Custom Essay Writing Services

Overview

Incomplete User Documents disappoint your Readers. Two attitudes of many Technical Writers result in incomplete User Documents. These two attitudes are:

. “Everyone Knows That”, and

. “The User Can Figure It Out”

This article describes these attitudes and presents methods for overcoming them. The result is more effective User Documents and more satisfied Users.

1. “Everyone Knows That”

The “Everyone Knows That” attitude makes assumptions about your Reader’s knowledge. These assumptions cause your Reader grief.

Here’s an example of a possible “Everyone Knows That.” Do you know this:

Tomatoes. Most of us keep them in a refrigerator. However, storing them in a refrigerator will ruin the taste and nutrition of tomatoes. Tomatoes should be stored on a kitchen counter at room temperature, until they are cut. Once cut, tomatoes should then be stored in the refrigerator.

Does everyone know that? What do you assume that everyone knows about your product?

Sometimes your User Documents have to overcome previous User experience. Everyone thinks that they know how to properly (safely) shut off a barbecue…they don’t! The safe shutdown method is described in most barbecue User Documents, but it is not “advertised” (forcefully presented) in the User Documents.

It’s rarely true that “Everyone Knows That”. Just because you find something to be obvious, it does not mean everyone knows that something.

Here’s another example: How do you use a (combined product — ‘2 in one’) shampoo and hair conditioner? When shampooing, the shampoo is massaged into the scalp and immediately rinsed. When conditioning the hair, the conditioner is massaged into the hair, and remains on the hair for about two minutes. Now, what do the Users do for the combined product: rinse quickly, or let the product remain in the hair?

If you have the “Everyone Knows That” attitude when you write, you will tend to leave out needed material from your User Document. You will be doing a disservice to your Readers, and to your writing.

When in doubt whether “everyone knows something,” assume that they do not. Then,

. add some text explaining the topic, or

. tell the Reader where to find information that will explain the topic

Another Caution

Be careful about assuming that just because you explained something earlier in your User Document, your Reader will remember (or even have read) that information. It is rare for Users to read product documentation from start to finish.

When in doubt, add a reference to that earlier (background) information. Tell your Reader where to find it, or provide a link to it if your document is electronic.

Here’s a Thought Experiment: You are a User of products: How often do you read the product documentation from start to finish? If you always do, then ask some other people. (The great thing about this fact — that Users do not read the documentation from start to finish — is that it results in great flexibility in writing, formatting and editing the product documentation.)

2. “The User Can Figure It Out”

The User does not want to have to figure things out. The User is not reading a mystery novel or any other literature, where he/she wants to think about what is happening.

When someone uses your product, they are using it to meet their own needs. Your product may be central to your life, but to your Users, your product is a means to an end. And they do not want to have to decipher your product documentation.

Here’s a simple example. An e-mail tells you to call someone, but the message leaves out the phone number. You are expected to find the phone number on your own. The writer probably knew the phone number, but left it out. This “information oversight” gets expensive within a company when the e-mail is sent to many employees…each looking up the phone number on his/her own.

My favorite pet peeve: dates. Within recent memory we “survived” the Year-2000 transition. Yet we still write dates sloppily. We use “06″ for a year, instead of “2006.” When we see things like “07/11/04″ what is the date it is referring to? Is it November 4, 2007, April 11, 2007, or some other permutation of the numbers. The standards for the format of dates vary around the world. This is an example of both assumptions:

. “everyone knows that” (because there is a “standard” date format — there is not), and

. “the User can figure it out” (by seeing if my other dates provide clues to the format)

Don’t leave things for the User/Reader to figure out for themselves. It takes you only a few moments to include the material your Reader needs, and will save many Readers many hours in figuring things out.

Do It:

The writing literature tells you to “know your Reader.” Here is where you use that knowledge to improve your writing.

Either

. find someone who is like your intended Reader, or

. “do your best” to act like your intended Reader (you can do it if you need to)

In reading and evaluating the document, look for places where

. the writing assumes that “everyone knows that”

. the writing expects the Reader to be able to “figure it out”

. the writing makes jumps that your Reader cannot follow

. the writing makes the assumption that the Reader has read and remembered the entire document

Fix these places. It only takes a few words or sentences.

