Content Writing

 Step-by-Step Guide for writing White Paper This is a complete guide to enable technical writers to write a white paper that serves its purpose completely.  it can be used by the content writer, freelancer, businesses and entrepreneurs to develop a whitepaper to exhibit their authority and persuade readers in favor of their sale goals. This is a go-to- resource for the white paper. In this post, we have covered Introduction and goal to write the white paper History Who should publish the white paper How to write the white paper Steps for writing the white papThe myth Myths about the white paper and downloadable resources. Introduction and goal to write the white paper:   A white paper is a report with authority that gives information about any complex issue concisely. The real motive of the white paper is to inform the reader about the issue, help them solve a problem and make a decision. Some more goals for a white paper are: Selling a product or service Promoting a technology Funding a project Establishing a reputation for expertise An educative and well-illustrated whitepaper is capable to influence the readers. One thing which I personally like about writing the white paper is it brings a lot of well-paying clients to me :-). Learn more about freelancing. History of white paper: The history of white paper goes back to 1922 when the first white paper was issued in the British Government called Churchill white paper. You may wonder, why this is called a white paper? The term white paper was derived from the color of the cover of the document.   Who uses white paper: White papers are used both by Government and business to business marketing. Let’s explore how: – Government: The government uses whitepapers to present their policies to the public and officials inviting their opinions simultaneously. White paper becomes a medium to predict the possible impact of its policies on the general public before turning it legit.   It also helps government discover probable controversies that can arise through a proposed policy.   B 2 B marketing: Initially, the white paper was considered as a medium of marketing in business. White papers are used as a promotional content of a product or services with the motive to expand business and attract investors. They are also used to influence partners, journalists, stakeholders, customers, and analysts. They are also used as a tool to generate sales lead and making business cases.   White papers are a form of content marketing to promote sponsor and increase web traffic. They can influence the decision-making process by pointing out the problems or the discussing the possible solution of a problem.   How to write a white paper?          A white paper is a document that can have one to five pages describing the problem and the possible solution of a case. Its composition should include alternatives to meet the client’s marketing need, handling municipal issues, suggesting the use of certain tools for any technical or business processes depending upon the issuing authority whether it is governmental or business. Before drafting a white paper, things we should keep in mind that is mandatory for creating an ultimate white paper are listed below.   Basic groundwork to be done before writing-   Audience Awareness: The first requirement is to know who your audience is. The educational background, professional needs, the position they hold etc gives you a more relevant picture of what your document should look like. Understanding of audience helps to create a relevant, relatable paper. The convincing method for the suggested solutions would be more understandable to your audience if you have clarity about their needs. Your arguments in favor of a possible solution would be more relatable to them.   Audience proficiency: It is very necessary to know how expert is your audience about a subject. It will affect the level of complexity of your white paper. The terms you refer to or the situation of example will be highly influenced by the kind of expertise your audience holds. Writing for the government will be about the policies, for corporate it would be about the budget, profit etc and for technical experts, it can have a lot of technical terms. Now the writing part-   What is the first thing one notice in a document? How to write the headline of the white paper You can give it a headline ‘white paper’ but it will definitely attract the attention if it has some title that can hold the eye of the reader. An old proverb is ‘the first impression is the last impression’.  Your title is the magnet that can compel a reader to dive deep into your content and think about it. Form your title that is relevant and eye-grabbing.   Introduce your content to the reader briefly in the opening para. It will give them an idea of why is the problem existing why there is a need to implement different solutions suggested. An illustration of the basic cause of the problem can influence their decision in case of any prior solution is running in the mind of the reader.   Spot the problem and illustrate why it is a problem, how did it arise. Give a background reference about the problem.   Steps to write a White Paper Who? Why? How? What? Find out WHO your audience is. When we know to whom we are going to address, half work is done. The tone, the language, terminology, supported facts everything becomes clear and the path ahead becomes easy. The next mandatory thing to consider is WHY we need to write it. An explanation of the problem should be written to make it easy to identify and understand. A brief of the history, HOW the problem arose should be described. It creates relevance among the audience. WHAT is the measures to be taken should be defined.  The solution the company has to offer should be proposed. It would be good if

