hyperlinks to any material you reference and jump links to other sections of your piece for easier navigation.
5. Add Visuals
We’re all about the words and the writing, but visuals can make your technical writing easier to understand! In technical writing, adding visuals is less of a luxury and more of a necessity. Visuals such as flowcharts, screenshots, and illustrations can add a much-needed dose of cheer to text-heavy documents.
Whether you’re creating a user manual or annual report for stakeholders, everyone will be happier with product drawings showing the directions or a pie chart displaying the numbers.
6. Cut the Fluff
When you’ve got all the words on paper, it’s time to double-check the facts with collaborators. Don’t be afraid to cut unnecessary information during this writing phase.
How do you identify the fluff? Removing fluff doesn’t impact the readers’ understanding of your text. It could be a word, a sentence, a paragraph, or a step in the directions. Every word in your technical document should count.