Everyone will be happier.

OVERVIEW

People are visual creatures. They look at your product, and see, for example, a button or display. They want to find out about that control or indicator. A Visual Index is a simple but powerful document access tool that enables your Readers to find the information that they want.

This article describes the Visual Index concept and tells how to create one for your document.

A VISUAL INDEX

A Visual Index is a picture of your product or process with links to the relevant information in the related document. Using a Visual Index, your Readers can look at the picture, and quickly jump to the place in your document that describes the item of interest.

Your document may include several Visual Indexes (the plural of “index’ is “indexes” not “indices”).

STARTS WITH A PICTURE

The Visual Index starts with a picture of your product or process. There are various kinds of pictures to use, based on the product type:

* Physical Product (for example, a barbecue or video disk recorder)

Pictures of the product (all relevant views).

* A Procedure or Process: A flowchart of the steps and decisions in the procedure or process.

* Software Product 1: Screenshots of the software.

* Software Product 2: Before and after images of the work that the product does.

* Organization: An organization chart.

LABEL THE PICTURE

Label all the User-Product Interaction Points (U-PIP) on the picture. A U-PIP is anywhere that your User and the product may interact. U-PIP’s include controls, displays, and relevant physical features of the product (such as handles, latches, etc.). Provide a meaningful (to your Reader) label (name) for the U-PIP. (Use that same exact label everywhere you refer to that U-PIP.)

Aside: If your product uses sounds to inform the User, then include a table of those sounds, what they mean, and a link into the relevant area of your document (describing the sound).

LINK THE U-PIP’s TO YOUR DOCUMENT

Up to this point, the Visual Index is just like any well-labeled picture of your product or process. However, when you add links into your document, the well-labeled picture becomes a Visual Index.

The link should be to a section of your document that you believe your reader would most want to reach to get the information about that U-PIP. (This is a fundamental question whenever you create an index: “does my reader want to come to this place in my document for this item?”)

Your method of adding links to the picture depends upon the publishing mechanism for the document. If the document is published as:

* A Printed document, then use page numbers for the links;

* An Electronic Document, then use hyperlinks that a Reader can click on to follow. If the document is published as HTML, then the visual index can be an image map.

EXAMPLE 1: A PAIN IN MY FOOT

I have a pain in my foot when I walk. If I go to a website about feet, it would be very efficient for finding out about my pain, if I could see a picture of a foot with various areas where the pain could be. Links from the foot areas to specific web pages would enable me to find the information about my specific foot pain quickly.

EXAMPLE 2: PHOTO CORRECTING SOFTWARE

Show a picture with the errors that your software can handle, before and after correction. Here the U-PIP’s are each of the photo errors.

EXAMPLE 3: A COURSE ON WRITING USER DOCUMENTATION

The Visual Index is a flowchart for creating the User Document. Since the Course is presented in HTML, the Visual Index is made from an image map, with hyperlinks into the sections of the Course relevant to each item in the flowchart.

BOTTOM LINE

A Visual Index is a simple concept. But like many simple concepts it is very powerful. Try to include one in your next document. You’ll be doing your Reader a great service.

OVERVIEW

Searches in User Documents (manuals, etc.) often fail because the Reader uses different words for a concept than the author uses. Since the Reader’s words do not appear in the document, the document search mechanism cannot find them, resulting in frustration. This article describes a User-friendly technique for improving searches, without having to change the Users’ behavior or the search software.

YOUR READERS’ WORDS

People use the words that they know when they speak, write, or search. It’s folly to try to force the Reader to use the writer’s terminology; the Reader simply might not know the “proper” term. Forced to use unknown words, the Reader will find the User Document to be arrogant, or at least difficult to use.

For example, a User Manual for a word processing program will probably use the word “formatting” when dealing with character fonts and size, as well as page layout. But suppose that your Reader uses the word “appearance” to refer to these topics. How can we get the search mechanism to provide the correct result if the Reader searches for “appearance”?

