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Steta Publishers was a writing and brand language consultancy that ran from 2012 to 2016. We are no longer available for projects. Our founders now work here and here. 

Writing (blogs) is a habit

3/5/2015

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There are four people in my family who choose some form of writing as a career – my niece is one of them. A few years back, she told me that the company she worked for insisted that the writers in the team write blog posts regularly. I wondered at that time if there really was any substance to that process. I mean there are just so many types of writers today. There are novelists, journalists, medical writers, technical writers, instructional designers, information architects, content writers, proposal writers, script writers, and even specialist writers to write your CVs! Each writer specialized in his or her own niche area. And all these writers wrote professionally anyway. Why this need to write something extra?

Cut back to the present. I have not posted a blog in a while. (The last was 5 months back. I am still in shock, to put it mildly!) I begin to realize that there is probably some substance in that company insisting that the writers posted blogs regularly. Blogging is perhaps the simplest way to gather our thoughts on a particular subject and then well…write about it. I think one must just write – and not really bother if anyone’s reading; much like that saying about how one should dance as if no one’s watching.

Today, writing is reduced to texting, pinging, tweeting, Whatsapping, and posting updates on Facebook. While all these methods facilitate communication, there is perhaps nothing more satisfying than writing a piece about something that catches our fancy and then capturing it on paper (so what if it is in MS Word or on a blogging site?). It’s there and it’s mine! I have a sense of satisfaction at writing a complete piece. I can’t imagine I’d derive the same sense of satisfaction from a Facebook post, for example. 

I can’t help but remember a line from Francis Bacon’s essay from college where he says Reading Maketh a Full Man; Conference a Ready Man; Writing an Exact Man. He may have been hauled up in today’s gender sensitive world, but I think he did have a point. So, all you writers out there, happy writing!

By Urmilla Chandran
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Working on an Art Book Part III – Writing The Book

8/10/2014

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Previously, we talked about interviewing Himmat and crafting the content strategy. Here, we will share some thoughts on the actual writing process.

After you’ve created a piece of text, you’ve got to spend hours polishing it to perfection. It’s very helpful if someone else – ideally, a professional editor – does a thorough comb through it. Editors look at the overall flow and narrative of the text, and they also proofread.

Longer pieces of text need great attention spans. In this case we found that we had repeated certain ideas more than once across the text. This happens when you’re trying to make connections between the different aspects of a person’s life. But it’s annoying for a reader to get that ‘Didn’t I just read this somewhere?’ feeling. As with any piece of writing, a fresh pair of eyes notices a whole lot of new things.

Most text goes through several drafts before it is good enough to be shown to the world at large. Besides the crucial aspects of grammar, spelling, tense, consistency and so on, there are other more ambiguous issues at work, such as choice of words, active/passive voice, writing style, and sentence length and construction. Here are a few examples of things we mulled over.

High relief: Is it hyphenated or not? Since it was the title of the book, we had better be really sure!

Are walls ‘built’, ‘created’, or ‘constructed’? Since these were unique walls of art, we often used ‘created’.

An artist can conceptualise, imagine, dream, create, build, work, draw, paint and sculpt. Consider which is the most appropriate word for the context.

Each of the three high relief walls had a specific construction process. We had to understand this process in detail, and explain it to a reader. Technical processes have specific words that should not be replaced. For instance, cement is ‘cured’, bricks are ‘laid’, and wood is ‘seasoned’. A wall needs ‘reinforcement’ (not support).

The Acknowledgement section of the book looked deceptively simple to write. In fact, we agonized over it again and again. There is always the very real fear of leaving someone out. Then one has to consider the order in which to thank people. The main challenge is to make sure the acknowledgement is genuinely grateful, and not seemingly routine in any manner.

Though captions are just little sentences under images, they are very important. The caption has to make sense of the image. Vague captions are meaningless and useless. If a caption turns into a paragraph, it probably needs to move into the text itself.

There are countless issues when it comes to writing, but not to worry, we won’t go into all of them here! I can’t leave without saying one last thing. There is a certain thrill to see one’s writing in print. And when it is a book of this nature, the thrill is just so special. 

Armeen Kapadia
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What do You Really Think of Technical Writers? – Part II

23/12/2013

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Now that I’m done with the not-so-pleasant task of recounting the not-so-complimentary comments about technical writers, I have a more pleasant task at hand. Here are the compliments we got, technical writers, so hold your head and chin up.
  • Product documentation is the face of any organization and there is no scope for error in terms of the quality of the documentation. (That is so true. In fact, just imagine a Log in screen or a Registration screen of a product that has typos or incorrect grammar – would you ever go back to it? A technical writer has a role to play from that first moment that a user interacts with a product. You will agree, it is a huge responsibility.)
  • If the developer has coded his bit and the QA engineer has tested his bit then the product should work like magic. No? Actually, no. (Thanks for bringing our role into focus with those thoughts. I do like to think of technical writers and user experience (Ux) folks as contributing to more than just the feel good factors of a product. I see our roles as key to making a product work, appeal to common sense, and meet standards of user experience – all in one go.) 
  • Very few people understand the unique contribution that technical communicators make – they need to understand the product (by talking to the Product Manager, the Developer, and the QA Engineer), test the product, and then convey their understanding to the user in the best possible manner. (Thanks for saying that in as many words. May I add, we need to convey our understanding with as few words as possible too, especially when it comes to language on the user interface?)
  • Technical writers and usability folks are the invisible glue that keeps everything together. (Wow! Thanks for that image. I never did think of our role on those lines. You give me more than hope – you empower me.) 
  • Quite a few technical writers are out of touch with technology and this is endearing, it makes us techies feel humane. (Have you ever felt so sheepish and so embarrassed that you wished the earth should swallow you up? I feel like that right now.)
  • Most technical writers are passionate about something – reading, travel, music, movies, theatre, rock climbing, sports, blogging, baking cakes. It’s nice to be in the company of passionate people. (Can’t stop grinning with pride.)
  • Technical communicators provide the much needed humane connection to product experience (I’m not sure what exactly that means, but it sounds like a compliment to me, and hence figures in this list.)  
  • Usually you are an all-girls team. (Good God! I can’t believe that I’m actually putting that down here. I’m just being fair to all of you who responded, you know.)
  • Technical writers are thorough professionals and are the easiest group to work with. They are clear about what they can deliver and by when, they are equally clear about what they can’t deliver by a certain time and why. They don’t miss deadlines and don’t impose themselves on others. (You just made my day!)

There you go, technical writer, tell me this post made your day too!

Urmilla Chandran
The author is co-founder and Director, Content Development at Steta
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    Authors

    Steta's founders, Urmilla Chandran and Armeen Kapadia author this blog. 

    We love letting our thoughts (crazy, stupid or smart) out for some fresh air.


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