wsc wordsmithing

Working on Wordsmithing with Katherine Daniels

Professional writing != Formal writing

Why do We Write?

• 'Good writing provides useful, timely information that the reader needs.'
• Writing falls into different parts of the following quadrant:

Preparing: Identifying Content

• Content is what we communicate
  • Ask yourself: What is the outcome I want for the audience?
  • Who is my audience?
• Write the summary first
• Write an outline
• Break content into sections
  • Use headers and subheaders
  • NO walls of text!
• Include examples
  • Code samples, commands, etc.
  • Show example input and output
• Include different levels of content
  • Further reading at the end
  • Short version and long version
• Cat Tax
  • Put a funny picture or gif at the end of a long message
    • "I read this whole email, where's my cat?!"

Writing: Process and Style

• Get feedback
• Feedback groups
  • Cheerleaders
  • Critical eyes
  • SMEs
  • Non-SMEs
  • A member of my target audience
  • My heros
• Editing