Effective technical communication tells a story

So you’re writing to communicate, executing well, and being sure that what you are saying is accurate and sensible. But how do you get people to actually want to read what you write?

Tell a story

When possible—and it usually is—tell a story.

Another way to say this is “know what you are saying, to whom, and why,” but “tell a story” fits better on a t-shirt, don’t you think?

You might think that this sort of thing goes without saying. If so, you would be stunned by the mountain of technical writing I review that is created apparently totally independently of who is in the audience, what they already know about the topic, what they want from the author, and what the authors want to accomplish with the paper.

We’ll talk in detail about each of these things in subsequent posts, but here is the view from 50,000 feet.

What

Before you start to write, you’ve got to decide what to write about. Your goals and your audience, which we’ll discuss next, will heavily influence the way in which you write. But even before that, you’ll need to know what you’re writing about.

The odds are pretty good that since you’re in the technology business as a scientist or engineer you know a lot about at least one topic. So unless you are writing a whole book about that topic, you’re going to have to limit your message to a specific aspect of that topic.

…to whom…

Depending upon the needs, goals, and training of your audience, the approach you take to explaining that aspect will vary. Remember that you are writing to communicate, not to produce 3 inches of documentation or to astound your audience with your perspicacity . In order to convey your message to your audience, you have to meet them on their terms and present your concepts in ways that they can easily understand and internalize.

If you cannot or will not do this, then you are wasting everyone’s time, including your own.

…and why.

Your style and content will both also vary depending upon what you are trying to accomplish. Writing to convince someone to take a specific action requires a completely different style and organization than when you are writing to archive or to inform, so this has to be considered as well.