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#technicalwriters — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #technicalwriters, aggregated by home.social.

  1. The pushback against AI slop is making employers recognise the importance of skilled writing by humans so they are now hiring "storytellers":
    "It’s so much more than a copywriter,” says one hirer: wsj.com/articles/companies-are

    Hopefully this will see a move beyond hiring copywriters to keyword stuff for SEO and AI, a move beyond judging skill by simplistic metrics such as number of boosts, likes etc. I hope that organisations will want professional writers who can identify target audiences and deliver meaningful material that will be valued by those audiences. This is true success, but may mean that the post or article might not get many clicks.

    I hope that over time "storyteller" will not simply become a synonym for "copywriter".

    Technical writers already provide this kind of skill when writing about technology, or health, or science, or digital humanities

    #WriteTheDocs #TechWriting #TechnicalWriting #TechnicalWriters #DigitalHumanities

  2. The pushback against AI slop is making employers recognise the importance of skilled writing by humans so they are now hiring "storytellers":
    "It’s so much more than a copywriter,” says one hirer: wsj.com/articles/companies-are

    Hopefully this will see a move beyond hiring copywriters to keyword stuff for SEO and AI, a move beyond judging skill by simplistic metrics such as number of boosts, likes etc. I hope that organisations will want professional writers who can identify target audiences and deliver meaningful material that will be valued by those audiences. This is true success, but may mean that the post or article might not get many clicks.

    I hope that over time "storyteller" will not simply become a synonym for "copywriter".

    Technical writers already provide this kind of skill when writing about technology, or health, or science, or digital humanities

    #WriteTheDocs #TechWriting #TechnicalWriting #TechnicalWriters #DigitalHumanities

  3. The pushback against AI slop is making employers recognise the importance of skilled writing by humans so they are now hiring "storytellers":
    "It’s so much more than a copywriter,” says one hirer: wsj.com/articles/companies-are

    Hopefully this will see a move beyond hiring copywriters to keyword stuff for SEO and AI, a move beyond judging skill by simplistic metrics such as number of boosts, likes etc. I hope that organisations will want professional writers who can identify target audiences and deliver meaningful material that will be valued by those audiences. This is true success, but may mean that the post or article might not get many clicks.

    I hope that over time "storyteller" will not simply become a synonym for "copywriter".

    Technical writers already provide this kind of skill when writing about technology, or health, or science, or digital humanities

    #WriteTheDocs #TechWriting #TechnicalWriting #TechnicalWriters #DigitalHumanities

  4. The pushback against AI slop is making employers recognise the importance of skilled writing by humans so they are now hiring "storytellers":
    "It’s so much more than a copywriter,” says one hirer: wsj.com/articles/companies-are

    Hopefully this will see a move beyond hiring copywriters to keyword stuff for SEO and AI, a move beyond judging skill by simplistic metrics such as number of boosts, likes etc. I hope that organisations will want professional writers who can identify target audiences and deliver meaningful material that will be valued by those audiences. This is true success, but may mean that the post or article might not get many clicks.

    I hope that over time "storyteller" will not simply become a synonym for "copywriter".

    Technical writers already provide this kind of skill when writing about technology, or health, or science, or digital humanities

    #WriteTheDocs #TechWriting #TechnicalWriting #TechnicalWriters #DigitalHumanities

  5. The pushback against AI slop is making employers recognise the importance of skilled writing by humans so they are now hiring "storytellers":
    "It’s so much more than a copywriter,” says one hirer: wsj.com/articles/companies-are

    Hopefully this will see a move beyond hiring copywriters to keyword stuff for SEO and AI, a move beyond judging skill by simplistic metrics such as number of boosts, likes etc. I hope that organisations will want professional writers who can identify target audiences and deliver meaningful material that will be valued by those audiences. This is true success, but may mean that the post or article might not get many clicks.

    I hope that over time "storyteller" will not simply become a synonym for "copywriter".