Social media Influencers Social media Influencers are the persons having a large following on social websites, and through their post featuring any product they are capable to influence a significant number of people, and they get hefty amount paid by the companies for their posts. A single post can earn you up to 40k to 60k. Technical writers ,Content writers,Bloggers,doctors, teachers any professional can become a social media influencers in their domain. In the society Influencers are the people who can influence others. Influencers are always favorite of marketers because they use them to convince people to buy the product. In this era when the attention of people is more on social media than any other media be it cinema,TV or other gathering undoubately Social media Influencers earn by every single post. Social media Influencer are not confined to a single genre. The wide spectrum of writing area includes travel, food, fitness, lifestyle, fashion or any field where you can share your experience through post or images for your followers. According to India Influencer Report 2018, more than ninety percent marketers will prefer Social media Influencers to the celebrities such as cricketers or Bollywood actors, to launch their product in the market. This anticipation is done after studying the behavior of customers who are not interested in the products promoted by celebrities anymore. Customers are considering social media influencers more reliable and marketers are using this trust for their marketing strategy. Influencers marketing platforms such as Get Evangelized, Elave, and Tera Rich also agree to the increasing trend of social media influencers. According to them the number of Instagram Influencers has increased significantly and this trend will continue this year also. Social media Influencer can also be chosen as a career because it can help you make money from the posts you write. A content with quality, images, and relevance helps to enhance business and marketing of products. An impressive post on social media websites such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter can influence the followers and do the branding of the product while you earn money from the companies for featuring them.   Who are the social media Influencers? You need not wonder about the special qualities of Influencers, they can be simple models, fitness/shopping experts, chef, athlete, a general student or a professional. They have a good following on social websites, for whom they write quality contents and share on different social media platforms. They write about different topics and share them through posts and images on facebook, twitter, Youtube, Instagram etc where followers read their recommendations about any product or services. Reason for popularity Social media Influencers capability to connect with lakhs of people attracts brand towards them. According to Image guru Dilip Cherian, Influencers charge less than the celebrities, and this increases the interest of advertising agencies in them. Influencers give a good exposure to brands, but the interest of marketers in Social media Influencer also depends on how real they are. Recently case of fake influencers are surfaced. These Influencers purchase or involve in illegal practices to show the followers data on different plateform.   Earnings According to market reports, an influencers can earn INR 40,000 to 60,000 for a single post on Instagram. Instagrammers who have a following of two to nine thousand can earn 4000 to 16,000 for a single post. Influencers having more than five lakh subscribers earn at least 1.5lakhs per post. Youtubers who have more than 70lakh followers can earn around two crores, according to analytics platform CapTV8. Do not miss our videos for more information.   Accreditation Cherian says, that the bonding between an influencer to its audience is very crucial for any brand. Before selecting any influencer the company first analyzes the profile. After that, the pictures, contents, filters, hashtags, follower count etc are checked thoroughly. Brands even consider the number of paid followers to check the credibility. They do this check to know that the influencer is popular or popularity has been faked.   How to become an social media Influencers? Be the expert of your field people will follow you, be it a classroom or cricket ground.-Rahul Karn Write a content that reflects your passion. Images, text, and video will add value to your role as an Influencer. Your post should be engaging and presentable. Don’t limit your ideas and post to digital medium only. Develop your profile as a brand, and reach your target audience and industries through offline routes also. Right hashtags, captions, and humor will enrich the content. If you are new to writing you can take up a course from Information Developers Foundation to enhance your writing skills and earn through posts and images you share on social media.  

