Have I misused something? - Commonly used confused words in technical writing – Part I

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Do you use certain words interchangeably? While writing any technical documentation, you might have encountered few commonly confused words. These words appear and sound similar but have different meanings altogether. While writing, you not only need make explicit use of the vocabulary but also understand the proper usage of commonly-used words. Otherwise, it might confuse your reader and the result is that it might affect your documentation in terms of user experience. It may not be possible even to catch these confused words while using the spell check utility of any authoring tool. Remember the golden rule in technical writing, “Do not be solely dependent on spell check to find out mistakes related to the choice of words”. Let us differentiate some of the commonly used words in technical writing which are often misused writing any technical documentation.

A while Vs Awhile

A while, a combination of article and a noun, which means a short time or a period. It is used as a subject of a sentence usually used after ‘for’ preposition. Consider this example, “I sat for a while before continuing my journey”.

Awhile, is an adverb, which means for a short time or period, and it is used without any preceding preposition. Consider this example, “I slept awhile before the dinner”.

Affect Vs Effect

Affect, is a verb, which means to have an influence or to attack or infect. Consider this example, “The weather conditions will affect the number of people”. The word “Affect” may also be used as a noun to describe a facial expression. For example, “The woman took the news of her husband's sudden death with little affect”.

Effect, a noun, refers to something that occurs due to some action or an event. It also refers to the power to produce an outcome or achieve a result. Consider this example, “The prescribed medication had no effect on the patient's symptoms”.

All ready Vs Already

All ready, is a phrase, which refers to “completely ready” or “completely prepared”. Consider this example, “We are all ready and excited for our trip to Goa”.

Already, is an adverb, which refers to something that has happened before the present time or by this time. Consider this example, “We asked if he could accompany us to trip to Goa but he had already been there before”.

Beside Vs Besides

Beside, a preposition, which means to be at the side of or next to. Consider this example, “He was sitting besides her in the class room”.

Besides, an adverb or a proposition, which means “in addition to” or “also”. Consider this example, “Besides him, Ram and Shyam also went to watch the movie”. 

Criteria Vs Criterion

Criteria is used as a plural noun, which is similar to “phenomena”. Consider this example, “Robert detailed the six basic criteria for accepting a client”.

Criterion is used as a singular noun, which is similar to “phenomenon”. Consider this example, “The only criterion used to judge a salesperson’s performance was sales”.

Comprise Vs compose

Comprise, a verb that refers to either “to include” or “contain”, and is used when discussing a whole that consists of parts. Consider this example, “The rock comprises of several minerals”, which also refers to “The rock ‘consists’ or ‘is made up’ of several minerals”.

Compose, a verb, which means “to make up” or “make”, and is used when discussing parts that make up the whole. Consider this example, “Many ethnic groups compose our nation”.

                            

Callout Vs Call out

Callout, a noun, which refers to an act or an instance of calling out something. It is usually used as a label in order to identify parts of an illustration. Consider this example, “You need to add callouts to this presentation to highlight few important points”.

Call out, is a phrase, which refers to speak in a loud voice or shout. Consider this example, “She called out the names of all the participants attending the music competition”.

Cite Vs Sight Vs Site

Cite, a verb, refers to a short note to quote something. Consider this example, “When writing research papers, you are required to cite their source of information”.

Sight, a noun, refers to something that can be seen or to see or spot something. Consider this example, “As we grow older, our sight is affected the most”.

Site, a noun, refers to a physical location such as a house or a neighborhood. Consider this example, “Yesterday, I visited the site where our new home will be built”.

Discreet Vs Discrete

 Discreet, an adjective, refers to being careful or cautious or not to cause an embarrassment. Consider this example, “You need to be discreet before proceeding with this venture”.

Discrete, an adjective, refers to being distinct or detached from others or to be separate. Consider this example, “He divided the team into two discrete groups, performers and non-performers”.