    Technical writers already provide this kind of skill when writing about technology, or health, or science, or digital humanities

    #WriteTheDocs #TechWriting #TechnicalWriting #TechnicalWriters #DigitalHumanities

  6. Addressing critical needs driven by the dynamic world of #techDocs, Manny Silva has created Docs as Tests, a system that integrates well-developed #techComms practices and a collection of engineering tooling to help #technicalWriters streamline and constantly improve their software #documentation and #QA work.

    This was a fun chat with a deeply experienced Silicon Valley #content veteran. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

    ellessmedia.com/csi/manny-silv

  7. Addressing critical needs driven by the dynamic world of #techDocs, Manny Silva has created Docs as Tests, a system that integrates well-developed #techComms practices and a collection of engineering tooling to help #technicalWriters streamline and constantly improve their software #documentation and #QA work.

    This was a fun chat with a deeply experienced Silicon Valley #content veteran. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

    ellessmedia.com/csi/manny-silv

  8. Addressing critical needs driven by the dynamic world of #techDocs, Manny Silva has created Docs as Tests, a system that integrates well-developed #techComms practices and a collection of engineering tooling to help #technicalWriters streamline and constantly improve their software #documentation and #QA work.

    This was a fun chat with a deeply experienced Silicon Valley #content veteran. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

    ellessmedia.com/csi/manny-silv

  9. "The good news is that the job market is going to recover as those owners of code progressively realize the limitations that are inherent to replacing the folks at the periphery with numb language models, something they’re already noticing when it comes to coding tasks. After a stint of degrowth that has felt way too long, companies will seek to grow again in a more sustainable fashion, a trend that will carry the need for better documentation with it.

    The catch is that life in the periphery of tech will require AI augmentation and training. If past job offers emphasized API documentation and coding skills, in 2025 tech writers will have to be proficient operators of AI tools, both for writing in docs-as-code environments as for becoming coding associates, able to execute docs infrastructure and toolchain work. When done well, job interviews will ask writers to be able to use AI in writing tests in efficient, innovative ways.

    If I’ve learned something this year is that the LLM-powered writing and coding isn’t going away. Technical writers will need to focus more on content strategy, information architecture, and tooling, and less on writing; at the same time, they’ll be expected to know how to use tools like Cursor’s composer mode to set up entire documentation sets in little time, and then iterate. As I explained in What’s a docs engineer, writers will continue specializing in two separate strains."

    passo.uno/tech-writing-predict

    #TechnicalWriting #TechnicalWriters #LLMs #AI #GenerativeAI #DocsAsCode

  10. "The good news is that the job market is going to recover as those owners of code progressively realize the limitations that are inherent to replacing the folks at the periphery with numb language models, something they’re already noticing when it comes to coding tasks. After a stint of degrowth that has felt way too long, companies will seek to grow again in a more sustainable fashion, a trend that will carry the need for better documentation with it.

    The catch is that life in the periphery of tech will require AI augmentation and training. If past job offers emphasized API documentation and coding skills, in 2025 tech writers will have to be proficient operators of AI tools, both for writing in docs-as-code environments as for becoming coding associates, able to execute docs infrastructure and toolchain work. When done well, job interviews will ask writers to be able to use AI in writing tests in efficient, innovative ways.

    If I’ve learned something this year is that the LLM-powered writing and coding isn’t going away. Technical writers will need to focus more on content strategy, information architecture, and tooling, and less on writing; at the same time, they’ll be expected to know how to use tools like Cursor’s composer mode to set up entire documentation sets in little time, and then iterate. As I explained in What’s a docs engineer, writers will continue specializing in two separate strains."

    passo.uno/tech-writing-predict

    #TechnicalWriting #TechnicalWriters #LLMs #AI #GenerativeAI #DocsAsCode

  11. "The good news is that the job market is going to recover as those owners of code progressively realize the limitations that are inherent to replacing the folks at the periphery with numb language models, something they’re already noticing when it comes to coding tasks. After a stint of degrowth that has felt way too long, companies will seek to grow again in a more sustainable fashion, a trend that will carry the need for better documentation with it.

    The catch is that life in the periphery of tech will require AI augmentation and training. If past job offers emphasized API documentation and coding skills, in 2025 tech writers will have to be proficient operators of AI tools, both for writing in docs-as-code environments as for becoming coding associates, able to execute docs infrastructure and toolchain work. When done well, job interviews will ask writers to be able to use AI in writing tests in efficient, innovative ways.