THE TECHNICAL ANSWER: A THESAURUS SEARCH

The technical solution would be to convert the document search software from being an “exact term” search to a “Thesaurus Search.” In a Thesaurus Search, the User enters a word that he/she knows, and the search returns synonyms or references to the synonyms in the document. Thus a properly set up Thesaurus Search should return references to “formatting” if the Reader searches for “appearance.”

Unfortunately, the Thesaurus Search is rarely available, and creating one would require changes to the existing search program. A low tech solution may be the best answer.

THE ANSWER: SYNONYMS

For this technique, you need to put synonyms of the author’s word (”formatting”) on the pages that you want the search to find. Such synonyms may include “appearance,” “design,” and “layout.” This is a simple, effective solution.

You can find appropriate synonyms by using the thesaurus that is a component of most word processors and of many libraries. Select the synonyms that your Readers are likely to use. “Likely to use” is based on your analysis of your Reader.

This leads us to the next question: How do you put the synonyms on the page?

DON’T USE HIDDEN TEXT

Technically savvy writers may ask “why not use hidden text for the synonyms?” The benefit is that hidden text will not “clutter up” the page.

So, if in the sections of the User Document where “formatting” is presented, the writer put the word “appearance” as hidden text (assuming the search utility would find this hidden information), then the following will happen:

1. The Reader searches for “appearance.”

2. The search takes the Reader to the “formatting” section of the document.

3. The Reader wonders “How did I get here?” The word that he/she searched for (”appearance”) does not appear on the page, since it is hidden.

Given that a goal of a User Document is to answer the Reader’s questions, then doing anything that causes him/her to ask another question (”How did I get here?”) is counter-productive. Hidden synonyms are not the best answer.

THE ELEGANT SOLUTION: “YOU MAY KNOW THIS AS…”

Hiding the synonyms is not a good idea. It’s better to let the Reader know what’s going on. The easiest way is to add a line of text on the page where the topic appears. This line of text begins with the phrase, “You may know this as…”

To continue our “formatting” example, our explanatory synonym phrase becomes, “You may know this as appearance, layout, or design.” A search for “appearance” brings the Reader to the “Formatting” section.

Upon seeing the phrase “You may know this as appearance, layout, or design,” the Reader knows why the search found this location. The search satisfied the Reader, and did not add uncertainty to the situation.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The goal of all good User Documents is to improve the Reader’s experience with the product. By using synonyms for “technical” terms, the writer makes the Reader’s document searches more effective, since the needed topics will be found using the Reader’s words.

By not hiding the synonyms, the Reader is not confused as to why he/she arrived at that place in the document. The result is a better experience with the document and the product.

How Important are Job Resumes in Securing the Perfect Job?

The function of outstanding job resumes is to get the attention of your potential employer. More than simply a listing of your accomplishments, education, skills and experience; a job resume is the first point of contact you have with the company with whom you are seeking employment. No matter what skill set you bring to the table, if your resume isn’t effectively presented, you may find it difficult to locate work. In the reverse, if you haven’t had a lot of experience, a polished resume that presents the talents and ambitions you do possess can secure you a job with unlimited potential for growth. Before setting out to look for a new job, make sure your resume presents the skills you have to offer in the best possible light. Many employers will not even offer an interview to prospective employees with lackluster job resumes.

Types of Job Resumes

Job resumes may be structured in several different ways to focus on your best qualities, while downplaying your limitations. Today’s employers are looking for innovative employees that will bring value to their business. Submitting a standout resume is one way to express your individual abilities and ambition. Different types of job resumes include:

* Reverse Chronological Resumes &ndash These job resumes focus on your employment history by listing your previous employment starting with your latest position. Chronological resumes detail your growth as an employee and are best suited for people who have a strong employment background and documented experience. Educational information and additional skills are typically noted at the bottom of these job resumes.

* Functional Resumes &ndash The functional resume gives less resonance to experience and highlights, instead, the skills that you have to offer. Functional resumes generally list your stellar qualifications at the top of the page, while providing some details of how the skills were obtained&ndashincluding school and work experience&ndashtowards the latter half of the page. Skill-based resumes are the best choice for workers that are new to the job market, or have not worked in quite some time.