Disc Vs Disk

Disc, a noun, refers to a compact disc or a CD-ROM/DVD-ROM. Consider this example, “You need to use Windows 2000 Professional Compact Disc in order to install Win2k operating system”.

Disk, a noun, refers to a flat circular plate. Consider this example, “The hard disk consists of some important information”.

Especially Vs Specially

Especially, an uncommon adjective, refers to something that is exceptional or in a noteworthy manner. Consider this example, “My mother knitted a pullover especially for me”.

Specially, a common adjective, refers to something that is used for a particular purpose or that is distinct. Consider this example, “This session has been specially conducted for the experienced IT professionals”.

Few Vs Less

Few, an adjective, relates to number and refers to the things that can be counted. Consider this example, “There were fewer apples in the super market today”.

Less, an adjective, related to the amount and refers to the things that can be measured. Consider this example, “He has less than five minutes to board the plane to go to the United States of America”.  

References

Refer here,

• http://homepage.smc.edu/reading_lab/words_commonly_confused.htm
• http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html#d

Overuse of the word "the" can be little harmful

After such a wonderful weekend when it has been sunny throughout the two days, it always feels refreshing to start your week. So, when I woke up early in the morning just to realize a little foggy out there. I was a little sad but there was a little hope that sun will be out there in sometime. Then, I had my cup of tea and picked up my daily newspaper of Times of India and as I flipped the newspaper, I came across a wonderful article, "Overusing ’the’ is a common mistake - but it can hit your career hard". True, isn't it? Often, we as writers use 'the' so much in our sentences to specify something that it tends to confuse the audience.

Consider this sentence:

In the opinion of the stakeholders in the ongoing session, the company's emerging strategy should include a keen focus on the woman consumer who will spark the next quarter's anticipated growth.

And, now consider the following sentence:

Stakeholders think company strategy must focus on woman consumers—they will spark growth in the next quarter.  

Are you able to identify any difference in these two sentences? The second sentence seems to be more appropriate as it is short and crisp, and it will get your audience’s attention immediately. Short and crisp sentences are always easier to be read and understood by the readers. But the irony is the many of writers use the article, ‘the’ more than often in order to sound more serious or to be more convincing, and some feel if we use ‘the’ too much then we would sound more learned. Rather, it makes the learner more nervous and your writing appears to look shabby and flabby.

So, in order to be more appropriate and make a strongest impact among your audience, you must use the word, ‘the’ cautiously before your audience totally rejects whatever you have written.

Enjoy Writing!

Stop the Snoring! Compliance Training that’s Engaging and Inspiring

Yesterday, I had attended yet another webinar on "Stop the Snoring! Compliance Training that’s Engaging and Inspiring" conducted by Training magazine network. This webinar was facilitated by Ray Jimenez who is a PhD and is a Chief Learning Architect in Vignettes Learning. Ray started the session by providing some examples of the official symptoms of boredom in compliance learning, such as click forward, forward, etc, napping, and I have a headache. He also asked the participants to provide their version of what they felt were the symptoms of the boredom in the compliance training. Then, he asked us to complete a short survey where he asked us to compare two small lessons, Lesson A and Lesson B. Both the lessons had the pages but the manner in which they were presented was different. Lesson A was present in a liner manner where the learner has to just click next and there was no interactivity involved, which made the content very boring. In contrast, Lesson B was present in a dynamic manner and it was more interactive. Liner carries the factual content whereas Dynamic carries the motivational content.

So, if we talk about online learning or a SPO, which one you think is more appropriate to have, Linear or Dynamic. Perhaps, the answer is, a mix both. It is essential to have both facts along with the motivation factor that needs to be involved in any online course.  But the Dynamic content serves as an “Engagement layer”.

