When I shared low-tech documentation tips with you last month, I left out the to be continued part.  "Tips and tricks" can be overwhelming. There's so much information out there that it can be hard to know which ones to apply or where to even start. It's easy to become paralyzed and do nothing. (I may or may not be speaking from experience.)  So here are a few more  specific actions you can take to improve the accuracy and quality of anything you write. Try one or all and see what might work for you. 1. Start a Style Sheet  (Stick with me here.) A style guide is a comprehensive set of documentation rules. It can cover hyphenation rules, when to spell out numbers (vs. using numerals), and many other usage guidelines. Your organization might maintain their own in-house style guide or it may adopt one that's already out there (e.g., Chicago Manual of Style). A style guide helps ensure consistency in usage as well as brand and voice, depending on the organization. ...

I promised a friend I wouldn’t write anything nature-related this week, but…spring! You know, that time of year when you wear a T-shirt one day and three layers the next. Actually, that’s much of the year here in North Carolina. Don’t tell me you forgot about last fall when you packed away your shorts and flip flops only to find yourself—two weeks later—sweating into your pumpkin spice latte. Last week did me in, meteorologically speaking, between Daylight Saving Time starting to schools being closed for possible tornados to tucking hand warmers into my pockets for a T-ball game. I’m ready for March to scoot out like a lamb. Look out your window—even the plants are confused. Everything is blooming. We haven’t lived all four seasons in this house yet, so we were excited to see daffodils pop up last week, seemingly out of nowhere. Although I loved the view from my window, I felt the urge to knock on it and holler “no, don’t do that. It’s not safe for you yet!” They probably wouldn’t list...

Have you heard of forest bathing? It’s a new-to-me type of therapy in the world of wellness where you cleanse your mind and spirit—among the trees. I’m for that. I’ve always been drawn to the woods and, growing up, we played in them almost daily. It was the seventies, though, and we didn’t know we were ahead of our time--we were just having fun.  On hot, summer days we’d ride our bikes up and into the tall pines; the air was 20 degrees cooler under the canopy. There was no doorway, but it felt as if we’d entered a different world. We raced along the dirt trails, played hide-and-go-seek, and scared ourselves. We checked for evidence of a recent party where our older brothers and sisters sometimes gathered around a campfire to sneak a smoke and pass a bottle of Boone’s Farm.  Years ago, before the land was clear-cut for a housing development, I took one last walk. The paths were faint and overgrown; the trees had thinned out. What seemed so vast and mysterious to me as a child ...

I hugged my mother-in-law yesterday. It had been three weeks since her second vaccination. It was quick like they said to do. I held my breath. "Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday," I whispered through my mask. The words caught in my throat. "Yes," she laughed, through hers. I'm not really a hugger, but I have to say I've missed them. As of last year, though, a hug could kill you. Pre-2020, that statement would've gotten eye rolls. Now, though, yes, it actually can. Last Easter we passed containers of food to my in-laws through their front door, refusing the invitation to come inside. For Mother's Day we ate takeout grits and eggs on tailgate chairs in their front yard. It was inconvenient but novel. We'll get through this, we thought. We felt we were doing the right thing and took comfort in that. Our motto became WWFD (What Would Fauci Do) . But we're human and it got old. We weren't always perfect with the precautions...

Technical writers are professional communicators. It’s their job to figure out what should be communicated to your audience and how. The audience could be your customers, clients, users, or staff. The final product could be a procedure, manual, website, or training video script. If you want to round out your team with a technical writer, understanding what a writer can and cannot do for your organization can help align expectations and reduce the chance of buyer’s remorse. (Although they may desperately want to), don't ask a tech writer to  Fix a broken process.  Capturing a process in writing (or other media) doesn’t necessarily make it a good process. The act of documenting, though, will often point to holes in the process, identifying areas for improvement. Let’s say a critical step in the receiving procedure is to compare shipping documents with the items received. Basic stuff. The writer will be sure to include that step since it’s been identified as an important one. Ex...