Video Audio icon An illustration of an audio speaker. Audio Software icon An illustration of a 3. Software Images icon An illustration of two photographs. Images Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape Donate Ellipses icon An illustration of text ellipses. Technical writing for dummies Item Preview. EMBED for wordpress. Want more? It stresses that without a plan it is difficult to have a successful grant process.
This chapter has useful suggestions on what to look for within an organization to decide where funding is needed. The third …show more content… Some of these sites I have previewed and I think they will help me find grants that are available in our area that we have not solicited at this time.
The seventh chapter covers finding grants for individuals. This chapter will probably not benefit my work at the Conservancy but it was interesting to see the types of individual grants that are available and where to look for them. The eighth chapter covers international grants and funding. Part III Playing by the rules of the Grants Game Chapters nine and ten are chapters that will help me prepare and write what the reviewers of government grants are looking for.
Each of these chapters covered tips that helped me learn what to look for while looking for grants. This book is about strategy — learning the skills you need to write energized technical documents that have the impact you want on your readers.
For example, if legendary writers such as Shakespeare, Chaucer, Poe, Twain, or Longfellow had computers, would they have been more successful? Of course not. They were all successful because they mastered the tools of their trade. Technical Writing For Dummies will help you master the tools of your trade and develop the skills you need to excel. In each of my For Dummies books, I use interesting opening quotes to begin the chapters.
Therefore, each chapter starts with a technology quote by one of the sages through the ages. When you read them, you may shake your head, wrinkle your brow, and just wonder what they were thinking.
This part introduces the Technical Brief — a key element in writing dynamite technical documents. The Technical Brief gets you jump started. It will help you to get to know your readers the term I use for paper documents and users the term I use for electronic documents , identify the key issues, and understand the executional considerations. This part walks you through the steps of preparing an ironclad production schedule, brainstorming, outlining, drafting, editing, rewriting, and testing.
Also, in order to write technical documents that are valuable to your readers, your documents must have a strong visual impact and an appropriate tone.
Last but not least, you want your documents to be remembered for the write reasons. In this part, you find tips for whiz-bang user manuals, abstracts, spec sheets, evaluation forms and questionnaires, executive summaries, and presentations that leave your audiences clamoring for more. No technical writing book would be complete without focusing on the power of the computer and the Internet. Although electronic documents follow many of the same basic guidelines as paper documents, they do have their own unique flavors.
This part goes into detail about those unique flavors. It includes doing research online, creating sights and sounds, developing computer-based training CBT and Web-based training WBT , and writing online help.
The Part of Tens is a For Dummies classic. Here you find a potpourri of tips and tidbits in a variety of specific areas such as publishing in a technical journal, filing a patent, and writing a grant proposal. It also highlights ten ways to make your document shout Read me. The appendixes round out Technical Writing For Dummies with a glossary of technical terms you can bandy about at cocktail parties, punctuation and grammar guidelines so you can write to your readers in your voice, information on abbreviations, and tables of metric equivalents.
I strongly suggest that you read Chapters 2 through 7 in sequential order because good writing is a process of getting started, creating an outline, writing the draft, designing for visual impact, honing the tone, and proofreading.
When you work collaboratively, you may repeat parts of this process as needed. The remainder of this book builds on this process for print and electronic technical documents. Feel free to jump to whatever topic interests you or applies to the writing challenges you face. To help you find the important stuff easily, I scatter icons throughout this book — somewhat like road signs. Each of the following icons pinpoints something vital to your technical writing existence:. The Sheryl Says icon helps you benefit from my experiences — the blissful, the painful, and everything in between.
The Tip icon gives you nifty tips to take on the road to effective technical writing. These may be time savers, frustration savers, lifesavers, or just about anything else. The Technical Brief icon reminds you to refer to the Technical Brief during different stages of your technical writing project. I detail the Technical Brief in Chapter 2 and present it on the Cheat Sheet in the front of this book so you can find it easily.
The Caution icon calls attention to a pitfall you should avoid. However, forewarned is forearmed. The Success Story icon plays off the adage Nothing succeeds like success.
When I started writing For Dummies books, I searched for an elegant pronoun that would cover both genders. If this approach offends anyone, I sincerely apologize. The male gender appears in the even chapters. The female gender appears in the odd chapters. Get stick-on notes and tape flags to tag the hot pages. Books such as these have a tendency to find new homes. People who write for entertainers learn the writer-audience concept early on. The entertainers who get standing ovations, rather than catcalls, are the ones with writers who take the time to get to know the audience.
This part also features the Technical Brief, which is key to understanding your readers. Discovering who writes technical documents. Understanding how technical documents differ from business documents.
Developing a strategic approach to technical writing. Writing technical documents that have impact. Whether you realize it or not, technical documents are part of our everyday lives — both personal and business. When you buy a new camera, it comes with instructions on everything from changing the batteries to getting rid of red eye.
When you get a prescription from a pharmacy, it comes with a leaflet on how often to take the medication and what the side effects may be. When you hire an architect to design your home or office, the architect presents you with drawings of the layout. Technical documents are written for all of us, not just for computer geeks who assemble rockets or plasma generators.
Technical writing means different things to different people. It covers the fields of electronics, aircraft, computer manufacturing and software development, chemical and pharmaceuticals, technical publications, health, and much more. It spans the public and private sectors as well as academic institutions.
Here are some actual situations of people who were called upon to write technical documents in the course of their professions:.
Computer programmer: Pat graduated with a degree in computer science and was hired as a software developer for a company in the fast track. Several months later, the company felt a financial pinch and laid off the technical writers. Pat had a big deliverable due in a few months, and her supervisor told her that she had to write a user manual.
Poor Pat had to muddle through writing the user manual and got gray hair prematurely. Manufacturing specialist: Bill worked for a manufacturing company for many years and developed a piece of equipment that was expected to revolutionize the industry. The audience would consist of more than top industry professionals.
Mad scientist: While working at a pharmaceutical company, Nathaniel had a major breakthrough on a treatment that promised to prevent baldness. The company president asked him to write an article for a major medical journal.
Sales representative: Lynette was a sales representative for a worldwide computer distributor. After 15 years as a road warrior, Lynette suffered from burnout. Lynette had been reading about the burgeoning field of tech writing. Their education and work experience rarely prepare them for this type of challenge. Technical Writing For Dummies will!
The military needed to teach soldiers about weapons, transport vehicles, and other hardware. These technical writers had little or no training. They just sat down at their manual typewriters and banged out whatever made sense to them. However, we did win the war. Many people ask the difference between business writing and technical writing. The difference is analogous to apples and oranges. For example, at the very core pardon the pun , apples and oranges are fruits.
And at the very core, documents are words and graphics. Beyond the core, business and technical documents are different species. Letters are the crux of business documents. When you factor in e-mail messages, that accounts for as much as 90 percent of all business correspondence. Every businessperson writes business documents — letters, memos, e-mail messages, proposals, reports, and more.
One major difference between business and technical documents is that business documents are generally written by one person, often for a single reader or small, select group of readers. Following are some commonly written business documents:. E-mail messages. Meeting minutes.
For a super book on writing business documents, check out my hot seller Business Writing for Dummies Hungry Minds, Inc. This book is the outgrowth of my very successful business writing seminar, Energize Your Business Writing, and it walks you through the Six Steps that are key to having the impact you want to have on your readers.
It also ties those steps into all sorts of business writing, including those just mentioned. The book even includes a major part on using e-mail effectively and cutting information overload.
I just got a letter from someone who said, My version of your book has so many dog-eared pages and highlights that I can barely read it!
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