GIFs for writers The two most engaging power of author are to make new things usable and familiar things new. Being a corporate writer we thoroughly enjoy our work by taking everyday challenges in stride. Whether it is information gathering, review process, client feedback, meeting deadline, and our colleague’s attitude. Our passion and flair for writing keep us going also needless to mention EMIs have to play its own role. In this post, I have tried to gather some Gifs for writers which truly depict our situation and all the writer can understand. Enjoy!!! When you reach office and you come to know you will have to write a new configuration guide in next 48 hours. The important client is waiting. Tip Commit if you can deliver or talk to the concerned person and your manager. If you are following the scrum process try to find why this was not discussed in the planning meeting and raise the issue in the retrospective meeting to avert this kind of situation in future. You can see this video to understand the Scrum Process.     Shocked Joey GIF from Shocked GIFs   Your subject matter expert refuses to give you time, the expert is busy. Tip Send the meeting invitations and reminders and if this becomes the routine. Try to identify the root cause and if required discuss with your manager. In the Scrum process try to clarify all your doubts during planning and story elaboration meeting. You can see the video on how to interact with Subject matter expert.   Umm Wait for GIF from Umm GIFs During daily scrum or retrospective, your team indulge in technical discussion Tip Ask to park the topic to discuss after the meeting is over as it is irrelevant for you. You can raise the concern with the scrum master if this is happing regularly. Else, use two feet law 🙂   When you return after vacation and found tasks are piled up. Tip– Try to do prioritize your work and make sure you are always working on the highest priority task. Even under pressure condition do not compromise with the quality of your content.   When you release the document and then find the errors. Tip– Good writing is an iterative process, even after rigorous review this can happen. Looking at the severity of the issue take a call. You can make a ticket for your reference. Read more about proofreading You are not able to writer perfect introduction in a couple of hours Tip– This happens with the writers. Sometimes we are not able to write even a single line in a few hours because of other distractions. I personally like to write an introduction after finishing the complete topic. This gives me better understand the feature and help to write the powerful introduction.   When the next morning you find your customer made your document completely red Tip– Accepting the feedback is also an art. We should keep our ego aside while dealing with the feedbacks, comments etc. Few clients are polite and few are furious. Stay calm look at the comments try to find the reason, even they are valid or not. Try to avoid it in the future. Also, avoid conflicts and confrontations. Remember no one is perfect. Learn technical writing  When your manager fails to understand how much times it takes to write. The output may be ten pages but I have to tear down four pages in the process. Tip: When your manager is not from the right background then they can have this kind of misconception. What is writing and anyone can write? You need to explain the complete content development lifecycle and the challenges involved rather than feeling like below Gifs. via GIPHY When you get an appreciation for your impeccable writing Tip- Every individual love appreciation. Do not forget to enjoy and share your success with your others. After all, you have earned it and keep your good work rolling. via GIPHY When other take away your work credit. This is a very common grievance you will encounter in the organization. Sometimes it is correct also. This is the characteristic of non-performing managers. In this case, you will have to keep patience wait for the correct time and then convey your ability and message to the right set of people.   See this Video to learn cool Animated GIFs, it is simple and FREE. If you are new and want to know how to become a technical writer consider reading his handpick guide.  

7 C’s of Effective Communication Today effective communication and communication gap is one of the major challenges every business is facing and things become worse if the team is distributed across the globe. This rise the scope of good technical communication and business communication. Come let us see the importance and how we can improvise it in detail in this blog post unraveling secrets of good communication for effective communication. Listening is the first step toward effective communication. It is also the best way to avoid problems and complications before it could arise. But one thing that we need to take care of is that this communication should be perfect in all aspects. Perfectness in communication comes when we follow the principles of communications and are also aware of the types of communications and the protocols tagged to it. In communication, not only the literal meaning but the hidden meaning is also involved which should be conveyed as well as should be understood clearly. In a communication one is the listener and the other one is the speaker. If both are best in their communication there is no chance for any discrepancy to creep in the message and distort its meaning. In psychology classes, an activity is done wherein a message is conveyed to a student and it is let pass through all the students by one by one communication.   It has been found that the last person when reads out the message, it’s completely different. It is just because of the lack of good communication, which leads to the encryption of the message.   