The session was highly interactive as it involved a lot of participation from the participants. A lot of times, as Instructional Designers, when we design the learning solution, we tend to forget one basic thing and that is the learner. We need to empathize with the learner and this becomes equally important when we are designing a self-paced online (SPO) course because we must understand that incase of a SPO, the learner is supposed to be on their own. They do not have any facilitator who will be explaining the concepts so it is very important to design the courseware for a SPO in such a manner that is targeted to them, and most importantly, it is for them only. Now, the question you might be asking is that how linear and dynamic content can be merged? Well, in order to do this, you can use a scenario-based approach or develop a story and ask a question that helps the learners connect to a real-life consequence or resolution that is related to the topic. It helps make the content instantly relevant. To this, Ray gave few very good examples to explain this concept. So, in order to create an engagement layer, the first and foremost step is to create the learning objectives that are focused on the learners only. Next, if you have a procedure to explain, then you need to ask the learner to evaluate, comprehend, and contemplate on the situation, which will help the learners to make sense of the content. Last but not the least, you need to test the knowledge of learner so that the learner can apply it in their real-life scenario, which will help them to remember the content. You can do this by giving the learners with a set of questions and asking them to evaluate them and how would they apply them if they were in that scenario.

However, you must remember that while you are creating an engagement layer, it is equally important to ensure that factual content is covered in your course. But, how do you ensure that? To do this, you use the “Embedding method” as depicted in the following diagram.

 

This method allows you to add more context to the Engagement Layer by adding more content details. You need to make the content details organic and add more natural parts of the story. Ray stressed the fact to make your content very specific and provide detailed information to the learner.  

Finally, Ray summarized some of characteristics of a good “Engagement Layer”:

• Seamless
• Integrated
• Refined
• Natural and organic
• Engaging

To conclude, once you follow these strategies, you will be able to design and develop a learning solution that not only engages the learner but the learner can take something out it. So, the result of this would be from the official symptoms of boredom in the training will transform to the official symptoms of engaged learners, which include “Really helpful”, “Awake”, and “Makes sense”

“You fuck them, you kiss them”

Sounds absurd, isn’t it. But those were the words from a project manager while I was having a conversation about what should be the qualities of a project manager. Then, I did a Google search on top 10 qualities or top five qualities of project manager and I got a host of results on the same. There are number of articles that are available that will tell you what should be the quality or qualities of a project manager. Here are some of them that I found the most critical of them that I felt should be the most important qualities of project manager.

First and foremost, a good communicator

Communication holds the key for any project manager as you need communicate well with people with the team members all levels in a project. A project manager should be able to clearly communicate the goals, responsibility, performance, and expectations within the project. It has been known that communication helps the project managers to support individual and team achievements by creating explicit guidelines to accomplish the results. However, you not only have to be a good communicator; instead, you need to be a good two-way communicator, which means it is important that apart from giving information, you need to take feedback, and handle it correctly.

Possess a shared vision

A project manager should possess a shared vision that should be common with the team. A great leader or a manager is one that lifts their team and provides a vision and spirit to change. According to Bennis "They offer people opportunities to create their own vision, to explore what the vision will mean to their jobs and lives, and to envision their future as part of the vision for the organization." (Bennis, 1997)

Cool like a cucumber

Sounds like a phrase from Navjot Singh Sidhu’s book of dictionary but it’s a fact that the project manager need to be cool and calm under pressure situations. We do no live in a perfect world where projects would be delivered on time and without any problems. As the project proceeds towards completion, there are bound to be some problems to occur. However, a successful project manager is one who stays calm at such situations and takes these problems with a positive attitude. It is always recommended to never let your team see you sweat because of the problems that may occur in the project. The ability to stay calm when everything seems to go wrong is vital.

Able to delegate tasks

Again, an important quality of project manager is to be able to delegate tasks to the team. In fact, this is the most essential element for the project manager. There are a number of tasks that should be delegated to different team members as you simply cannot do everything yourself. You must be able to demonstrate your trust in other people by allowing them to get on with the work they are best suited for. This allows you to focus on the tasks that require your skills. So, it goes without saying that the project manager should be able to recognize skills and expertise of the team members and delegate tasks accordingly.

