Mastering Technical Writing: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

Introduction

Hello my esteemed reader! This article is well suited for beginners in technical writing but will still benefit seasonal writers who would like to take their writing skills to the next level. This will be a multiple series where I aim to take you from point A where you know nothing about technical writing to point Z where you write meaningful articles that people actually want to read.

In this short article, I will explain what technical articles are, discuss the characteristics of a good article, extensively explore steps that you can take to write a good article, and conclude with a summary as I answer the question, "are technical articles limited to software related articles alone?".

What do we mean by "Technical articles"?

Technical writing. A huge word that most people get wrong and only associate with software-related articles and publications. However, today I am here to demystify this misconception and explain to you my reader why technical writing is not restricted to software-related articles alone.

For us to understand what this is, we need to have an understanding of what the two terms technical and writing mean. Technical means "relating to a particular subject, art, or craft, or its techniques." anywhere mentioning software? no. The term Writing encompasses the process of documenting ideas, thoughts, or facts. Therefore combining the two, technical writing is the process of conveying complex and specialized information clearly and concisely.

What are the indicators of a good article?

Have you ever read an article and something about it spelled out quality? Well, quality is one subjective term. However, in technical writing, we have standardized indicators of what a quality article is that I will list below:

1. An article with a purpose and has a target audience. This is an article that clearly defines the scope of the specific article that is being written and has an identified audience beforehand.
2. An article that combines the written text with visual aids such as images, gifs, and screenshots to further explain a specific concept shedding more light on it by using visuals to arouse more interest.
3. An article that makes use of relatable examples and analogies. Research has it that when hard concepts are accompanied with an analogy that the readers can relate to, they end up remembering that concept by relating it to the analogy that was used to explain it.
4. An article that is consistent throughout and has accurate information. Nothing hurts more than an article whose flow seems inconsistent and whose content is misleading.
5. An article that has been proofread and is free of grammatical and spelling errors.

What are the steps to follow when writing an article?

Anyone can write an article. However, not everyone is able to write a good article. Luckily enough with the right preparation, we can all be able to write resourceful artiles and this will be what will separate your article from the vast majority of sub standard articles published online following the steps highlighted below:

1. Preparation - they say, given 10 hours to cut down a tree, use 7 hours of that time sharpening your axe and 3 hours to cut it down. This is the step where you get to understand what you are going to write it and why you actually need to write it. It is in this stage where you choose the medium which you will use to relay your thoughts through your article.
2. Research - before you even start to write about an article, you need to get an understanding of the topic at hand and do an assessment of whether this is something that you are capable of writing about. Here is where you get your hands dirty busy going deep that topic/ domain to get an understanding of it before writing about it.
3. Organization - with extensive research, comes a monolith of data that will not make sense as information. You need to sit back, organize your thoughts and see what bits of all this raw data combined will lead to a meaningful information for your article.
4. Once you have your thoughts organized, Writing the article is the next logical step. It is in this step where you jot down your thoughts either on paper or on an online editor that offers grammar and spelling checks such as Grammarly.
5. The last and final step is to proofread your work. In this step I advice sitting on your article for a few days and asking a friend to proof check your work and this will allow you to have a third eye/ opinion that will help you see if your article has a good thought/ logical flow.

Conclusion

From the steps listed above, it is evident that technical articles are not restricted to software related articles alone. A technical article can be any article written for a specific domain, be it hospitality, engineering or medicine all qualify as technical articles. Therefore when someone says that other articles are not technical articles, please direct them to this article where they will also get enlightened.

This brings us to the end of the first part of this series. After reading this article, are you able to recognize a well researched and written article? Please do let me know in the comment section. In the next article, I shall walk you through how you can develop an appropriate writing style in technical writing and how you can structure your article.

If you read till this point, I send a big thank you.

That is it for today's class. I hope this was useful information for you. See you in my next article.