Linux.conf.au 2017 – Tuesday – Session 2

Stephen King’s practical advice for tech writers – Rikki Endsley

  • Example What and Whys
    • Blog post, press release, talk to managers, tell devs the process
    • 3 types of readers: Lay, Managerial, Experts
  • Resources:
    • Press: The care and Feeding of the Press – Esther Schindler
    • Documentation: RTFM? How to write a manual worth reading

 

  • “On Writing: A memoir of the craft” by Stephen King
  • Good writing requires reading
    • You need to read what others in your area or topic or competition are writing
  • Be clear on Expectations
    • See examples
    • Howto Articles by others
    • Writing an Excellent Post-Event Wrap Up report by Leslie Hawthorn
  • Writing for the Expert Audience
    • New Process for acceptance of new modules in Extras – Greg DeKoenigserg (Ansible)
    • vs Ansible Extras Modules + You – Robyn Bergeon
      • Defines audience in the intro

 

  • Invite the reader in
  • Opening Line should Invite the reader to begin the story
  • Put in an explitit outline at the start

 

  • Tell a story
  • That is the object of the exercise
  • Don’t do other stuff

 

  • Leave out the boring parts
  • Just provides links to the details
  • But sometimes if people not experts you need to provide more detail

 

  • Sample outline
    • Intro (invite reader in)
    • Brief background
    • Share the news (explain solution)
    • Conclude (include important dates)

 

  • Sample Outline: Technical articles
  • Include a “get technical” section after the news.
  • Too much stuff to copy all down, see slides

 

  • To edit is divine
  • Come back and look at it afterwards
  • Get somebody who will be honest to do this

 

  • Write for OpenSource.com
  • opensource.com/story

 

  • Q: How do you deal with skimmers?   A: Structure, headers
  • Q: Pet Peeves?  A: Strong intro, People using “very” or “some” , Leaving out import stuff

 

 

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