Possess good problem-solving skills

Apart from all these, the project manager needs to also have good problem-solving skills. Project management is all about solving typical problems in a project. You need to ensure that right things happen at the appropriate or right time. There may be certain barriers that may occur in a project, and it’s up to you how well you remove those barriers. You must be able to look at those barriers and see a way around them. In addition, you also need to be creative to solve problems in your project.

Have good team building skills

A successful project manager is one who binds the team together to achieve a common objective. The project manager need to be able to understand the process and moral force required for transforming the group of strangers into a single cohesive unit. In addition, you as a project manager should know appropriate leadership style that needs to be followed during each stage of team development.

Empathize with the team

A good project manager needs to also empathize with the team members. By empathy, we mean that project manager need to have a good understanding of the team members. In addition, the project manager needs to understand that there is a life outside the workplace. However, you need to be sure that you do not mistake empathy with sympathy. Though, the words may sound similar but they both are mutually exclusive.

Passionate about work

It is generally said that a project manager without passion lacks dedication to their work. The project manager needs to be passionate about the project and must be enthusiastic with right attitude for the team members to follow and respect their decisions. The project manager who have a negative attitude and are not enthusiastic let the team down. The team wants a project manager who has a “can do” attitude. An enthusiastic project manager stay committed towards the goal, and expresses this commitment through positive attitude.

Good understanding about industry

A project manager must possess some industry knowledge and skills that are required for the project. To put it simply, you as a project manager should know what you are doing and should be able to guide the team. The project manager needs to know who the client is and the sort of industry the client is involved in to better suit the requirements.

Integrity

A project manager is one who is able to display high degree of integrity throughout the project lifecycle. This helps improve your chances of success, strengthens your position as a solid leader and earns you respect from both client and project team. As defined in the English dictionary as “Steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code”, integrity is something a Project Manager needs time to develop and demonstrate, but once you have established yourself to the team members as a leader with a great deal of integrity, you will find that your working relationships improve dramatically. By integrity, we also mean that as a project manager, you should be able to “accept responsibility for a mistake that you or one of your project team members have made” and “defend a project team member or client when a situation arises”.

Conclusion

All these qualities are a “must have” for a successful project manager. However, this does not mean that these qualities are sufficient for a successful project manager. There may be more than these qualities. As each project is different from another, all these qualities are used at random but in accordance to the needs of the project. However, the key is that the successful project manager needs to know how to maintain stability in the project and should be able to do whatever it would take to get the task done.

Till then, happy project managing!

References

• http://www.promana.net/qualities-needed-to-be-a-strong-project-manager/
• http://analogperceptionz.blogspot.com/2011/06/are-you-qualified-to-be-project-manager.html

Have I misused something? - Commonly used confused words in technical writing – Part I

Do you use certain words interchangeably? While writing any technical documentation, you might have encountered few commonly confused words. These words appear and sound similar but have different meanings altogether. While writing, you not only need make explicit use of the vocabulary but also understand the proper usage of commonly-used words. Otherwise, it might confuse your reader and the result is that it might affect your documentation in terms of user experience. It may not be possible even to catch these confused words while using the spell check utility of any authoring tool. Remember the golden rule in technical writing, “Do not be solely dependent on spell check to find out mistakes related to the choice of words”.

In this two-part series article, I will list some of the commonly used words in technical writing which are often misused while writing any technical documentation.

Here are some of those confused words that you use in your technical documentation:

A while Vs Awhile

A while, a combination of article and a noun, which means a short time or a period. It is used as a subject of a sentence usually used after ‘for’ preposition. Consider this example, “I sat for a while before continuing my journey”.

Awhile, is an adverb, which means for a short time or period, and it is used without any preceding preposition. Consider this example, “I slept awhile before the dinner”.