* Combination Resumes &ndash A combination resume takes the focus on skills from the Functional resume and merges it with the employment history, for a complete package of your qualifications. These job resumes present the most well rounded details and can be used by almost anyone to effectively gain employment.

Seeking Professional Help for Writing Job Resumes

If you’re not certain of the resume choice that’s right for your qualifications, or if you just want the best possible resume, you might want to seek the help of a professional resume writing service. For a minimal fee, professional writers can formulate top quality job resumes that can be used to market your skills. A resume writing service will present your personal employment history and qualifications in a manner that will stand out to potential employers. It’s really a small investment to make for a profitable future at your new job.

For more information please visit .resume-writing-tips.org

Overview

Your editor should be an integral part of your writing team. Do not think of him/her as a judge, but rather as a resource to help you in all phases of the writing project. This article will help you overcome any fear of your editor, and how to effectively use your editor during the writing process.

Beware of Your Editor

Some of the changes that an editor might suggest could make the User Document more difficult for your Reader to understand.

Improving Your Writing

Once your editor has gotten past the basic mechanical editing tasks of:

* grammar

* punctuation

* spelling

* editing to a Style Sheet,

he/she may work on “improving your writing.”

Your editor may believe that one way to make the writing more interesting is to use synonyms when you refer back to something. Thus you might call something a “chip bin” in one part of your text, and your editor might suggest using a different term, such as “waste trap,” later in the document. This should make your writing “more interesting.”

You do not want interesting writing in your User Documents! You want clear, simple, very easy to understand writing. If you make your writing more interesting by using the synonym (”waste trap”) then you force your reader to have to think about whether or not these are the same thing. I recommend that you use the exact same wording every place in your User Document where you are referring to the same thing. No synonyms here!

If your Reader wanted to be entertained or have his/her thoughts provoked, then he/she would be reading a novel.

Don’t let your editor make your writing more interesting or more clever if those efforts makes the material harder for your Reader to understand.

Erudition

Another place to beware of your editor is “erudition.” That is, when an editor that tries to make your User Documentation sound more formal. Other than disclaimer, legal, and safety information, the User Document should sound friendly, with a conversational tone.

For example, an editor might suggest changing contractions (such as “don’t”) into their more formal form (”do not”). Don’t do it! Contractions are conversational and they should not be avoided.

If you think about it, most people reading the User Documentation for any product are under some form of stress:

* they either want to get on with using the product, or

* something has gone wrong.

A formal document will put the User off. The document should not be silly or flippant; however, it should provide the information that the User needs in a conversational, easily understood style. The needed information should be easy to find.

Although most word processor grammar checkers are woefully inadequate, many of these checkers can be made to provide a readability score (you may have to set an option to enable this feature). Editing should help increase the readability (indicated by a decrease in the reading grade level) of the document. If editing increases the reading grade level, ask your editor why that score has changed.

What to Do

Provide your editor with the information that will enable him/her to do the best job. Here are some things to tell your editor:

* The intended audience for the User Document

* Tell your editor that you want an informal style of User Document

* What style manual or guide to be used in editing

* Scheduling and progress of the project

* Format for sharing and editing the text (make sure the editor can read your electronic documents — do this when you hire the editor)

(Whenever you are dealing with someone outside your organization, you must have a signed non-disclosure agreement. This is in addition to any other contractual items between the outsider and your organization.)

Get to Know Your Editor

Your editor is NOT your school teacher. In your school days, your teacher-as-editor was a judge. Your goal was to impress your teacher with your writing. You were working for a grade. Thus you may have come to fear your editor.

Change your thinking! Now, your editor is on your side. Your editor will work with you to produce the best possible writing. You will not have to worry excessively about grammar. You goal is to get the information “on paper” as clearly and completely as you can. Your editor will suggest changes to polish the text.

So don’t fear your editor. Make your editor part of your writing team.

Love Your Editor

Hire Your Editor Early in the Project

Hire your editor early in the life of the project. There are at least two benefits to hiring the editor early:

* First, your editor will be prepared for the editing task. He/she will have had time to get to know the product, target audience, and your organization’s style guide.