Types of Communication Now, let’s decode the magic aphorism for better communication. First, we need to know the three types of communication. Verbal Written Non-verbal     Verbal Communication It is the oral communication that involves speaking to somebody directly face to face or on phone. This communication can be one to one and one to too many also. Storytelling is also a verbal communication. In a verbal communication, it is necessary to mind few things before, to convey the right message in undiluted form to the listener in a way that they receive it in the purest form and senses. The things needed to be kept in mind is: Planning Plan the execution of your communication that is knowing your audience, estimation of time, clarity on topic and other factors. You can read more about planning on this blog post. Pronunciation A clear pronunciation is necessary to reach the audience and not leaving them guessing your words. Bad pronunciation can reduce the interest of the audience. When you are in a meeting where participants are sitting in different part of the globe try to speak in correct pace and pronunciation. Precision Accuracy and exactness in your topic can hold the audience, try not to be verbose and let your listener get bored. A big lecture deviates from the mind of the audience and they lose the interest. Be precise and take little time yet conveying the message completely. Put Straight Arrange and organise your message in a proper flow. Convey it step by step. Jumping from one step to another could hamper your message and miscommunication or confusion would ruin the whole motive. Politeness Politeness creates a good impression and lets the audience take interest in you and more focused on what you say. Aggression can divert the attention of the audience.   Written Communication It is the way of communication that involves written messages such as e-mails, memos, proposals, manuals, instructions manual etc. It can also be one to one or one to many. Written communication does not happen in the real time, but it is easy to write clearly if we learn how to write effectively. Concise and accurate writing is best and is entertained more seriously. No one bothers to read a long note, it only gets a scanning eye. Consider a few tips for writing and you will optimize your effort.   Write simple and short sentences. Avoid Jargons Say no to redundancy Explain in steps Proofread before sending Increase the readability. Highlight the important points.   Non-Verbal Communication In this communication words are not involved, either way, be it be writing or speech. It is the tone of voice, facial expression, kinetics that convey the untold messages. In fact, nonverbal communication can be understood easily. An emphasis on a particular word in a sentence can change the whole meaning. The frequency and sharpness of voice tell about our mood and emotions.   For example: “May I do this for you?” The message conveyed is that you might have more options to take help but let me do it. “May I do this for you?” Here I am seeking permission to help you. Nonverbal communication can be done through   Facial expression Touch Body language Tone of voice Eye contact Voice modulation Now, that we are aware of the types of communication let’s move towards the principle that makes all these types of communication more effective.    Principles of Communication For an effective communication 7C’s of communication must be adopted. These are:   Completeness: For an effective communication, it is very necessary to convey the complete message. Your message should be based on facts and according to your listener or audience’s perception. Provide additional message wherever needed. Never leave any room for further clarity after the message is conveyed, to avoid additional cost. Make your message complete and filled with all the vital elements and information to make it crystal clear. An incomplete message can create confusion or can be distorted by the audience’s own assumption in case of ambiguity. In addition to this completeness of message helps build a good reputation and adds worth to your message that is the key factor to hold on the audience. Concreteness: Being specific and clear, supported by facts is what a concrete message is all about. Concreteness does not let the message to be misinterpreted. It prevents confusion and strengthens the

Animated GiFs- Latest trend in visual communication Animated GIFs is latest trends among next-gen professionals for visual communication. LinkedIn partner with Tenor to add GIFs to messaging. Use of GIFs on your blog more shareable on the other hand it can be used in the technical document to make complex idea simpler. It can also use for internal communication like (sharing a process to reproduce bug/issue by a tester to a developer) You must use in the right place in the right place overuse of it can dilute the purpose of your technical documentation. Information Developers Foundation is committed to keeping you updated on the latest and in-demand skill. This Webinar is just a step toward it. You can subscribe to our website if you do not want to miss any of our action. How and Why to create Animated GIFs? This post is a recording of the TC Charcha (webinar) hosted by Information Developers Foundation on 24th March 2018. Our esteemed guest of the night Sangeeta Raghu presented a very informative and engaging webinar on the Animated GIFs with a demo. Highlights: What Are Animated GIFs? Why use it? Advantages GIFs Where to Use it What Tools to Use? Best Practices Where To Start? Examples   You can watch the video but you will miss the enjoyment of live interaction what we experienced. Hope to see you in our next Content Charcha on API Masterclass by Pema Sherpa on 28th April 2018. Register Now. You can also see our recorded webinars.

