Newsletter of the Society for Technical Communication, San Francisco Chapter October/November 2006

July 2006 Meeting -- Digesting the "Alphabet Soup" of Technical Writing and Publishing
Presented by Bret Freeman and reviewed by Joshua Berman

Bret Freeman, Senior Sales Engineer for Philadelphia-based Vasont Systems, gave an informative, yet direct presentation on "Digesting the 'Alphabet Soup' of Technical Writing and Publishing" as part of the July 2006 meeting of the San Francisco Chapter STC. After more than a decade of experience in the information management field, Bret has seen structured writing, content management, and language acronyms strongly influence the technical writing industry and its firms' business practices.

The Basics of Structured Writing

Structured writing is emerging as a dominant method of assembling technical documents. The need for end-users to quickly understand and perform instructions is one of the driving forces behind this transformation. The engine to this change is the XML-based Darwin Information-Typing Architecture (DITA), which sorts content into reusable topics and eliminates both redundancy and confusion. Another XML derivative is Document Type Definition (DTD), a language that produces the actual syntax. These and other schemas help to streamline the technical writing process and provide timely information for end-users.

Advantages vs. Disadvantages

Bret made a strong case for structured writing when he presented this quote originating from International DataCorp:

The average knowledge worker spends approximately 2-1/2 hours a day panning for information nuggets in unstructured sources such as Web pages and Word files-even though many of those pages and files may be their own.

IDC's statement underscores reusability opportunities as a major reason for using structured content. Among other advantages:

• Metadata -- the "nuggets" of information available through ad hoc queries
• Transaction Management -- ensuring that entries overlap
• Time and cost savings -- the end results of any well-executed content management system

Although XML-based languages have made structured writing a very sound business approach, the task of persuading some authors still accustomed to writing narrative content for specific audiences is anything but efficient. The drastic change from "old style" writing (i.e., creating books, chapters, and sections) to today's topic-driven material (meant for use and reuse in multiple publications for various products and target audiences) can cause a psychological impact on writers. Many people are reluctant to change; still others adamantly refuse to convert to a different method. This fear of change keeps many software companies from addressing their employees regarding change management issues, thus creating a roadblock. To deal with such a stalemate, Bret recommended these analyses:

A. Situational

• What is the author doing now? Is the content cutting-edge or improper structure?
• What's wrong with the documents?
• How does the author envision the solution?

B. Data

• What is the existing structure?
• Off-the-shelf or custom software
• Data should be definable and available
• Finding the most intuitive solution for as many users as possible

The Evolution of Structured Writing

As for the future of structured writing, Bret observed that XML, DITA, and similar languages will become even more prominent. Through this evolution, the end-user's skill sets are certain to change with the simple definition of content management-the process of managing reusable pieces of content in the most efficient manner. Once this process proves its worth to everyone within a particular firm, even the more dyed-in-the-wool writers can make the gradual change to an architecture that is setting the pace for quick and accurate document processing.

Josh Berman is an STC member and contributor.

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