The document provides best practices for documenting technical procedures in 5 steps: 1) Plan by understanding your audience and their needs. 2) Write a first draft without perfectionism. 3) Revise by creating a logical flow, using concise language, and removing unnecessary information. 4) Edit by having others proofread. 5) Publish while considering the format and long-term maintenance. The key aspects are understanding the audience, writing concisely, revising for clarity, editing for errors, and planning for ongoing support of the documentation.

1. Best Practices
for
Documenting
Technical Procedures
Melanie Seibert

2. Documenting Procedures
Hello. This is me:
★ BA & MA in English
★ 5 years as a copywriter (both print & web)
★ 3 years as a part-time freelancer/full-time mom
★ 3 years total as a tech writer (2 at cPanel)
★ Now Documentation Supervisor at cPanel
★ Interested in how content is developed, managed,
understood, and used

3. Documenting Procedures
What about you? Are you a...
★ Technical support person?
★ Developer?
★ System Administrator?
★ Executive?
★ Something else?

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If you’re here, you’re also a
content producer.

5. Documenting Procedures
The problem

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The problem
Expert
(you)

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The problem
Expert Audience
(you)

8. Documenting Procedures
The problem
information
Expert Audience
(you)

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The problem
needs to get here
information
Expert Audience
(you)

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Documentation!
Expert Audience
(you)

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Expert Expert
(you) (you)

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How?
1. Plan.
2. Write.
3. Revise.
4. Edit.
5. Publish.

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1. Plan.

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What do I want to say?

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What do I want to say?

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Who is my audience?

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Who is my audience?
What do they need?

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Who is my audience?
What do they know?
What do they need?

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Who is my audience?
What do they know?
What do they need?
How will they be looking
for the information?

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★ We usually assume people know what we
know. We almost never start at a level too
basic.
★ We usually assume they want to know
what we want to tell them.
★ Many times, what we want to tell them is
mainly about us.

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So...
★ Start at the beginning.
★ Listen and learn what your audience wants
to know.
★ Make it about them, not you.

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This results in:

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This results in:

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2. Write

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2. Write badly.

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Everybody knows you should do things right
the first time... right?

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Everybody knows you should do things right
the first time... right?

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Do things badly the first time... just don’t
leave them that way.

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Why?
★ Being perfectionistic will get you “stuck.”
★ You don’t do anything wrong. Because
you don’t do anything.

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In writing, anything is better than nothing. So,
write a terrible first draft.

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3. Revise.

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This is where it gets good.
Do not skip this step.

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Create a logical flow.
★ Think like your reader.
★ Question and answer format often works
well.

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Be concise.
★ Don’t waste your readers’ time.
★ Be ruthless.

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“Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence
should contain no unnecessary words, a
paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the
same reason that a drawing should have no
unnecessary lines and a machine no
unnecessary parts.”
— Strunk & White, The Elements of Style

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“Get rid of half the words on the page, then
get rid of half of what’s left.”
— Steve Krug, Don’t Make Me Think

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Example:

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What I did:
★ Formatted it as Q&A.
★ Used headings and bullets.
★ Defined basic terms.
★ Answered the most pressing questions
first.
★ Removed unnecessary information.

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Why it works:
★ It’s easier to scan.
★ It’s approachable.
★ It’s understandable.
★ It’s friendly.

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Another
example:

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Another
example:

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Another
example:

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What the writer did:
★ Used a table to format details.
★ Used bullets.
★ Used tabs to display categories of
information.

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Why it works:
★ It’s easy to scan.
★ The information is organized logically.

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4. Edit.

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★ Have someone proof your document
before publishing.

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huffingtonpost.com

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huffingtonpost.com
huffingtonpost.com

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huffingtonpost.com
huffingtonpost.com
typobuddy.com

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★ Test it: watch someone “use” your
document and listen to their thoughts.

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5. Publish.

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Points to consider before publishing:
★ Who are your users?
★ Where will they look for info?
★ Do they want print? web? mobile?

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You’re not done
Write Revise
Plan
Edit
Publish

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You’re not done
never :)
Write Revise
Plan
Edit
Publish

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Points to consider after publishing:
★ Long-term maintenance: who will do it?
★ Conventions: consider starting a style
guide.
★ Consider a site audit or inventory if you
have lots of documentation.

63. Documenting Procedures
Resources:
★ Yahoo! Style Guide
★ Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug
★ Letting Go of the Words by Ginny Redish

64. Documenting Procedures
Thanks!