    If I’ve learned something this year is that the LLM-powered writing and coding isn’t going away. Technical writers will need to focus more on content strategy, information architecture, and tooling, and less on writing; at the same time, they’ll be expected to know how to use tools like Cursor’s composer mode to set up entire documentation sets in little time, and then iterate. As I explained in What’s a docs engineer, writers will continue specializing in two separate strains."

    passo.uno/tech-writing-predict

    #TechnicalWriting #TechnicalWriters #LLMs #AI #GenerativeAI #DocsAsCode

  12. "The good news is that the job market is going to recover as those owners of code progressively realize the limitations that are inherent to replacing the folks at the periphery with numb language models, something they’re already noticing when it comes to coding tasks. After a stint of degrowth that has felt way too long, companies will seek to grow again in a more sustainable fashion, a trend that will carry the need for better documentation with it.

    The catch is that life in the periphery of tech will require AI augmentation and training. If past job offers emphasized API documentation and coding skills, in 2025 tech writers will have to be proficient operators of AI tools, both for writing in docs-as-code environments as for becoming coding associates, able to execute docs infrastructure and toolchain work. When done well, job interviews will ask writers to be able to use AI in writing tests in efficient, innovative ways.

    If I’ve learned something this year is that the LLM-powered writing and coding isn’t going away. Technical writers will need to focus more on content strategy, information architecture, and tooling, and less on writing; at the same time, they’ll be expected to know how to use tools like Cursor’s composer mode to set up entire documentation sets in little time, and then iterate. As I explained in What’s a docs engineer, writers will continue specializing in two separate strains."

    passo.uno/tech-writing-predict

    #TechnicalWriting #TechnicalWriters #LLMs #AI #GenerativeAI #DocsAsCode

  13. "The good news is that the job market is going to recover as those owners of code progressively realize the limitations that are inherent to replacing the folks at the periphery with numb language models, something they’re already noticing when it comes to coding tasks. After a stint of degrowth that has felt way too long, companies will seek to grow again in a more sustainable fashion, a trend that will carry the need for better documentation with it.

    The catch is that life in the periphery of tech will require AI augmentation and training. If past job offers emphasized API documentation and coding skills, in 2025 tech writers will have to be proficient operators of AI tools, both for writing in docs-as-code environments as for becoming coding associates, able to execute docs infrastructure and toolchain work. When done well, job interviews will ask writers to be able to use AI in writing tests in efficient, innovative ways.

    If I’ve learned something this year is that the LLM-powered writing and coding isn’t going away. Technical writers will need to focus more on content strategy, information architecture, and tooling, and less on writing; at the same time, they’ll be expected to know how to use tools like Cursor’s composer mode to set up entire documentation sets in little time, and then iterate. As I explained in What’s a docs engineer, writers will continue specializing in two separate strains."

    passo.uno/tech-writing-predict

    #TechnicalWriting #TechnicalWriters #LLMs #AI #GenerativeAI #DocsAsCode

  14. We have been busy this year developing the idea of a Brick Docs Workshop designed to help IT engineers develop technical writing skills. This fun workshop uses Lego to identify writing and formatting techniques that help make instructions clearer.

    We are running this workshop at the national technical writing conference in Melbourne next week. DM me if you want to attend - I can see if I can wangle some tickets.
    #TechnicalWriters #WriteTheDocs #Melbourne

    writethedocs.org/conf/australi

  15. We have been busy this year developing the idea of a Brick Docs Workshop designed to help IT engineers develop technical writing skills. This fun workshop uses Lego to identify writing and formatting techniques that help make instructions clearer.

    We are running this workshop at the national technical writing conference in Melbourne next week. DM me if you want to attend - I can see if I can wangle some tickets.
    #TechnicalWriters #WriteTheDocs #Melbourne

    writethedocs.org/conf/australi

  16. We have been busy this year developing the idea of a Brick Docs Workshop designed to help IT engineers develop technical writing skills. This fun workshop uses Lego to identify writing and formatting techniques that help make instructions clearer.

