[Audio clip: view full post to listen] Download MP3 Length: 38 min. In his controversial post, The Myth of Single Sourcing, Michael Hiatt explains: Single-source publishing is a zombie idea that revives itself periodically and refuses to stay dead. Its zombie supporters chant its purported benefits as a “write once, publish to many” promise and ploddingly follow it as their ultimate goal for mechanized authoring and machine … more »

Nearly two weeks ago I posted a survey about 10 technical writing stereotypes. 221 people participated in the survey. The results are below. 1. Technical writing is boring. Generally True: 7% Sometimes True, Sometimes False: 46% Generally False: 47% 2. Technical writing stifles your creativity. Generally True: 10% Sometimes True, Sometimes False: 32% Generally False: 58% 3. You do a lot of writing as a … more »

As college students contemplate careers in technical writing, they often hesitate because of negative stereotypes about the profession. As with many stereotypes, these aspects of technical writing can describe some situations for some people, but as a whole they aren’t necessarily true. I’ve listed Ten Technical Writing Stereotypes — tell me if the stereotypes hold generally true for you or not. You can take the … more »

Ten Technical Communication Myths

Ten Technical Communication Myths | A Technical Communication Community

Myths about technical writing | DITA XML.org.

Jefferson McClure added a thought-provoking article link on WriterRiver.com titled “Myths of Technical Writing.” The article is by Bob Doyle and appears on the dita.xml.org wiki site here. In the article, Doyle and other wiki contributors mention 4 myths about technical writing: