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Where to Start Creating Your Technical Document 

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You may be a new business owner, project manager, or just someone who doesn’t write technical documents often. It may have been a while since you last wrote a porposal or it may be a project you have never done before. Sometimes it’s challenging to know where to start writing that proposal, report, procedure, or training material document.

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In my past experiences, I’ve done a lot of academic research, which is different from technical writing. Academic research focuses a lot on details and not as much on the format. It also requires a lot of citations for all your sources. Technical writing is a lot more about writing for comprehension and using design and formatting to help you relay information in the simplest form for everyone to easily understand and follow.  

 

In all my experience in the medical laboratory and healthcare, I became more familiar with technical writing outside of the academic field. For most of it, I had to learn hands-on creating, reviewing and updating documents, and do my own research. The subject of technical writing encompasses many areas of professional communication. It is used in the fields of Technology, Science, Healthcare, Engineering, and Business.

 

To write an effective technical writing document, one of the first, and most important tasks is to gather the right information from all your sources - research. If you only research one or two sources, your document will not include all the necessary information to write an effective document. You might miss important information if you don't have all the details for a process or a report. It is also essential to fully understand the subject you are writing on to relay that information in simpler terms.

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Research for Potential Ideas

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To start your document, first, consider the style that will deliver your information most effectively. Is it a formal report, a procedure, an informative article, or a blog? Each type of document requires a specific style and voice depending on the audience that will be reading your information. Depending on the document type, you may need to have an introduction and a conclusion, but not all technical documents use that format. For example, policies and procedures do not follow the standard format of a proposal. Procedures generally list the information in steps for the user to follow as they are performing a task. 

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For a formal report try to organize data in charts or tables that are easy to read. A procedure would be formatted with bullet points or numbered lists in a step-by-step format. Policies list information in the order of importance and it's very specific to the department. The information in an informative article should be organized in such a way that your audience can skim through and quickly find the specific information they are looking for. A blog would be more personalized to the readers as if you are talking to them. Ask yourself how you plan to communicate to your audience.

Second, consider the type of style and formatting that would be effective to enhance the document. Are you writing a formal document? Consider formatting and style that are easy to read and follow. Make your titles stand out and bold important words or phrases that you want the reader to pay extra attention to. Include graphs and charts to have a visual representation to support your data. A professional voice fits better with a formal document. A blog or a magazine article requires a more casual voice. Consider your audience, what type of document will get the right message across?

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Formulate and Ask the Right Questions

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When conducting research for a technical document, think about what questions it needs to answer. Consider some follow-up questions that the readers may ask. Here are some example questions:

 

- What is the purpose of the document?

- Why is the information important?

- What information are you trying to relay?

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Let your readers know what you are trying to relay and why it’s important. Is it to inform, to instruct, to entertain? Why is the information you're corresponding is important? What do your readers need to get out of this document?

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Identify the information that you need to relay to your readers. If it's to instruct, place that information at the top and then elaborate more in the following paragraph. If you are writing a procedure, be sure to not miss any steps. Be as clear and concise as possible not to bore your readers and to keep them engaged. Also think about what information do the Subject Matter Experts (SME) need to have included in the document?

Subject Matter Experts specialize in the domain of the specific information that needs to be relayed in the technical document. It could be a written report, procedure, or training content, for example. What do they expect the audience to know and what information they need to perform their duties, for example.

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Consult with SME and Other Professionals in the Field

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Consult with other professionals within your company that know the topic well and can contribute information or insight to your document. When something is unclear, it’s important to ask the experts and other peers for their insight. After all, other peers can be of help if certain wording is confusing or may not be understood by others that are not experts in the topic. Editors are very helpful in that regard. They can catch spelling and grammar mistakes. They can also offer ideas on how to make the text less wordy and easier to understand. Sometimes asking someone that does not know much about the subject helps see the document a little clearer.

 

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Keep Your Information Organized

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Organize your information in a way that is easily understood. Outline your document, make a flow chart or a table where you can put all the information you have researched in the order of importance. Decide where the specific information should go in your document. Create a rough draft of the document and check for flow.

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One thing to remember is that SME sometimes use language that is common in their field of expertise but may not be common to the audience. Make sure and research specific terms and explain them in a common language if you need to. Make the document more easily readable and plainly understood by your audience.

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Having strong research skills will make it easier to find the right information and make it easier to write your technical document. It is important to utilize all your resources. Get to know your topic well, ask the right questions, get information from the subject matter experts, and ask other peers for their opinion if something is unclear. Be sure to organize and include all necessary information and that it is well understood. The more research you do before, during, and after preparing your document, the clearer your content will be understood by your audience.

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