Um ...help?

[boizane]

So... Pretend I'm a Tech Writer (and that I know what I'm doing)

What do I need to know about search engines? Imagine I'm trying to use optimization techniques for search engines within an article.

Oh, yeah, and imagine that I've never used a computer before...

Twelve days and two Sci Fi novels later and I'm almost back to myself.  And now I have

Comments

[anonymous]

I've worked with several tech writers over the years and have gotten on well with them. I have been a software tester of various flavors for over 15 years. I've found that a good tech writer is the translator for the naive, yet intelligent user of a product. This translator takes the tech and, without losing any accuracy or too much information, tries to explain what's going on and how to use that tech.

This, in my opinion, does not require extensive knowledge about any particular item of tech, though a general sort of overview of technology is a good idea. Think more from that naive user's perspective than from the perspective of all those uber geeks out there. Those uber geeks out there are not likely to be your target audience, as they tend to write for each other. You are the one who is going to try to bridge the gap between the toys those uber geeks come up with and those more common folks who are going to try to use those toys.

You use things like email and LJ, right? So, think about how you would try to explain how to use email or LJ to an intelligent older person who kinda knows what a computer is, may or may not know what a browser is, and certainly hasn't heard of yahoo, gmail, or hotmail.

These are my words of wisdom about the topic of what might it be like to be a tech writer and what kinds of things might one think about if one were a tech writer. You asked other questions, but I wasn't sure if you wanted those answered or the more general topic of tech writing was what you wanted addressed. I assumed the later. YMMV.

[lady_equine]

This was from me, by the way. My network is being...special tonight and I did not know I'd been logged out.