{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Not-Boring Tech Writer","title":"The craft of technical writing with Marcia Riefer Johnston","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3151,"description":"In this episode, I’m talking with Marcia Riefer Johnston, a technical writer who’s worked in our industry for 40 years. We talk about how the profession has evolved since she first started in it, the grammar patterns that have helped her tighten up her writing, and how “creative” writing and “technical” writing are just different expressions of the craft of writing.—Marcia and I discuss how tech writing has evolved in the last 40 years as the tooling and field have evolved—from literally cutting and taping printed instructions together to using sophisticated content management systems and modular content. She shares the user feedback from her first set of technical instructions for using a remote control set-top box at Magnavox, highlighting how important user feedback is to help determine what needs to be documented.Throughout our conversation, we explore practical grammar techniques that have helped both Marcia and me strengthen our writing, such as restructuring sentences to center the reader rather than the tool. We also discuss how adding “by zombies” is a great way to suss out if you’re using passive voice (e.g. “This podcast is being listened to by zombies.”) and the strengths and weaknesses of the be verbs (am, is, are, was, were, be, being, etc.).We also talk about the value of sharing what you know, and how putting that knowledge out into the world can reap unexpected benefits. And we talk about the fact that the division between “creative ”writing and “technical” writing feels like a false binary: all acts of language are creative, and technical writing shares a lot of overlap with forms like poetry.We close by discussing how technical writers manage feedback from reviewers and explore how a significant percentage of technical writing involves project management skills such as managing conversations and helping everyone align on what the documentation should do.For both of us, handling contradictory feedback from reviewers usually involves having a...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/JlP4_zZATprOmI0COWYcSJZswo0AzjaOmxyE_M5gX6M/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9kNTdh/ZjBlMjA5ZmEwZDhh/NTNjZWFiOWM2NWY1/ZDAzNS5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}