Affect Vs Effect

Affect, is a verb, which means to have an influence or to attack or infect. Consider this example, “The weather conditions will affect the number of people”. The word “Affect” may also be used as a noun to describe a facial expression. For example, “The woman took the news of her husband's sudden death with little affect”.

Effect, a noun, refers to something that occurs due to some action or an event. It also refers to the power to produce an outcome or achieve a result. Consider this example, “The prescribed medication had no effect on the patient's symptoms”.

All ready Vs Already

All ready, is a phrase, which refers to “completely ready” or “completely prepared”. Consider this example, “We are all ready and excited for our trip to Goa”.

Already, is an adverb, which refers to something that has happened before the present time or by this time. Consider this example, “We asked if he could accompany us to trip to Goa but he had already been there before”.

Beside Vs Besides

Beside, a preposition, which means to be at the side of or next to. Consider this example, “He was sitting besides her in the class room”.

Besides, an adverb or a proposition, which means “in addition to” or “also”. Consider this example, “Besides him, Ram and Shyam also went to watch the movie”. 

Criteria Vs Criterion

Criteria is used as a plural noun, which is similar to “phenomena”. Consider this example, “Robert detailed the six basic criteria for accepting a client”.

Criterion is used as a singular noun, which is similar to “phenomenon”. Consider this example, “The only criterion used to judge a salesperson’s performance was sales”.

Comprise Vs compose

Comprise, a verb that refers to either “to include” or “contain”, and is used when discussing a whole that consists of parts. Consider this example, “The rock comprises of several minerals”, which also refers to “The rock ‘consists’ or ‘is made up’ of several minerals”.

Compose, a verb, which means “to make up” or “make”, and is used when discussing parts that make up the whole. Consider this example, “Many ethnic groups compose our nation”.

                            

Callout Vs Call out

Callout, a noun, which refers to an act or an instance of calling out something. It is usually used as a label in order to identify parts of an illustration. Consider this example, “You need to add callouts to this presentation to highlight few important points”.

Call out, is a phrase, which refers to speak in a loud voice or shout. Consider this example, “She called out the names of all the participants attending the music competition”.

Cite Vs Sight Vs Site

Cite, a verb, refers to a short note to quote something. Consider this example, “When writing research papers, you are required to cite their source of information”.

Sight, a noun, refers to something that can be seen or to see or spot something. Consider this example, “As we grow older, our sight is affected the most”.

Site, a noun, refers to a physical location such as a house or a neighborhood. Consider this example, “Yesterday, I visited the site where our new home will be built”.

Discreet Vs Discrete

 Discreet, an adjective, refers to being careful or cautious or not to cause an embarrassment. Consider this example, “You need to be discreet before proceeding with this venture”.

Discrete, an adjective, refers to being distinct or detached from others or to be separate. Consider this example, “He divided the team into two discrete groups, performers and non-performers”.

Disc Vs Disk

Disc, a noun, refers to a compact disc or a CD-ROM/DVD-ROM. Consider this example, “You need to use Windows 2000 Professional Compact Disc in order to install Win2k operating system”.

Disk, a noun, refers to a flat circular plate. Consider this example, “The hard disk consists of some important information”.

Especially Vs Specially

Especially, an uncommon adjective, refers to something that is exceptional or in a noteworthy manner. Consider this example, “My mother knitted a pullover especially for me”.

Specially, a common adjective, refers to something that is used for a particular purpose or that is distinct. Consider this example, “This session has been specially conducted for the experienced IT professionals”.

Few Vs Less

Few, an adjective, relates to number and refers to the things that can be counted. Consider this example, “There were fewer apples in the super market today”.

Less, an adjective, related to the amount and refers to the things that can be measured. Consider this example, “He has less than five minutes to board the plane to go to the United States of America”.  

References

Refer here,

• http://homepage.smc.edu/reading_lab/words_commonly_confused.htm
• http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html#d

Bidding Good Bye to the year 2009!

