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Tools in

Technical Writing

Benny Ifeanyi Iheagwara,

Timonwa Pelumi Akintokun,

And

Blessing Ene Anyebe

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  • Data Analyst
  • Technical Writer
  • Open Source Contributor
  • Community Manager

Facilitator Bio

  • Frontend Developer
  • Technical Writer
  • Open Source Contributor
  • Founder of Tech Roadmap
  • Technical Writer
  • Frontend Developer
  • Community Manager
  • Social Media Strategist

Benny Ifeanyi Iheagwara

Blessing Ene Anyebe

Timonwa Pelumi Akintokun

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Introduction

Throughout their careers, technical writers wear a lot of hats.

Thus, they have to work with various tools depending on the project.

Regardless of how simple they are, these tools will aid your writing process:

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Table of contents

  • Technical writing tools
  • Learning Markdown

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Technical Writing Tools

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Technical Writing Tools

The tools used can be categorized into the following;

  • Research Tools
  • Note-taking Tools
  • Authoring Tools
  • Media Tools
  • Editing Tools
  • Publishing Tools
  • Documentation Tools
  • Collaborative and Management Tools

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Research Tools

Conducting proper research is a critical skill every technical writer must have as it directly impacts the quality of the work.

No matter how well you think you know the subject, you still need to conduct research on it.

Why do Research?

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Research Tools

  • Google and Wikipedia
  • Books and other writing pieces
  • Libraries (Online and Offline)
  • Surveys Forms (Google Forms, Microsoft Forms, FormsApp)
  • Quora and StackOverFlow
  • Reddit

How to gather data

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Research Tools

  • Formulate the questions
  • Identify your resources
  • Recognise quality resources
  • Verify the information from several sources
  • Be open to surprising answers
  • Stay organized

Tips to good Research

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Note-taking Tools

When conducting a research, we would come across various articles, books, videos, images, etc that we might want to reference later.

The best way to keep track of all these data is to store them somewhere we easily have access to.

Why should you take notes?

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Note-taking Tools

Where to store data

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Note-taking Tools

  • Decide what is important
  • Be Organized
  • Cite every material you gather

Tips to good Note-taking

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Authoring Tools

Authoring tools, also known as writings tools, are tools that help you write. They allow you create written contents using text, media, and interactions.

Now that you have your resources and outline. It's time to write.

Time to write

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Authoring Tools

Where can you write?

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Authoring Tools

  • Set writing goals
  • Write consistently
  • Get inspired by research
  • Always carry a notebook and pen
  • Wait a while before editing your work
  • Keep a list of mistakes you make often

Tips to when writing

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Authoring Tools

  • Always have an outline
  • Write for yourself first
  • Empathize with the reader
  • Write short paragraphs
  • Always use the active voice
  • Ask a friend to read your draft
  • Read other people’s work

Tips to when writing

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Media/Visual Tools

  • Creating and editing images and screenshots
  • Creating and editing videos and screencasts
  • Creating cover arts, banners, gifs, etc
  • Creating diagram, flow charts

A picture is worth a thousand words

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Media/Visual Tools

  • Canva (media creating tool)
  • Unsplash (royalty free images)
  • Giphy.com (gifs)
  • Draw.io (create diagrams & charts)
  • Excalidraw (sketch/drawing tool)
  • Carbon (Code Screenshot tool)
  • Ray (Code Screenshot tool)

What can you use?

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Editing Tools

  • Edit your sentences.
  • Rephrase your words.
  • Check your grammar.
  • Check for plagiarism.

They help you

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Editing Tools

What can you use?

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Editing Tools

  • Clarity is important
  • Avoid plagiarism
  • Maintain consistency in your writing
  • Always add images, code snippets, graphs, etc whenever possible for better clarity
  • Don’t screenshot code examples; embed them
  • Always rebuild any demo used in your content as a reader to discover errors
  • Grammarly is still just an app, don't talk like a robot

Tips to when editing

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Publishing Tools

There are various free blogging platforms available for you to share you work on. You could also decide to have your own personal blog site or write for other blogs.

If you don't give it to them, how will they take it.

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Publishing Tools

Where can you share your work?

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Publishing Tools

  • Have clear and straightforward titles
  • Provide custom cover images when applicable
  • Provide short and concise descriptions when applicable
  • Use canonical link when cross-posting
  • Be your number one fan. Be the first to like and share your work.

Tips to when publishing

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Documentation Tools

  • Docs as code tools
  • Static site generator tools
  • End-user, software or API documentation tools

This includes and are not limited to:

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Documentation Tools

What can you use?

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Collaborative and Management Tools

Collaboration tools allow teams streamline the creative process and collaborate more successfully.

They give managers and staff members the ability to assign tasks, track progress, report results, and overall enhance workflows and communication both internally and outside.

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Collaborative and Management Tools

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Learning Markdown

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What is Markdown?

  • Markdown is a way to write content and format text for the web. �
  • It’s let you format text quickly without using the formatting toolbar of text editors.�
  • It is plaintext with lot of symbols.�
  • Websites like GitHub and Hashnode allow you to write in markdown�
  • Wanna learn markdown? https://www.markdowntutorial.com/
  • For this class, we will make use of https://dillinger.io/

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Resources

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Resources: courses

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Resources blog and videos

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Thanks!

Does anyone have any questions?