* Second, your editor can help you with your writing, as I describe below…

Let Your Editor Help You

If you run into problems about how to write something, call on your editor. Most likely your editor can provide an effective wording to get you around your block. That’s one reason why you got the editor on the project early. Here’s another…

A Recommendation

I recommend that you work on small pieces of the User Document, and circulate these small pieces (rough drafts) to the development team for comments. Then use their comments to improve the writing, and re-circulate the improved material. Continue this for a few cycles. I call this “Iterative, Interactive Writing.” This is an effective method for writing quickly and accurately.

If you feel uncomfortable about circulating rough drafts to the product development team for review, here’s a solution. Have your editor perform a quick edit of the rough draft before you circulate it for comments. Your “drafts” will look quite good, and the development team will concentrate on the content, not the wording or grammar (and comments about content are you want from the team).

The Bottom Line

Don’t think of your editor as an enemy lurking at the end of your document production path. Instead, realize that your editor can be a valuable member of your writing team, and is on your side. He/she should:

* Be brought onto the writing project early

* Be kept aware of the status of the writing project

* Be used as a writing, as well as an editing, resource

TIP: It is much more enjoyable for the writer (you) to work with “marked-up” electronic documents, rather than marked-up printed documents. Investigate your word processor’s “multiple reviewers” capability. To employ this capability requires that you and your editor use the same or compatible word processing software.

NOTE: I am not an editor, nor do I represent any editors. But as a writer, I value editing.

Building an online community to create collaborative publications - essentially books written page by page by different people from around the world - may sound like an ambitious project but it’s happening today thanks to the power of the Internet, and more importantly, the power of people.

It may sound foolhardy and unlikely to work in practice, but the concept of scores of unconnected people, perhaps even hundreds or thousands, working together to create group produced publications is proving incredibly successful.

Some contributors see it as an opportunity to showcase their previously hidden creative talent to a wide audience of supportive and like minded potential authors. Others like the chance to influence a book’s storyline as it develops, and perhaps introduce new characters, scenes or even unexpected twists and turns. For many, collaborative writing is just about joining in and being part of something special which could actually result in published books which they have helped write.

Whatever the motivation people power is having an impact, and more and more people from every walk of life and from every region of the world are getting involved and ‘spreading the word’.

The concept will never mean the end of individual writers penning fantastic individual works (and so it shouldn’t as where would we be without our rich culture of great literature from around the world), but it may make the traditional publishing industry sit up and think. After all why would the aspiring author go through rejection after rejection only to learn that many book publishers are increasingly focused on just finding the next blockbuster, when they can publish freely on a collaborative writing site and gain instant exposure and feedback?

More fundamentally the concept of online collaborative writing could be seen as the next true social evolution of the Internet after communication and networking. These ‘Web 2.0’ practices have, rightly or wrongly, gained much international publicity and rocketed the value of some social networking sites into the stratosphere.

But did they lead to the creation of anything tangible or enable previously unconnected individuals to work together on singular projects? Were they focused on providing a voice to the previously unheard and have they worked to harness creativity or instead, unwittingly, highlighted the fact that true creation has been missing from the world-wide-web?

Giving web users the world over the means to actually create written works of all kinds which they can later see in print (be these fictional stories, poem, academic works, business documents and so much more), opens up the true potential of the Internet.

Some critics are already saying this e-revolution is Web 2.5 &ndash the next step the Internet will make &ndash but as always it’s up to the people to decide. They will choose with their mouse clicks and their referrals, with their chats to friends and emails to colleagues. But from small beginnings great transitions have occurred and although it’s still in its infancy, collaborative writing is gaining momentum.

Famous authors and high profile celebrities are now joining in and starting fictional stories for others to add to. Jeffrey Archer, author of epic tales such as ‘Kane and Abel’, and Joanne Harris, who penned the book ‘Chocolat’ that became a Hollywood film of the same name, as well as children’s author Dick King-Smith who wrote the book that became the film ‘Babe’, are amongst those that like the idea of giving the power to the people. For them it’s a great way to see how works they start end up when many voices contribute to the mix.

Whatever your view, online collaborative writing is a novel idea.

The content of your site tells a whole lot about your website. They will basically describe what your site is about and also tell people what your site has to offer. Articles and website content makes a whole lot of difference in your site because they can catch the attention of your website visitors and keep them in there.