Useful tools for content writers If you are a content writer, you know very well that it is not the easiest job in this world. Some even say that being a content writer is a little to hassle a job. Well, screw them! The only reason they are unaware of this profession’s delicacy is due to their lack of knowledge. Most of the writer hates writing. They complain about the amount of time they have to spend on their keyboard. My approach is, if you don’t like the keyboard, simply opt out of it. Try the text to speech option for your convenience. It will not only help you get those articles done faster but will also help with your verbal-linguistic skills. Since typing is one of the most underrated jobs in this world, I have dedicated this post solely to the different ways of automating content writing. So without any further delay, let us start with the most promising way for you to create those contents hands-free.   Google docs Voice typing: Google is a great tool for you to use and you most probably already know it. But what you don’t know is the fact that it can also be used in creating classic content. Google docs Voice typing is one of the most effective ways of creating fast and error-free content. The best part about automated writing is that it saves your time. It will also contribute quite a lot to your verbal approach. And the speed of improvisation and then delivery will also be improved with an automated speech to text option. Grammarly: Paying for a writer is already too much but for editors? If you have the same notion in mind then here is the perfect solution for you. Grammarly, the magic proofreading app will not only make your text look good but it will also improve it with suggestions. Although the tool is free to use, the additional features are paid and nonetheless, completely worth it. Grammarly is a magic app that can make you have a decent approach to your writing grip. It will chuck those minor errors, those punctuation errors and of course the plagiarism. Grammarly is one of the most popular tools in the industry and since there is a quick learning approach to it, it will never go obsolete. Hemmingway App: If you are a blogger or a content writer, then it is very much necessary for you to maintain the readability. While some of us might not see it, there are editors who can. But then again, they will not be doing it for free. With Hemmingway app, you will not be needing those editors who charge more than the article itself. Hemmingway App will make you see those minor issues and also those things that can be bad for the SEO score. With Hemmingway editor, you can almost have anything and everything there is to see in your article to hike to perfection. If you haven’t tried it, try it at once. Yoast SEO: There are two questions that come with it. Why WordPress and how WordPress. SEO is important if you are working online. And if it is SEO, there is no doubt that WordPress is the best. The Yoast SEO is a very reliable tool for you to check the SEO score. The biggest reason why this tool is famous? Well, it will go through every inch of the article and make sure that you haven’t missed anything. If you prefer some other platform for blogging, try WordPress. It has everything for you to learn and understand. Articoolo: While there are not many options available for you to rewrite an article, the Articoolo app is a very genuine app for you to use. Articoolo searches through hundreds of websites and finds the potential sites for you to write. Wait, you don’t write it, they do it for you. Articoolo is not a free tool but it is relatively cheaper than the average content writer for the quality. The write-up adds no plagiarism and the quality is also fair. The only question that remains now is what’s stopping you from trying it? Copyscape: Perhaps the best plagiarism checker in the world. Copyscape premium is unparallel to any plag checker. The potential of this tool is actually very high as it goes through each and every line. The algorithm is good and it will even search the PDFs uploaded on the internet. No way to fool you now. Copyscape is not a free tool. But then again, most of the other reliable tools are not as well. Turnitin, Grammarly, and SmallSEOtools are also good. But nothing compares with the quality of Copyscape. Trusted by many genuine posters, it is, by all means, the king of plagiarism checker. Conclusion: So, that’s about it. In this post we discussed how you can make your writing content writing process hassle free and effective by automating the process by using almost free tools for content writers. We hope you have liked this article of automating writing with tools and internet If you think that this article is good and helpful, give it a share. The comment box is for sharing suggestions so, you can give us a feedback if we have missed something. Thank you for reading.

Information Developers Foundation success story of 2015 With 2015 drawing to a close and a fresh new year waiting on the horizon, I wanted to thank you ALL my students for making 2015 a super successful year by every measure. We grew our footprint, we grew our capabilities, we grew in terms of our value prop and most importantly, we grew as a team! Every end marks a fresh, new beginning. Let’s continue to keep our spirits and determination high, and we’ll continue to blaze our trail of success in the new year as well. Feeling great to share 2015 was again a very successful year for Information Developers Foundation. We do not focus on enrolling maximum students, but we focus to serve who really wants to be in the technical writing and our exponential growth and placement success is the testimony of this vision. Result– Our all the students of  2015 are successfully placed with the great salary and satisfaction. Information Developers Foundation organizes and sponsors two successful  STC conference in the month of January and August. We also initiated Expert talk and Anu Singh from Fiserv was our chief guest. She talks about how to become a technical writer. Our LinkedIn group, page, and Facebook page keep on doing well. This year we also got international training opportunity. Looking forward, we want to serve the cause also by supporting differently abled and economically poor but talented students by providing this training FREE of cost. Wall Of Fame List of Information Developers Foundation successful students-2015: Abhishek Mitra Newgen Anuradha Malhotra SaaSfocus Deepak Shrawat FosterIDEAZ Technologies Sonam Prakash Fiserv Debjani Gorai Algoworks Nitika Panday EBEE Preeti Kumari Delhivery Anukriti Sriv Z associates Rinni Mahajan Interra system Navtej Techpro Soumya Ericsson Shipra Jain Stero d Dipti Sharma P soft Chandan Singh IDS Infotech Limited Abhilasha Bhardwaj Wipro Neha Hotellogic

Distinction among BRS, FRS, and SRS – Top 7 The difference among SRS, FRS, and BRS seems to be same but in reality, they all are different and important too because many of us do not know these simple basic terms, in simply we know these terms but not exactly.    SRS FRS BRS 1. It means “Software Requirement Specification” (SRS). 1. It means “Functional Requirement Specification” (FRS). 1. It means “Business Requirement Specification” (BRS). 2. It deals with resources provided by Company. 2. It deals with requirements given by the client. 2. It deals with aspects of business requirements. 3. It always includes Use cases to describe the interaction of the system. 3. In this, Use cases are not included. 3. In this, Use cases are also not included. 4. It is developed by System Analyst. And it is also known as User Requirement Specifications. 4. It is always developed by developers and engineers. 4. It is always developed by Business Analyst. 5. In SRS, we describe all the business functionalities of the application. 5. In FRS, we describe the particular functionalities of every single page in detail from start to end. 5.In BRS, we define what exactly customer wants. This is the document which is followed by the team from start to end. 6. SRS tells means explains all the functional and non-functional requirements. 6. FRS tells means explains the sequence of operations to be followed on every single process. 6. BRS tells means explains the story of whole requirements. 7. SRS is a complete document which describes the behavior of the system which would be developed. 7. FRS is a document, which describes the Functional requirements i.e. all the functionalities of the system would be easy and efficient for the end user. 7. BRS is a simple document, which describes the business requirements on a quite broad level.     If you want to learn more about SRS.Please refer IEEE recommended practice for software requirement specification.

