How to measure the quality of the document? How will I understand if my technical document is of top quality? These are a few questions which every technical writer ask to themselves or come across.
One simple method, some tools give scorecard, readability score etc. So, to score well you must give a look at what parameters they consider giving you the score and start working to mastering those skills.
In this post, we have touched the subject very briefly to give you a few pointers. It is recommended to develop a checklist and detail guideline as per your documentation requirements.
To qualify as good technical documents which can help the user to accomplish goal easily documents must have the following qualities:
Easy to use
Easy to understand
Easy to FInd
What should be the qualities of good technical writing? We can measure the following parameters to establish it
Grammer, style, and language (Easy to understand)
Complete, clear, and correct Content (Easy to use)
Topic/chapter organization (Easy to find)
Correct use of visuals and media (Easy to understand and find)
Retrievability (Easy to find)
Cost effective (For stakeholders
To qualify for being a good technical document the minimum qualities required are given below. Many writers have penned their view on a good technical document, here are my two cent.:
These are very high-level points which need to be breakdown further. If any document meet these parameters it is assumed micro parts are taken care of qualities of good technical writing
Accurate
Accuracy is the most important of the lot when it comes to qualities of good technical writing.
Correct information.Many contracts have been lost just because of too many factual mistakes in the documentation.
Get your drafts reviewed by people whose review is meaningful.
Technical writing doesn’t allow to write your opinion, it is about facts. The facts should be clear irrespective of the kind of report: favourable or unfavourable.
There should not be any false stories because it will question your credibility.
Complete
Don’t give an overview of procedures, if users need minute detail.
Anytime you use a different word or term to refer to something you’ve already called by another name, you risk confusing the readers. There should not be any ambiguity and every sentence should have a single meaning.
Clear
Write clearly
Use simple words and short sentences (KISS-Keep it simple)
Clarity in the writing
Useful
Is it easy to learn?
Is it efficient to use?
Can a user recover quickly from errors?
Is it easy to remember what to do?
Is it fun to use?
Does my document make it easy to find the information the user needs? (index, TOC) If the software has less-than-optimal usability, the documentation must try to make up for it.
Documentation must also be tested.
Attractive
The document should be attractive to the eye. Effective use of visuals, gifs and media can do wonder.
Readers resist reading what they don’t like to look at.
Correct fonts, paragraph length, and styling can increase readability.
Navigation & Search
The topics should be easily searchable.
Readers must have the comfort to navigate easily in a document.
If you are writing for search engines you must follow the google parameters for ranking.