    We are running this workshop at the national technical writing conference in Melbourne next week. DM me if you want to attend - I can see if I can wangle some tickets.
    #TechnicalWriters #WriteTheDocs #Melbourne

    writethedocs.org/conf/australi

  17. We have been busy this year developing the idea of a Brick Docs Workshop designed to help IT engineers develop technical writing skills. This fun workshop uses Lego to identify writing and formatting techniques that help make instructions clearer.

    We are running this workshop at the national technical writing conference in Melbourne next week. DM me if you want to attend - I can see if I can wangle some tickets.
    #TechnicalWriters #WriteTheDocs #Melbourne

    writethedocs.org/conf/australi

  18. We have been busy this year developing the idea of a Brick Docs Workshop designed to help IT engineers develop technical writing skills. This fun workshop uses Lego to identify writing and formatting techniques that help make instructions clearer.

    We are running this workshop at the national technical writing conference in Melbourne next week. DM me if you want to attend - I can see if I can wangle some tickets.
    #TechnicalWriters #WriteTheDocs #Melbourne

    writethedocs.org/conf/australi

  19. I am feeling pretty happy after a good day's work. I put a lot of work into any meeting I organise. I always include a clear agenda and expected outcomes in the meeting invites. I do all the necessary fact finding and preparation before the meeting. Then I chair the meeting, ensuring everyone gets a chance to speak and no waffling or preventing work from finishing in the quest for perfection. Afterwards I send meeting notes with responsibilities for action clearly defined.

    Today we had a meeting with senior engineers that could have gone for an hour, but I allocated half an hour because I knew I would do the meeting prep, so little time would be needed for fact finding in the meeting. Then because of all the meeting prep and clear meeting objectives we achieved what we needed and finished the meeting in 15 minutes! Two participants were able to use the bonus time to discuss another matter while the rest of the participants left the meeting early.

    I put a lot of time and effort prior to the event to achieve a 15 minute meeting.

    #TechnicalWriters #MeetingMinimalism

  20. I am feeling pretty happy after a good day's work. I put a lot of work into any meeting I organise. I always include a clear agenda and expected outcomes in the meeting invites. I do all the necessary fact finding and preparation before the meeting. Then I chair the meeting, ensuring everyone gets a chance to speak and no waffling or preventing work from finishing in the quest for perfection. Afterwards I send meeting notes with responsibilities for action clearly defined.

    Today we had a meeting with senior engineers that could have gone for an hour, but I allocated half an hour because I knew I would do the meeting prep, so little time would be needed for fact finding in the meeting. Then because of all the meeting prep and clear meeting objectives we achieved what we needed and finished the meeting in 15 minutes! Two participants were able to use the bonus time to discuss another matter while the rest of the participants left the meeting early.

    I put a lot of time and effort prior to the event to achieve a 15 minute meeting.

    #TechnicalWriters #MeetingMinimalism

  21. I am feeling pretty happy after a good day's work. I put a lot of work into any meeting I organise. I always include a clear agenda and expected outcomes in the meeting invites. I do all the necessary fact finding and preparation before the meeting. Then I chair the meeting, ensuring everyone gets a chance to speak and no waffling or preventing work from finishing in the quest for perfection. Afterwards I send meeting notes with responsibilities for action clearly defined.

    Today we had a meeting with senior engineers that could have gone for an hour, but I allocated half an hour because I knew I would do the meeting prep, so little time would be needed for fact finding in the meeting. Then because of all the meeting prep and clear meeting objectives we achieved what we needed and finished the meeting in 15 minutes! Two participants were able to use the bonus time to discuss another matter while the rest of the participants left the meeting early.

    I put a lot of time and effort prior to the event to achieve a 15 minute meeting.

    #TechnicalWriters #MeetingMinimalism

  22. I am feeling pretty happy after a good day's work. I put a lot of work into any meeting I organise. I always include a clear agenda and expected outcomes in the meeting invites. I do all the necessary fact finding and preparation before the meeting. Then I chair the meeting, ensuring everyone gets a chance to speak and no waffling or preventing work from finishing in the quest for perfection. Afterwards I send meeting notes with responsibilities for action clearly defined.