Information Developers Meetups Snaps of Information Developers Foundation meetup on 22 August 2015. It was attended by top-notch technical writers of NCR and the presentations were truly amazing.The best part was it was interactive. Interactive technical writing session in progress Bipul presented a very interesting talk on the importance of UX in developers guide. Bipul from GlobalLogic talking on UX in documentation Ankur Srivastav guru of DITA talk about the information mapping through DITA. DITA man Ankur   Rinni talk about one of the latest concept of documentation DocOps. Rinni still try to find out why tech writing? Puja Gandhi from Agilent and Ankur Srivastava from Freescale   Rinni Mahajan From Inteera System and Manisha Khurana from Comviva   Dipti sharing pain point of technical writers   Dr.Anu from Fiserv and Dipti Sehgal from Pitney Bose   Participant of the Information Developers Consortium- August 2015   Rahul Karn- Co-Founder of ApraDocs Information Developers  

Most of us directly get to the Google search engine and look for solutions whenever we encounter problems related to Google’s services including Gmail, Maps, Chrome, and YouTube. We visit various websites and keep hunting them until we get the best solution to our problems. But to facilitate your experience with its products and services, Google has come up with a website – Google Tips – that includes tips related to its wide range of services. Users can search for tips on a service/product. Tips are presented in the form of cards. Find a card based on your needs and flip it over to learn more. For instance, one of the tips under the Android sections is “Never lose contact with your contacts.” The moment you click on any card, it turns over and comes up with a detailed tutorial describing how to use a particular tip. Tips are presented in the form of cards. Find a card based on your needs and flip it over to learn more. Users can share tips with their friends and can also suggest tips to Google if they have any. You can simply click on “Suggest a card” button suggest a tip.

Who is the proofreader? To understand the proofreading tips, let us know who is the proofreader? The proofreader combs through the work looking for any inappropriateness. These include punctuation, spelling, spaces, alignment, type font and style, and other minutiae. This can involve comparing the final copy with the final trail print. Technical writers and Self-proofreading Proofreading is one of the important skill technical writers must possess to excel in their profession. A good writer with self-proofreading ability are able to churn out accurate, clear, concise, flawless and logically structured document, it’s imperative that you review each word to check for typos, mistakes, context, and tone. Those little details really do matter! In several projects I had worked as a single writer or freelancer with no peer or editor around, in fact in my current project also I am the sole contributor and in that scenario, I have to proofread my own work, this is when I felt the need of good self-proofreading skill. So did some homework on proofreading and here is the weblog of it. I asked my friends on LinkedIn Information Developers group and I got some great tips thanks to Altaf Ahmed, San Xu, Carlos and Kranthi Kumar Kandagatla for their insight.  To find out errors, you must know the type of errors that you do commonly. In this post, my main focus is on some common mistakes and methods to reduce them by self-proofing. Please also keep in the mind there is a difference between editing and proofreading. It is said that we should not do together, but I believe if you have the ability to do it together please go ahead. The first step I think is you should have a checklist of commonly made mistakes and make sure you do not repeat it again 🙂 Go ahead make a checklist. Few entries for checklist currently spilling out from my mind are: Spelling mistakes Incorrect data Incorrect or inconsistent capitalization Incorrect Numbering and Heading Incorrectly spelled names Non-agreement of subject and verb Use of passive voice Incorrect punctuation Incorrect Referencing of illustrations Incorrect header and footer Reversed numbers like 459 to 495 Sound similar but have different meanings for words (e.g., except/accept, palette/palate, intense/intensive). Wrong use of apostrophes Check Cross-references Style Guide compliance mistakes. (Mistakes in Fonts, Images, Tables etc) Incorrect Index Now you have a checklist available, but how to find your own writing errors which often occurs just when stress levels are highest and time shortest, writers minds resist identifying them as errors. Under these conditions, you will see only what they want to see because we are often blind to our own mistakes? Few popular and easy steps which work wonder to many will surely work for you as well. Allow some time to pass. This is one of the tips which is common to all who responded on Linkedin. Put the work aside for a few days or weeks before beginning the proofreading process. Read