Technical writing – Page 2 – DK Consulting of Colorado

Instructions Need a Dénouement, Too

April 30, 2023May 1, 2023Debra W Kahn (@debrawk.bsky.social)

If your job is to create instructions for a product user, plot it out, and don’t skip the dénouement!

Unfamiliar with the term “dénouement?” In literature, the term refers to the ultimate outcome or explanation of a plotline. Literally, in Middle French (its origin), it means to “untie” or “unravel.”

What does all this have to do with writing instructions? If your instructions are taking a user on a journey through a set of tasks (think Campbell’s hero’s journey here), then I urge you to “unravel” the expected outcome of their journey for them – and help them to know they are on the right path along the way. Here’s how.

5 Steps to Pandemic-Sensitive Content

May 26, 2020June 29, 2024Debra W Kahn (@debrawk.bsky.social)

In a previous blog, I noted that while the U.S. FDA might not require new packaging or labeling for your product as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, your customers might demand something different from what you had previously provided.

This is just one example of how your organization might have to respond to new customer or user expectations as a result of COVID-19.

How many other ways have your customer or user expectations shifted in a world that now includes a pandemic? And how do those new expectations impact your content?

Updating Process Documents as a Result of COVID-19

May 6, 2020June 29, 2024Debra W Kahn (@debrawk.bsky.social)

Most of us are ramping up our businesses after a COVID-19-related hiatus or moving forward with new business as a result of a recent pivot. Either way, now is the time to audit and update business process documentation.

Content Metrics Revisited

February 27, 2020June 28, 2024Debra W Kahn (@debrawk.bsky.social)

I am rethinking my “categories of metrics” for content strategy and management after attending Joe Gelb’s and Lawrence Orin’s webinar “How to Become a Data-Driven Documentation Team” earlier this month.

5 Intersects of Content Strategy and Project Management (Part 5)

January 30, 2020June 28, 2024Debra W Kahn (@debrawk.bsky.social)

The easiest thing to say about measuring the success of a content strategy or a project is to say “measure what is meaningful to your organization.” Makes sense; I wouldn’t want to measure what is not meaningful. Turns out, that’s easy to say but difficult to do.

Nevertheless I persisted. <smile> In fact, coming up with a set of content metrics was part of my job as a Content Strategist at Oracle. I learned a lot during that journey and wanted to share a bit of it here. Read more →

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