Technical Writing in the Digital Age: Difference between revisions

Digital documents rely on the "Seven Cs" of precise writing to be effective and increase readability. Forms of technical writing must have readability. Readability is a term used to determine whether the content has clarity, conciseness and courtesy.{{sfn|Zeleznik|Burnett|Benson|1999|p=207}} The other four Cs are coherent, concrete, correct and complete.{{sfn|Last|2019}}

Digital documents can incorporate multimedia elements like images, audio, video, and interactive content, enhancing engagement through visual and auditory elements. Multiple media formats work best when sharing new, complicated ideas.{{sfn|Carroll|2010|p=36}} Increasing multimodality on a website improves engagement, usability, and accessibility. This can improve the impact of the website's standings in SERPs.{{sfn|Carroll|2010|p=280}}

One form of collaborative technical writing is a wiki, which is a "website developed collaboratively by a community of users, allowing any user to add and edit content."{{sfn|Lucas|2021}} One of the predominant elements of a wiki is that it is defined as being open source. As a result, anyone can modify it regardless of their geographic locations.

A blog, short for "weblog," is an informational website organized into short articles called posts, typically chronologically ordered series of website updates, written and organized similar to a traditional diary.{{sfn|Bair|2014|p=7}} They are regularly updated, providing readers with insights on a specific topic or subject. Blogs serve various purposes, including sharing opinions, providing news, offering educational content, and documenting personal experiences.{{sfn|Rose|Garret|2012|p=2}}

Personas in the context of digital writing, which is writing composed, created and read in digital environments, refer to semi-fictional characters that encapsulate the characteristics, behaviors, and needs of target audience segments. They align closely with the principles of user-centered design (UCD).{{sfn|Lucas|2023a}} There are myriad ways to integrate user-centered thinking into the creative process of UX design, and personas are one of the most effective ways to empathize with and analyze users.{{sfn|Goltz|2014}}

Personas may guide the creation of documentation and tutorials catering to different user needs. It is crucial to adjust the language and tone to match the persona preference. Different personas can influence and guide the design of the project.

Along with adjusting tone and language to suite the desired user, personas also have the responsibility to ensure the purposed digital document properly informs the reader with correct and accurate information the user seeks.

Word processors are software applications designed for creating, editing, and formatting documents on a computer. They provide many features, such as spell-checking, grammar-checking, and inserting images and tables. These programs are typically used for writing essays, creating reports, or drafting professional documents.{{sfn|Carroll|2010|p=229}} Some popular software applications are [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/word Microsoft Word], [https://www.google.com/docs/about/ Google Docs][https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/sharepoint/collaboration , SharePoint], and [https://www.apple.com/pages/ Apple Pages]. These programs allow documents to be readily disseminated. Comment capability enables audience members to interact about a document with one another and the author.   

SEO refers to the practice of optimizing online content to enhance its visibility and ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs), making it a crucial skill for digital writers.{{sfn|Lucas|2023b}} To optimize content for SEO means to have the goal of SEO in mind at the time of designing, creating, and writing a web page for publication. Using keywords and alt-text are two examples of optimizing content for SEO.{{sfn|Barr|2010|loc=chpt. 17}}

Keywords are the words that search engines scan a website for and index as the page's most important words. Based on other pages using the same keywords, the website is added into the search engine results pages from best matches to worst matches. The position of a website in search results is influenced by where it ranks on a scale determined by the keywords that a user searches for.{{sfn|Lucas|2023b}} To optimize a website's keywords, you should begin with researching keywords on your own website and ensure that you have an XML [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitemaps sitemap] so search engines such as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google Google] can scan your web pages for updated information. In addition to using keywords, updating a page's metadata information can also help with showing up on SERPs. Using title and header tags as well as meta descriptions for content also helps optimize a website's ratings in SERPs.{{sfn|Lucas|2023b}}

====Alt-Text====

Alt-Text (alternative text), or [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alt_attribute Alt Attributes], is a practice that increases the usability and accessibility of a web page for users. Alt-Text is often used for visual elements that cannot be displayed in a different format but still provides description of the element for screen readers or users that may have a disability. Alt-Text also improves a website's SEO as a form of content optimization.{{sfn|Lucas|2023b}}

Sharing content from a website across different social media platforms is another way to create SEO optimization. This technique can help with being seen as legitimate and improves visibility of the website overall. Additionally, it can drive traffic and enables back-linking to occur when other websites have the ability to also link to the website.{{sfn|Lucas|2023b}}

*'''Implementation''': the stage in which the design is implemented after making adjustments from prior testing

While responsive design focuses on the system or interface response to user inputs, multimodality refers to integrating multiple modes of communication to evaluate how effective communication can be in the digital age. {{sfn|Lucas|2023h|p=}}

*'''Engagement''': Combining static information with visuals such as images, videos, or interactive modules, can create a more engaging experience for readers in the digital age.

*'''Clarity and Comprehension''': Jargon heavy text and complex ideas are able to be showcased in charts, diagrams, and infographics that are easily able to clarify concepts better than text.

Remediation is the process through which new media forms borrow elements from older media forms and transform and re-contextualize them. As media evolves, so do the ways users can consume it. When first introduced, remediation was described as a type of reformation such as taking a paper letter and turning it into an email.{{sfn|Bolter|Grusin|1999|p=59}}Today, remediation of a digital document often adds into user-experience by enhancing the document. Remediation can look like making a document more accessible by adding a text-to-speech feature for users with poor vision or adding a tutorial to an electronic manual.

Overall, remediation is necessary to create a multimodal document in the digital age.