Wipro blogs!
Wipro Technologies is probably the first IT organization in India to embrace blogging. They have started http://wiproweblog.com. I was surprised when I found a link to their blog site on their home page. Very cool.
Switching careers: Madman’s story of making a business out of one’s passion
Folks Madhu ‘Madman’ Menon is is featured in an article on career-switching in The Hindu.. When the great exodus to the IT industry started, just about everyone dropped what they were doing and flung themselves into the gold rush; some wanted to move to the USA, some wanted to make money, and some wanted both. […]
Off shoring of Documentation: a survey
Today, many software product companies have a base in India. A huge pool of talent, low wages, and an English-speaking population made India a great outsourcing destination. In the past few years, technical writing too transitioned to India for the same aforementioned reasons. If you are a technical writer working in the onsite-offshore model, please […]
Writing SI units and symbols
Quite a few of us do not write the SI units correctly. If you are a Physics or Chemisty student, and still remember what you studied in school, you’ll know the importance of getting your units and symbols right. Important in SI: The short forms for SI units (such as mm for millimeter) are called […]
Travails of a tech writer
Lot of people ask me what I do for a living. When I say ‘Tech writer.’ they go, ‘What’s that?’. And I explain, ‘What do you do when you are stuck with MS-Word or Excel?’ ‘Call the guy that sold me the computer?’ And I’d hide my exasperation and pain, ‘No, I mean, it is […]
Finding the voice
Excerpt from LOUIS MENAND’s review of Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation” (Gotham; $17.50), by Lynne Truss. “Does this mean that the written “voice” is never spontaneous and natural but always an artificial construction of language? This is not a proposition that most writers could accept. The act of writing is […]
Oxford Plain English Guidelines
One of the guidelines is: Commandment: Test with a panel of typical users – Give the draft instructions, and any product associated with them, to a focus group of typical readers. Watch them trying to use the instructions. Observe any false moves they make. Discuss with them how they got on. Ask them about any […]
FAQ from Gregg Reference Manual
Questions and suggestions from users of The Gregg Reference Manual Write to me: Suman[at]techwritersindia[dot]com
Wanted: Sr Technical Writer for Informatica Corporation
Location: Bangalore Corporate Headquarters: Redwood City, CA Contact: Thao Diep, tdiep@informatica.com Job Description Responsible for writing documentation to support our PowerAnalyzer and PowerCenter Connect product lines. PowerAnalyzer is a business intelligence tool that helps decision makers access, analyze, and share enterprise data. PowerCenter Connect products enable integration to ERP systems such as SAP and PeopleSoft, […]
Style guides: Sacrosanct?
How many times have you paused and reflected, ‘man, I know I am right, but the style guide does not agree…’? For example, some style guides proscribe the use of the possessive pronoun noun (earlier I had written ‘pronoun’. Thanks Guy for pointing it out.) and demand that you elaborate: IP address of the Server […]