With good website content you get the benefit of clearly depicting what it is you want to share with people. Also, good content and articles can lead people to your site. With more traffic, you get to earn more from your site making it profitable. A sites success, be it for profit or not, is the number of the flow of traffic in your site.

So how does good content and great articles get you traffic? Well, many search engines rely on the keyword and keyword phrases of a site to put it in their results list. If your content contains a good number of keywords and keywords phrases, it may be chosen to be a part of the top listed sites in the search result pages.

But before you think of just plastering your site with all the keywords and keyword phrases it could hold, search engines also filter out that abuse. You must have good well written articles that incorporate the keywords and keyword phrases properly in their content and articles.

There are many of those who cannot afford the time to write their own website contents and articles. While writing content and articles specifically designed for the internet may take some getting used to and some researching and learning, there are many writers that can be found all over the world who could do it for you.

Many of us do not have the time to learn web content writing and article writing designed for the internet. There are writers who have great experience in doing this and charge only a minimal fee for such work. Writers like this can be regarded as experts in this style of writing and can greatly help your website to get that coveted spot in the search engine rankings.

Other than getting your site in the web results page of search engines, they can also provide your site with meaningful articles and content that can impress your website visitors and entice others to view your site. Every website could use the extra traffic website visitors could invite.

Then there are those who need papers to be done either for their school or office work. Top writers around the world are very knowledgeable and do extreme researching to get a job done right. They are also very adept in many writing styles that are needed to best suit the client’s need.

Many writers around the world charge a minimal fee depending on the type of writing job needed and the number of words needed in the content. Usually, a two hundred fifty worded article would cost from 4 to 8 dollars depending on the writers experience and ability. This is a small price to pay for having a content rich site or for a well researched and written paper.

There are also many sites that can offer you these services with their team of well trained and experienced writers. They offer many writing services to cover any writing needs. A writer can be based anywhere in the world and are guaranteed to offer good contents and articles. Each one are checked, edited and proofread so that you would get your money’s worth.

Finding a good writer or a site that offers these kinds of services is simply done by searching for them in search engines. Type down your keyword or keyword phrase (e.g. Content Writers, Article Writers) and you will see a long list of sites that offer these services.

The top sites would probably be the best since they have done a good job of keeping their content at a high quality to get them high rankings. But you may also want to shop around and read some of their sample work to get an idea of how much it will cost you.

How Important are Job Resumes in Securing the Perfect Job?

The function of outstanding job resumes is to get the attention of your potential employer. More than simply a listing of your accomplishments, education, skills and experience; a job resume is the first point of contact you have with the company with whom you are seeking employment. No matter what skill set you bring to the table, if your resume isn’t effectively presented, you may find it difficult to locate work. In the reverse, if you haven’t had a lot of experience, a polished resume that presents the talents and ambitions you do possess can secure you a job with unlimited potential for growth. Before setting out to look for a new job, make sure your resume presents the skills you have to offer in the best possible light. Many employers will not even offer an interview to prospective employees with lackluster job resumes.

Types of Job Resumes

Job resumes may be structured in several different ways to focus on your best qualities, while downplaying your limitations. Today’s employers are looking for innovative employees that will bring value to their business. Submitting a standout resume is one way to express your individual abilities and ambition. Different types of job resumes include:

* Reverse Chronological Resumes &ndash These job resumes focus on your employment history by listing your previous employment starting with your latest position. Chronological resumes detail your growth as an employee and are best suited for people who have a strong employment background and documented experience. Educational information and additional skills are typically noted at the bottom of these job resumes.

* Functional Resumes &ndash The functional resume gives less resonance to experience and highlights, instead, the skills that you have to offer. Functional resumes generally list your stellar qualifications at the top of the page, while providing some details of how the skills were obtained&ndashincluding school and work experience&ndashtowards the latter half of the page. Skill-based resumes are the best choice for workers that are new to the job market, or have not worked in quite some time.

* Combination Resumes &ndash A combination resume takes the focus on skills from the Functional resume and merges it with the employment history, for a complete package of your qualifications. These job resumes present the most well rounded details and can be used by almost anyone to effectively gain employment.

