Good technical articles are challenging to write. They’re time-consuming, demanding to research and hard to organize. But they’re valuable weapons in
PR and marketing arsenal, and you need them. If you can outsource article, great. That’s what writers like me are here for. But if you can’t – or don’t want to -- then read and apply tips below to save time and energy on research and writing, and come out with a much better product.
Get Ready 1.Review your resources – hard copy like books and articles, Web access, interview contact information. 2.Arrange for interviews if you need them, it always takes a while to track down interviewees. Note: If you’re ghostwriting an article for a company, you may not have an interview past initial meeting. 3.Make sure you know following: a) reader’s challenge, b) key message relating to their challenge, and c) type of reader you’re writing to. 4.Understand main message client want to communicate. Many technologies are similar, but your client will have a defined slant on their implementation. (If they don’t, they should – this is your chance to offer them your strategic message building services.) 5.Even “vendor-neutral” articles are written with a point of view – either writer’s or company writer is working for. This is only a problem if article bias makes for a misleading article, or tells a whopping big lie.
Outline 6.Never skip this step, for your own or your readers’ sakes. Outlines speed up your writing, and readers will follow your argument much better. 7.Organize your research into three themes. Some thematic organizations are obvious – for example, I wrote an article on three steps to optimizing your storage. In other articles, there may be several possibilities. There is probably no one right choice, so if two or three seem fine to you, just pick one and go with it. 8.Remember your junior high school/high school/college outline lessons? They apply. If you don’t remember your lessons, here’s a reminder: I. Introduction (Outline problem, introduce solution, state theme) II. Body A. 1st major point B. 2nd major point C. 3rd major point III. Conclusion (short case study/example, restate solution, concluding paragraph) 9.Put your outline on paper and let it guide you as you go. It’s not iron-clad – if a new organization presents itself while you’re writing you can change it – but don’t do it too much or you’ll defeat outline’s purpose.
Writing Rough Draft 10.Here’s key to writing your rough draft: Just Do It. Write without thinking about it. Paste in random chunks of text from your research. Write some more. Write in any bizarre, random order. All you want to do at this point is get down large masses of information onto paper. 11.Keep going until you’ve got 2-3 times words you actually need, then you can stop. 12.Once you have your mass of information on paper, you can organize it into your outline. No big deal – just cut and paste paragraphs under points they best fit. 13.Now that you’ve slapped all of your rough text and research into your outline, guess what? The draft is done. Congratulate yourself and take a break.
Subsequent Drafts 14.Now it’s time to whip this rough mass into shape. Start by saving your rough draft under a different name. You’re going to be doing a lot of deletions in this stage, and you don’t want to accidentally delete something you meant to use. 15.Working with new copy, start your edits. Paraphrase notes you have from other sources -- memos, product briefs, other articles, brochures. (Journalists do it all time. It’s called "research.") 16.I'll often download online research but mark it in a different color, so as not to commit embarrassing – not to mention illegal -- mistake of repeating someone else's writing. When I’ve learned what I need to from research, I capture facts in my own words and delete original notes. 17.Borrow freely from your client’s Website and other materials. Don’t repeat text – that’s bad policy and bad writing – but you’re not going to be accused of plagiarism. Laziness maybe, but not plagiarism. 18.Music can be helpful on writing assignments. Personally, I like Vivaldi for drafting and movie scores for revising. Quite combo. (As I write this sentence, The Last of Mohicans is playing. Baroque is better for draft stage.) 19.You might find that dictating works better for you at rough draft stage. Probably not old-fashioned kind, where hard-bitten boss called in his trusty secretary to “Take a memo!” You’re more likely to use an application like Naturally Speaking. This type of application needs a lot of training beforehand – application, not you – but can be very helpful for writers who try to critique themselves out gate.
