Good technical articles are challenging to write. They're
time-consuming, demanding to research and hard to organize. But
they're valuable weapons in the PR and marketing arsenal, and you
need them.
If you can outsource the article, great. That's
what writers like me are here for. But if you can't -- or don't
want to -- then read and apply the tips below to save time and energy
on research and writing, and come out with a much better product.
Get Ready
Review your resources - hard copy like
books and articles, Web access, interview contact information.
Arrange for interviews if you need them, it
always takes a while to track down the interviewees. Note: If
you're ghostwriting an article for a company, you may not have
an interview past the initial meeting.
Make sure you know the following: a) the reader's
challenge, b) the key message relating to their challenge, and
c) the type of reader you're writing to.
Understand the main message the client want to
communicate. Many technologies are similar, but your client will
have a defined slant on their implementation. (If they don't,
they should - this is your chance to offer them your strategic
message building services.)
Even "vendor-neutral" articles are
written with a point of view - either the writer's or the company
the writer is working for. This is only a problem if the article
bias makes for a misleading article, or tells a whopping big lie.
Outline
Never skip this step, for your own or your readers'
sakes. Outlines speed up your writing, and readers will follow
your argument much better.
Organize your research into three themes. Some
thematic organizations are obvious - for example, I wrote an article
on three steps to optimizing your storage. In other articles,
there may be several possibilities. There is probably no one right
choice, so if two or three seem fine to you, just pick one and
go with it.
Remember your junior high school/high school/college
outline lessons? They apply. If you don't remember your lessons,
here's a reminder: I. Introduction (Outline problem, introduce
solution, state theme) II. Body A. 1st major point B. 2nd major
point C. 3rd major point III. Conclusion (short case study/example,
restate solution, concluding paragraph)
Put your outline on paper and let it guide you
as you go. It's not iron-clad - if a new organization presents
itself while you're writing you can change it - but don't do it
too much or you'll defeat the outline's purpose.
Writing the Rough Draft
Here's the key to writing your rough draft:
Just Do It. Write without thinking about it. Paste in random chunks
of text from your research. Write some more. Write in any bizarre,
random order. All you want to do at this point is get down large
masses of information onto paper.
Keep going until you've got 2-3 times the words
you actually need, then you can stop.
Once you have your mass of information on paper,
you can organize it into your outline. No big deal - just cut
and paste paragraphs under the points they best fit.
Now that you've slapped all of your rough text
and research into your outline, guess what? The draft is done.
Congratulate yourself and take a break.
Subsequent Drafts
Now it's time to whip this rough mass into shape.
Start by saving your rough draft under a different name. You're
going to be doing a lot of deletions in this stage, and you don't
want to accidentally delete something you meant to use.
Working with the new copy, start your edits.
Paraphrase the notes you have from other sources -- memos, product
briefs, other articles, brochures. (Journalists do it all the
time. It's called "research.")
Download online research but mark it in a different
color, so as not to commit the embarrassing - not to mention illegal
-- mistake of repeating someone else's writing. When you've learned
what you need to to from the research, capture the facts in your
own words and delete the original notes.
Borrow freely from your client's Website and
other materials. Don't repeat the text - that's bad policy and
bad writing - but you're not going to be accused of plagiarism.
Laziness maybe, but not plagiarism.
Music can be helpful on writing assignments.
Personally, I like Vivaldi for drafting and movie scores for revising.
Quite the combo. (As I edit this sentence, The Last of the
Mohicans is playing.)
You might find that dictating works better for
you at the rough draft stage. Not the old-fashioned kind, where
the hard-bitten boss called in his trusty secretary to "Take
a memo!" You're more likely to use an application like Naturally
Speaking. This type of application needs a lot of training beforehand
- the application, not you - but can be very helpful for writers
who try to critique themselves right out the ballpark.
Writing the Final Draft
You've done the rough draft, 1st draft, and are
into the 2nd draft. You've put everything in your own words and
are observing your outline structure. The article is starting
to sound less like something you'll get blamed for, and more like
something you might actually claim.
Edit for readability, grammar and style.
Use active voice in all your writing. "Active
voice" is a sentence construction where the subject performs
the verb action. Don't go to sleep on me, this is important. Example:
"The dog bit the boy." Quick, active, easy. Here's an
example of passive voice: "The boy was bitten by the dog."
Yikes!
Technology writing is full of hideous passive
voice construction. Here's another example from a technology marketing
document: "This successful vendor interoperability was demonstrated
at the Summit in Chicago." Ack! Instead, write: "Vendor
teams successfully demonstrated interoperability at the Summit
in Chicago." See how easy that was? PLEASE use active voice.
Everyone will be so much happier.
If you learn nothing else about business writing
in all your born days, learn to write in active voice. Subject
all of your sentences to this simple little exercise and you will
improve your writing 100%.
Please don't be boring, but don't get too cute.
I will stick in something funny every once in a while -- mostly
because I get a big kick out of myself -- but don't get too chummy.
Final Draft
You're almost there - you see light at the end
of tunnel, and it isn't a train. Now is the time to polish sentence
structure and word choice, and punch up your paragraphs.
Polish your opening paragraphs. Add a snappy
lead, define what you're talking about and why it's important,
and list the three or so points you're going to make.
Read through your article and make sure you've
made those points. If you did an outline, the main points should
already be subheads. (See why an outline is so great?)
Polish your conclusion. The conclusion doesn't
have to be undying prose, but do restate your points and conclusions.
Read through one more time for overall readability.
Run your spelling and grammar check.
Save and send - but be careful to send the right
file! I accidentally turned in my rough draft once instead of
the completed final. Luckily this happened with one of my oldest
clients, so they contacted me and asked me for the real article.
A new client would simply have assumed complete incompetence on
my part.
And for the final tip: everything gets easier
with practice. Good thing, too.
The Christine
Taylor Company
P.O. Box 3499
Wrightwood, CA 92397