Seeking Professional Help for Writing Job Resumes

If you’re not certain of the resume choice that’s right for your qualifications, or if you just want the best possible resume, you might want to seek the help of a professional resume writing service. For a minimal fee, professional writers can formulate top quality job resumes that can be used to market your skills. A resume writing service will present your personal employment history and qualifications in a manner that will stand out to potential employers. It’s really a small investment to make for a profitable future at your new job.

For more information please visit .resume-writing-tips.org

As an author, it’s never fun to get your manuscript back with red through all of your precious words. In fact, it’s probably one of the worst moments you can have as a writer. Self-doubt can fill you and make you wonder why you ever bothered to write such poor quality stuff. But don’t fret. Just because there is a mass of red markings doesn’t mean that your work is poor quality.

Other author’s are not only your best resource; they arealso your best source of support. The life of a writer can be difficult at times, full of ups and downs and the desire to throw in the towel. Chances are if you talk to another author they would not only give you great tips and advice, they will offer you the support and encouragement we all need when we put ourselves out there as we do when we present our writing.

One way that authors support each other is to review each other’s work. A second set of eyes and objective opinion are always worth having. Too many times when authors get their manuscripts back, they feel discouraged. The one sure way to avoid this is to realize three things:

First, it is one person’s opinion.

Second, if you stand back and consider suggestions made you might see something that you didn’t before.

Third, it’s a learning experience. Every author should learn something from each critique offered.

As the author, you have complete control over whether you want to make a change in your story or you don’t. When reading someone’s assessment of your work, if you don’t feel the same about a person’s comments, just skip it and move on to the next suggestion. If several people make the same suggestion, then you may want to rethink your lack of desire to make a change.

Don’t allow personal feelings to prevent you from getting the most out of critiques. It can be difficult when you have worked so hard to perfect a scene and others don’t see the perfection that you do. In this case, it is best to take a step back. Don’t make changes right away, or close your mind to suggestions made. Give yourself a day or two, keep working, see where your story is going and then go back and look at the critique once again.

There is a reason that authors write in drafts. First drafts are meant to be changed and torn apart. So are second, third and fourth drafts. A manuscript isn’t complete until you as the author feel it is what is should be. In each draft, that you write you should learn something about your characters, your setting, your plot and ultimately your writing style. When you allow others to review your draft, allow yourself to learn. Store away ideas, techniques and phrases to use in your revisions.

Keep in mind your goal when reading through another’s analysis of your work. You are preparing your manuscript for the biggest reviewers of all–a publisher. It is an authors job to give a publisher the cleanest manuscript possible. Remember when a publisher considers your piece for publication; they will take into account the amount of editing time necessary. If an author has presented a piece that will require an excessive amount of editing, there is a great possibility that the manuscript will be rejected.

Finally, goal achieved you have received a contract on your manuscript. You may think that the majority of your work is done. The reality is, you have only just begun. Once a manuscript is accepted by a publishing company, the next step is for an editor to be assigned. An editor will be nit-picky. They will analyze every word, every comma, sentence structure, phrases and writing style. Your editor’s job to take what you have written and make it the best it can possibly be.

It’s not uncommon for the niggling feelings of self-doubt to return when you receive your ‘perfected’ manuscript back from the editor, once again torn apart. Bear in mind that if your work was not good, it would not have been accepted. An editor is that final set of eyes that will read your work before it goes to publication. They want to make sure that you have a book that will sell.

Once again when reading an editors comments, look at it from an objective point of view. Talk to other authors who have supported you along the way, and think of an editor’s suggestions as help rather than criticism. At this point, you still have the power to decide what changes you will and will not make, however, it is in your best interest to strongly consider advice an editor gives.

Writing is not a field for those without tough skin. Even those with tough skin can fall into the trap of self-criticism when they receive their work marked up beyond recognition. But if you take the time to learn from those red marks, the chances of your next edit being less “bloody” are good. Don’t give up! Keep writing, it will keep you motivated despite the less than wonderful feedback you might sometimes receive.

