5C’s of Technical Writing

Here is a little article on important rules — 5C’s that you should follow to improve your writing:

• Clarity.Clear informationspeeds up an understanding of the document. Clarity is not only about text but also about the content in general. If you want to write clear content, support it with graphs, images, diagrams, flow charts, screenshots, photos, etc. To learn more, read this article: Graphics in Technical Writing.
• Concise.Following this ruleprevents information overload. What you should do is to practice minimal writing that means that you must provide only the information that users need: Tips on Improving Technical Writing.
• Consistent helps tobuild trust. It implies using the same word/text/phrase to describe a specific feature/function/action throughout the document. If something was changed in your product, you should immediately update your document: ClickHelp Features — Global Find and Replace.
• Complete.Give all the required information but keep in mind the Concise rule. In order to provide additional information, hyperlink the specific key concept about a product or service to an internal page in the document or external web page that provides a clear and complete explanation. You can also implement Context Help, so a user will get help right on the spot, without the need to go elsewhere to search for answers
• Correct. Mistakes and typos are inappropriate in documentation, you must provide the right and contextual information. There are many ways to do this: double-check with SME about the contextuality and truthfulness of the information before you publish it, use grammar checkers, ask your friends to follow the steps and explain what was difficult for them, and the like.