Re: Content Plan
Does every technical writer use a content plan for each project?
That depends on the writer, and the length of the document. Each writer has their own preferences for outlining: a very small minority can hold an entire manual's structure in their heads, some write down everything in great detail, and most of us fall somewhere between these two extremes.
Small projects or ones that reuse existing material may not need require a written plan at all.
How detailed is the content plan?
Again, that depends on the writer. While planning is useful, a point comes when spending more time planning simply delays the writing of the document. For each writer, this point varies. Some improvise and learn as they go along, so they don't want a detailed plan. Others don't want to write a word until they have everything perfectly organized.
My own preference is for enough of an outline that I don't have to write everything in order. If there's a delay or I feel I'm getting stale working on one section, I like to be able to jump to another section and keep work.
However, you have to experiment to find what level of detail is useful given your work habits.
Does anyone have an example they could share with me?
No, but some of your choices are:
- random notes
- a formal outline with numbered sections and sub-sections (the kind people are told to do in high school, but really do after they've written to keep the teacher happy).
-headings or topic sentences for each section
- brainstorming (AKA cluster diagrams, mental mapping, etc.): jotting down ideas, with arrows to show connections. Some of these diagrams can get very elaborate, with different colored arrows showing different relations, and so on.
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Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com
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Content Plan: From: D.R. Smith
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