“If it didn't bring you joy

just leave it behind
Let's ring in the new year
with good things in mind

Let every bad memory
that brought heartache and pain
And let's turn a new leaf
with the smell of new rain

Let's forget past mistakes
making amends for this year
Sending you these greetings
to bring you hope and cheer”

These are some of the wonderful lines from a beautiful poem that I found while I was searching the Internet. Yes, it is true that the year 2009 is about to end, and the countdown has just begun. We have just few days before the year 2009 will hand over the baton to the New Year, 2010. Everyone must have some very good and few bad memories in the year 2009. So, let’s just forget the bad ones but just let us just ensure that we won’t commit those again in the New Year. So, what is it that we can do to ensure that we as Technical Writers can do better in this industry, and be upbeat with others? Is there any mantra to succeed, and have a dream job? What is the kind of job that we should look forward to in the New Year? These are some of the questions that you must be wondering while you are bidding farewell to the year 2009, and that whether the New Year will be good for the Technical Writing market. There are few things that you can do in any situation to have a dream job. Let us discuss some of them in this article.

1. Go networking!
Network! Network! Network!
This is the new mantra now for getting hired as a technical writer. And, by network, I don’t meant to say LAN, WAN, and MAN.. ..What I mean to say is that you need to join a social networking group in Technical Writing. Though, there are so many such groups available in LinkedIn, TWI, TWIN, and so on. But, it is you who have to decide which to choose from. Of course, the best one up till now is STC because it gives you an opportunity to interact with technical writers around the globe. It might consume your time when you busy with your work pressure and meeting deadlines. But, lest ensured, it will reap you results sooner or later. By networking, you might not get hired in your dream job but it will definitely give you a chance to expand yourselves as you will come in contact with many people, which will help you in your career growth. And to add to it, these social networking groups also include many reputed employers.

So, Go Networking from the day ONE of the New Year. Join a Technical Writing social networking group.

2. Jack of all, and master of ONE
You must have heard of this phrase many times now. But what is really means is that you need to master in one tool that you have been using throughout your career, and become an expert. But, at the same time, you need to gain some knowledge and hands on experience on almost all the major tools that technical writers use. Of course, you might be wondering that how is it possible to learn each and every tool when there are so many tools available in the market. But, you can at least learn those tools that are the most demanding ones in the market.

So, Master one tool but become a Jack of all the tools.

3. Build your resume
In order to have your dream job, you must create your resume in a manner that it impresses the employers first hand. And, to do this, you must include some of your best projects that you have undertaken throughout your career. Do not forget to include the following things while including the project details:

• Project name
• Project description
• Client you worked on for the project
• Domain that you worked on
• Skills / tools you used in the project
• And most importantly, the role you played in the project and the team size.
  

4. Stay ahead of the rest, and be qualified
Though, you might be working as a technical writer; but, you also need to ensure that you always stay ahead of the others as the skills sets change continuously. For instance, today you might be working in Framemaker but tomorrow there might be some other tool in the market that may become a “Hot” requirement for employers. So, you need to just take time out to find out the latest tools and techniques used in technical writing. As I said earlier, you can do this if you have joined any social networking groups such as STC or TWIN. You need to subscribe to any industry magazines where you can find any specific specialty such as software, hardware, or engineering. You must learn on the latest tools, and get yourself equipped with latest technologies in technical writing otherwise you might just fade away.

5. Get yourself acclaimed
Start the New Year by getting acclaimed in whatever you do whether it is into writing an article for a newsletter or volunteering for a position in a social networking group. Getting acclaimed might not necessarily find you a dream job but it will definitely give you a sense of satisfaction. Rather, it will also put you in contact with professionals in your field who can recommend you, and give you advice about companies and the career paths that you can choose from. Volunteer for a position that you feel it’s appropriate for you. For example, you can choose to interview a renowned personality whom you feel has brought laurels to the field of Technical Writing, and get it published in a magazine. You can also become a design a layout of a newsletter or a magazine if you are really creative or join a coordinating committee in a social networking group to organize various meet-ups, workshops, seminars, and so on technical writing.