out loud to yourself. This is one of the wonderful tools, try it, you can find your many grammatical mistakes. Reading out loud will help catch missing words. It’s also helpful for determining whether a piece lacks clarity or if phrasing doesn’t sound quite right. Spell checks this. Spell check your document, the spell checker can do some wonder like: Identify misspelled words Find double occurrences of words Identify double capital letters at the beginning of a word Identify when a small letter precedes a capital letter Accommodate additions to the dictionary of unusual words you commonly use Beware spell check  also cannot do many things, Like Find typographical errors that appear to be correct (horrible instead of honorable, be long instead of belong ) Point out grammatical errors (their instead of they’re, its instead of it’s ) Identify poor sentence sense and syntax Check all the links and cross references-Click on all the links and cross-references manually, see if they navigate to the proper location and not broken. Backward to forward-Start with the last paragraph first. Because you’re reading it out of order, you’re more likely to spot the typos and spelling mistakes Pause before you press Send- Take a long pause before sending the final draft, a pause can vary from hours to days.  Avoid distraction– I personally like to proofread my work without any distraction, you can use a quiet location or earphones, the choice is yours. Proofread print-This is not eco-friendly and little expensive method as well but one of my close to heart method. A print version is also handy for making notes with a pen, crossing out excess verbiage, and changing vocabulary prior to implementing the corrections in a final version. Illustration/Screen check-Make sure you have used correct images and screenshots. —————————————————————— Response from LinkedIn Information Developers Group Altaf Ahmed • If you meant proofreading of our own work, for errors and bugs in our documents, then I would mention one method that I have learned from one of my projects. We can do a complete scan of the document for only spell checking, and then repeat the quick scan each time for checking graphics, links, grammar check etc. Though this looks to be a tedious and time-consuming process, however, can provide thorough results with correction of even minute undetected errors. San Xu • I always think it is best to allow some time between your writing and your proofreading. I proofread in soft copy. I admit though, that hard copies are more effective than soft copies if the writing contains MANY mistakes – this conclusion is drawn from my past experience as an editor. Kranthi Kumar Kandagatla • I agree to San. A fresh mind works efficiently for proofreading. I always take a day off after I complete a project. Come next day for proofreading. I prefer soft copy. Carlos Mills, • I also keep a list of commonly misspelt words to run a quick search/replace to save editing time. As we all agree, the writer should take some

How to estimate the rate for freelancing writing projects? Undoubtedly freelancing gives you priceless freedom of working and choosing your type of work, boss-free life, work from anywhere but it brings a lot of responsibilities and should be done with the discipline to be your own boss. My first triage with cost estimation as a consultant: 🤔 The year 2008, my client asked me how much you will charge? Hmm, I can complete this work in 1.5 days and I m earning 30k/mo so 1k will be the correct figure. If I ask for more he may not give this project to me and finally, after deep thinking  I quote INR999. Do you think it was the correct approach? NO-It was a disaster even he sign 5 more projects with me. To estimate the per hour rate for a freelancing project is one of the trickiest questions that come to our mind before taking any consultancy project? Continue reading otherwise your situation will be something like mine 🙂 🔥Not only in technical documentation, but you also face similar trouble in any freelancing work. In this blog post, I have written 💯 about the significant challenges and solutions for freelancing cost estimations. Share your experiences about cost estimates in the comment section. How to estimate the per hour rate for freelancing technical writing project is one of the tricky questions that come to the mind before taking any technical documentation project. Not only in technical documentation, but you also face similar trouble in any freelancing writing assignments like content writing, medical writing, and blogging. In one of my blog posts, I have written about the significant challenges of freelancing. Read the post before you foray into technical writing. I do not oversell freelancing for technical writers because freelancing work is limited in technical writing. You will get plenty of work in content writing, resume writing, Generally you will get contract technical writing work n which client will ask to write from client premise. There are many calculators available to calculate per hour rate for a