    Today we had a meeting with senior engineers that could have gone for an hour, but I allocated half an hour because I knew I would do the meeting prep, so little time would be needed for fact finding in the meeting. Then because of all the meeting prep and clear meeting objectives we achieved what we needed and finished the meeting in 15 minutes! Two participants were able to use the bonus time to discuss another matter while the rest of the participants left the meeting early.

    I put a lot of time and effort prior to the event to achieve a 15 minute meeting.

    #TechnicalWriters #MeetingMinimalism

  23. I am feeling pretty happy after a good day's work. I put a lot of work into any meeting I organise. I always include a clear agenda and expected outcomes in the meeting invites. I do all the necessary fact finding and preparation before the meeting. Then I chair the meeting, ensuring everyone gets a chance to speak and no waffling or preventing work from finishing in the quest for perfection. Afterwards I send meeting notes with responsibilities for action clearly defined.

    Today we had a meeting with senior engineers that could have gone for an hour, but I allocated half an hour because I knew I would do the meeting prep, so little time would be needed for fact finding in the meeting. Then because of all the meeting prep and clear meeting objectives we achieved what we needed and finished the meeting in 15 minutes! Two participants were able to use the bonus time to discuss another matter while the rest of the participants left the meeting early.

    I put a lot of time and effort prior to the event to achieve a 15 minute meeting.

    #TechnicalWriters #MeetingMinimalism

  24. @sarah11918 I am enjoying reading your series of tips! They are written in a way that will make it easy for me to repeat at work.

    I have worked a lot with volunteers in the past and often reflect how much harder it is to work with them. You need to set standards but implement them with care or volunteers walk out. However, paid employees have an unspoken thing that ensures some degree of compliance - you will be out of a job if you don't pass minimum standards of compliance.

    That is why I am so impressed with your work. You work on helping volunteers achieve standards in documentation. That is so hard. HT to you!

    #TechnicalWriters #documentation

  25. @sarah11918 I am enjoying reading your series of tips! They are written in a way that will make it easy for me to repeat at work.

    I have worked a lot with volunteers in the past and often reflect how much harder it is to work with them. You need to set standards but implement them with care or volunteers walk out. However, paid employees have an unspoken thing that ensures some degree of compliance - you will be out of a job if you don't pass minimum standards of compliance.

    That is why I am so impressed with your work. You work on helping volunteers achieve standards in documentation. That is so hard. HT to you!

    #TechnicalWriters #documentation

  26. @sarah11918 I am enjoying reading your series of tips! They are written in a way that will make it easy for me to repeat at work.

    I have worked a lot with volunteers in the past and often reflect how much harder it is to work with them. You need to set standards but implement them with care or volunteers walk out. However, paid employees have an unspoken thing that ensures some degree of compliance - you will be out of a job if you don't pass minimum standards of compliance.

    That is why I am so impressed with your work. You work on helping volunteers achieve standards in documentation. That is so hard. HT to you!

    #TechnicalWriters #documentation

  27. @sarah11918 I am enjoying reading your series of tips! They are written in a way that will make it easy for me to repeat at work.

    I have worked a lot with volunteers in the past and often reflect how much harder it is to work with them. You need to set standards but implement them with care or volunteers walk out. However, paid employees have an unspoken thing that ensures some degree of compliance - you will be out of a job if you don't pass minimum standards of compliance.

    That is why I am so impressed with your work. You work on helping volunteers achieve standards in documentation. That is so hard. HT to you!

    #TechnicalWriters #documentation

  28. @sarah11918 I am enjoying reading your series of tips! They are written in a way that will make it easy for me to repeat at work.

    I have worked a lot with volunteers in the past and often reflect how much harder it is to work with them. You need to set standards but implement them with care or volunteers walk out. However, paid employees have an unspoken thing that ensures some degree of compliance - you will be out of a job if you don't pass minimum standards of compliance.

    That is why I am so impressed with your work. You work on helping volunteers achieve standards in documentation. That is so hard. HT to you!