6. Master the Interview
Job Interviews are arduous and it’s hard to match with the requirements of the interviewer. But, we can at least try our best by remembering the basics and stay confident in what we do at the present. These days, most interviews happen over the telephone so we will not know the facial expression of the interviewer. So, here we are with a drawback while facing an interview. The key lies in to believe in one self, and do not ever lie or amplify your skills. You should stay positive about your abilities. Remember, if you stay honest then you may get your dream job as compared to when you are dishonest with the interviewer.

Conclusion

Let us just summarize whatever we have discussed so far

1. Go networking!

2. Jack of all, and master of ONE

3. Build your resume

4. Stay ahead of the rest, and be qualified

5. Get yourself acclaimed

6. Master the Interview

While, there is no sure shot way to get a dream job as a technical writer but the things we discussed will get you at least closer to your dream job. If you apply these methods in the year 2010, then it might increase your chances to succeed in the career of technical writing.

Domain knowledge: Is it essential for technical writers and content developers!

A lot is talked about how domain knowledge is essential for technical writers in today’s industry. Before even we go into detail into why is it important, let us first understand what you mean when you say “Domain Knowledge”.

A standard definition of Domain knowledge is that it is knowledge about the environment in which the target system operates. It is critical for a technical writer to acquire knowledge about a particular domain because a technical writer often acts as a bridge between the end-users and software developers. A Domain is generally defined as an area of interest or an area which you are communicating about. A domain is also defined as a particular environment that you are already working in or interested to work.

As a technical writer, you are required to understand the market specifics that vary from different geographies. You need to understand the overall trends in the market, as well as technology and economic trends that could impact product performance, who are the competitors, what are their strengths/weaknesses, and where are they heading. All this information and much more constitute to “Domain Knowledge”. But, you must be wondering in your mind, why at all it is essential to gain domain knowledge when you have Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to do the job for you. As a technical writer, your job is to develop documentation for the software. The rest shall be left for the SMEs to validate it. Then, why has it become so essential today to gain domain knowledge?

Agrees Mohan Babu K. in his article that business domain knowledge is extremely important particularly in an offshore environment.

So, gone are the days when you were just writing just for software. Today, at one stage when you are writing for software and on the other, you would be also writing for a financial institution.

Why Domain knowledge?

Acquiring knowledge of a domain always helps you to add variety to your profile. It adds some spice to your resume. It is better when you acquire knowledge in more than just one domain. There are various business domains where you can acquire knowledge on such as:

• Finance
• Human Capital Management (HCM)
• Telecom
• Retail
• Industrial & Distribution
• Electronics / Semiconductors
• Medicine
• Biotechnology
• Banking
• Engineering
• Aviation
• Building & Public Utility
• Consulting/Professional Services
• Defense
• Educational Institutions
• Shipping
• Government
• Hardware and Software
• Healthcare

And, the above list is endless. However, it is utmost essential that you master in one particular domain and acquire knowledge on each of the other domains. This will help you to stay upbeat with the current market scenario. But, the question is that Is domain knowledge an essential requirement for a technical writer?

Knowledge of a particular domain (s) is considered as a secondary requirement for any job opportunity of technical writers. The first and foremost requirement is to write clearly, and an ability to grasp the new concept (s). So, if you have this ability to grasp any new topic or domain, you can do a wonderful job as a technical writer. Thus, I feel that Domain knowledge is not a primary requirement for technical writers. Knowledge of a domain helps you to interact with the SMEs in a better manner thereby fortifying your interpersonal relationship within the organization. It also gives a confidence among your client who feels a sense of satisfaction when you are able to understand what the client is trying to say. It happens sometimes, when a client speaks about a concept and you are not aware of. But, if you have knowledge of the subject being spoken about by the client, this gives a level of confidence to not only the client but to you even. In other words, remember the golden rule, “Domains stay but the technologies change thereafter.”