Overview

Incomplete User Documents disappoint your Readers. Two attitudes of many Technical Writers result in incomplete User Documents. These two attitudes are:

. “Everyone Knows That”, and

. “The User Can Figure It Out”

This article describes these attitudes and presents methods for overcoming them. The result is more effective User Documents and more satisfied Users.

1. “Everyone Knows That”

The “Everyone Knows That” attitude makes assumptions about your Reader’s knowledge. These assumptions cause your Reader grief.

Here’s an example of a possible “Everyone Knows That.” Do you know this:

Tomatoes. Most of us keep them in a refrigerator. However, storing them in a refrigerator will ruin the taste and nutrition of tomatoes. Tomatoes should be stored on a kitchen counter at room temperature, until they are cut. Once cut, tomatoes should then be stored in the refrigerator.

Does everyone know that? What do you assume that everyone knows about your product?

Sometimes your User Documents have to overcome previous User experience. Everyone thinks that they know how to properly (safely) shut off a barbecue…they don’t! The safe shutdown method is described in most barbecue User Documents, but it is not “advertised” (forcefully presented) in the User Documents.

It’s rarely true that “Everyone Knows That”. Just because you find something to be obvious, it does not mean everyone knows that something.

Here’s another example: How do you use a (combined product — ‘2 in one’) shampoo and hair conditioner? When shampooing, the shampoo is massaged into the scalp and immediately rinsed. When conditioning the hair, the conditioner is massaged into the hair, and remains on the hair for about two minutes. Now, what do the Users do for the combined product: rinse quickly, or let the product remain in the hair?

If you have the “Everyone Knows That” attitude when you write, you will tend to leave out needed material from your User Document. You will be doing a disservice to your Readers, and to your writing.

When in doubt whether “everyone knows something,” assume that they do not. Then,

. add some text explaining the topic, or

. tell the Reader where to find information that will explain the topic

Another Caution

Be careful about assuming that just because you explained something earlier in your User Document, your Reader will remember (or even have read) that information. It is rare for Users to read product documentation from start to finish.

When in doubt, add a reference to that earlier (background) information. Tell your Reader where to find it, or provide a link to it if your document is electronic.

Here’s a Thought Experiment: You are a User of products: How often do you read the product documentation from start to finish? If you always do, then ask some other people. (The great thing about this fact — that Users do not read the documentation from start to finish — is that it results in great flexibility in writing, formatting and editing the product documentation.)

2. “The User Can Figure It Out”

The User does not want to have to figure things out. The User is not reading a mystery novel or any other literature, where he/she wants to think about what is happening.

When someone uses your product, they are using it to meet their own needs. Your product may be central to your life, but to your Users, your product is a means to an end. And they do not want to have to decipher your product documentation.

Here’s a simple example. An e-mail tells you to call someone, but the message leaves out the phone number. You are expected to find the phone number on your own. The writer probably knew the phone number, but left it out. This “information oversight” gets expensive within a company when the e-mail is sent to many employees…each looking up the phone number on his/her own.

My favorite pet peeve: dates. Within recent memory we “survived” the Year-2000 transition. Yet we still write dates sloppily. We use “06″ for a year, instead of “2006.” When we see things like “07/11/04″ what is the date it is referring to? Is it November 4, 2007, April 11, 2007, or some other permutation of the numbers. The standards for the format of dates vary around the world. This is an example of both assumptions:

. “everyone knows that” (because there is a “standard” date format — there is not), and

. “the User can figure it out” (by seeing if my other dates provide clues to the format)

Don’t leave things for the User/Reader to figure out for themselves. It takes you only a few moments to include the material your Reader needs, and will save many Readers many hours in figuring things out.

Do It:

The writing literature tells you to “know your Reader.” Here is where you use that knowledge to improve your writing.

Either

. find someone who is like your intended Reader, or

. “do your best” to act like your intended Reader (you can do it if you need to)

In reading and evaluating the document, look for places where

. the writing assumes that “everyone knows that”

. the writing expects the Reader to be able to “figure it out”

. the writing makes jumps that your Reader cannot follow

. the writing makes the assumption that the Reader has read and remembered the entire document

Fix these places. It only takes a few words or sentences.

Everyone will be happier.