    #TechnicalWriters #documentation

  29. So besides taking pix of our lovely felines, I've recently been reworking my portfolio site to showcase my day-job skills.

    (I'm a technical writer, one who tries to explain complex technical topics in plain language.)

    If you're interested, please take a look. I'd appreciate any (well-intended) feedback: lanceleonard.com/

  30. @remoquete THIS ☝️.

    I am fortunate that my manager recognises this critical juncture in technical writing and has given me substantial time to reimagine my job.

    I spoke about the benefits of working in the space between professional silos in my Linux Conference talk a few years ago: When STEM Becomes STEAM We All Benefit m.youtube.com/watch?v=oEX-F5Sx

    #TechnicalWriters #WriteTheDocs #documentation

  31. @remoquete THIS ☝️.

    I am fortunate that my manager recognises this critical juncture in technical writing and has given me substantial time to reimagine my job.

    I spoke about the benefits of working in the space between professional silos in my Linux Conference talk a few years ago: When STEM Becomes STEAM We All Benefit m.youtube.com/watch?v=oEX-F5Sx

    #TechnicalWriters #WriteTheDocs #documentation

  32. @remoquete THIS ☝️.

    I am fortunate that my manager recognises this critical juncture in technical writing and has given me substantial time to reimagine my job.

    I spoke about the benefits of working in the space between professional silos in my Linux Conference talk a few years ago: When STEM Becomes STEAM We All Benefit m.youtube.com/watch?v=oEX-F5Sx

    #TechnicalWriters #WriteTheDocs #documentation

  33. @remoquete THIS ☝️.

    I am fortunate that my manager recognises this critical juncture in technical writing and has given me substantial time to reimagine my job.

    I spoke about the benefits of working in the space between professional silos in my Linux Conference talk a few years ago: When STEM Becomes STEAM We All Benefit m.youtube.com/watch?v=oEX-F5Sx

    #TechnicalWriters #WriteTheDocs #documentation

  34. @remoquete THIS ☝️.

    I am fortunate that my manager recognises this critical juncture in technical writing and has given me substantial time to reimagine my job.

    I spoke about the benefits of working in the space between professional silos in my Linux Conference talk a few years ago: When STEM Becomes STEAM We All Benefit m.youtube.com/watch?v=oEX-F5Sx

    #TechnicalWriters #WriteTheDocs #documentation

  35. CW: Discussion of tech writing tools

    A little something for the and

    How to add the text linter to your project, a quick start.

    alecthegeek.gitlab.io/blog/202

  36. I can't say enough good things about Graham and the Canonical Technical Authors team on their Documentation Academy program.
    If you're looking to step up your tutorial writing game or just sharpen your documentation skills, this is a great way to do it.

    youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-q

  37. I can't say enough good things about Graham and the Canonical Technical Authors team on their Documentation Academy program.
    If you're looking to step up your tutorial writing game or just sharpen your documentation skills, this is a great way to do it.
    #Ubuntu #Documentation #TechnicalWriters

    youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-q

  38. I can't say enough good things about Graham and the Canonical Technical Authors team on their Documentation Academy program.
    If you're looking to step up your tutorial writing game or just sharpen your documentation skills, this is a great way to do it.
    #Ubuntu #Documentation #TechnicalWriters

    youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-q

  39. I can't say enough good things about Graham and the Canonical Technical Authors team on their Documentation Academy program.
    If you're looking to step up your tutorial writing game or just sharpen your documentation skills, this is a great way to do it.
    #Ubuntu #Documentation #TechnicalWriters

    youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-q

  40. I can't say enough good things about Graham and the Canonical Technical Authors team on their Documentation Academy program.
    If you're looking to step up your tutorial writing game or just sharpen your documentation skills, this is a great way to do it.
    #Ubuntu #Documentation #TechnicalWriters

    youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-q

  41. I am looking forward to exploring the resources in Learn-Static, a set of #DigitalHumanities resources to help teach students foundational technical skills needed for their research projects such as Git, HTML, CSS, Markdown etc: learn-static.github.io/about/

    These resources may also be useful for #TechnicalWriters