So, you thought you were done with English when you left college, but now you have to maintain manuals, create reports, and maintain records for governing regulatory agencies? Or, your company has given you a set of procedural manuals from the company that it just acquired, and these procedural manuals need to be integrated into your company’s procedural manuals. How are you supposed to accomplish all of these tasks on top of the ones that you normally do? Technical writers are the answer for all of your documentation needs. They can help you create/maintain manuals and reports. They can also help you map information and then consolidate the information into new combined manuals.
Style
Good documentation needs to have a clear definition of the audience. However, the challenge of many documents today is that they need to be written for several audiences. The text needs to be written using the simplest and most direct language without the use of jargon or slang. Whether working with one subject matter expert (SME) or several SMEs, technical writers must adapt to ensure that the tone of the document sounds as if one person wrote the entire document all the way through. Where possible, the text should include diagrams or schematics that support the text. These graphics should be clearly referenced and captioned.
Types
Engineers are often tasked with writing a variety of technical documents such as the following:
- Procedures
- Specifications
- Reports
- Manuals
- Records
- Forms
- Presentations
- Invitations to Tenders
- Proposals
- Policies
MCS’s technical writers are adept at helping your engineers or other employees to bring clarity to this text and ensure that it effectively communicates the technical details to the audience.
Consolidation
The task of combining multiple sets of procedures or documents can be a daunting task for some. The question for some is where to start. The first task is for the parties to agree upon a format and style guide for the new documents. Then, the technical writer can begin the task of mapping like content. Once the content is mapped, the new procedures can be created using the former documents. SMEs can review any remaining information that did not fit into the mapped sections and determine where the missing information needs to go. MCS’s technical writers ensure the final products are concise, consistent procedures that reflect the current company’s standards.
Review
Documents, especially regulatory ones, typically need to go through a review cycle. This review cycle can follow the process of first draft, revised draft, and final version. This review process allows for document improvement and project updates to be added. Updates should be documented in a Revision Log.
Conclusion
MCS is committed to helping companies with their documentation needs. MCS’s technical writers will produce quality documentation while freeing your engineers and other employees to continue to do their work.
Contact MCS
Website: https://mcs.biz/
Email: mcs@mcs.biz
Phone: 972-580-0812