freelancing project, but I firmly believe that you are the best person to judge “What should be your value”. In our content charcha (webinar) we recently invited Scheely to talk about her journey of freelancing. You can enjoy the recording of the webinar. Yes, there are many parameters which you should take into consideration before you fix your freelancing price. Pricing is one of the crucial aspects of any right business price that can win or lose you a project. Read “Pros and Cons of Contract Technical Writer Work” consider the points mentioned in it before doing any math for your rate. Math for calculating the hourly price for content freelancing work Simple maths you can do is take your monthly gross salary before deductions, round it up to an even number, and divide by 176 (the average hours per month,22×8). Suppose you want to earn INR 100000/month. In this case divide 100000/176=568.18. So, you should never ask anything less than INR 750 after negotiation you can quote a minimum INR 600. I will suggest quoting INR 1000 because you cannot work for 8 hours and many unseen issues can do your math wrong. Keep reading to know those unseen issues. By now your freelancing resume is ready and shortlisted by the client. If you want to learn about freelancer resume consider reading. Hope you get a rough estimate but before finalizing the rate consider the few points also. Points to consider for estimating the freelancing price of writing work- How many of your daily working hours are billable? How many days off do you need for holiday.s, sick days, and personal days each year? How much vacation time do you want each year? The number of visits and duration of meetings with the client. Make sure who is going to pay for this. Travel cost, phone bills, and courier charges if any. Investment in hardware, software, electricity, Internet bill even on coffee or water. Insurance cover, EPF, marketing, promotions, taxes, etc. Be ready for the negotiation, so always have Negotiation buffer. The duration of the project also matters. You can reduce the hourly rate for larger assignments. What kinds of documents will you be writing? Online help, Print docs, Web articles, Newsletters, Website content etc…? What kind of skill set is required? General or Rare? How desperately you want this project. Is it going to be an entry for you in a new line of business? If yes, quote less. Your existing or future relationship with the client. What is your expertise and experience level and how clients value that? Marketing expense. Like chasing the client, writing emails etc. You can get good freelancing work from the website like Upwork, e-lance,freelancer.com, etc. You can also contact agencies like Technowrites, Commit, ibruk etc. I got my first work through my friend Jeno Joy who was working with Dots consultancy in Mumbai (W). His company was in need of a freelance content writer and my journey started. It was the year 2008. Conclusion In freelancing it is also very important to estimate the time. If you have a correct estimation of time, you very quickly calculate the cost. Do not forget to fix the payment terms and conditions like advance and full payment duration. The client may ask for GST and invoice. So be ready with all these. Acceptance criteria and definition of done should be clear. How the quality of content will be measured and how many times you will rewrite the content should be clear during price and time fixation. Read how to estimate the time for a freelancing writing project. Always keep adjusting your fee, after all, you deserve increment:-). I’m eager to listen to your freelancing story please share in the comment.

10 Interview tips for Technical writers and Content writers This is post is about dos and don’ts for the technical writers and content writer during the interview. Some talented individuals lose great opportunities just because of minor behavioral issues. May these 10 tips may help you to nail your next interview. I hate to take interviews but due to call of duty occasionally I have to do it. Why I hate traditional interview- I firmly believe our current interview process is not suitable to screen candidate and need complete 360-degree change. Interviewees can give rehearsed answers and interviewers are unconsciously biased to pick candidates whom they like rather than those with the most potential. Referer program is adding more complexity to the process. So far I have interviewed technical writing and agile coaches from different cities of India like Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, and Delhi, from different colleges, companies and experience level, sometimes even more experienced than me. In fact most of them were better than me it was only matter of time, luck or chance, but on the other hand, I also bumped with very weird or odd kind of candidates who was excellent as a resource but complete bizarre in their behavior.   Disclaimer: My only intention to write this blog is please avoid this kind of behavior to grab your dream job if you agreed with my opinion.   “YOU KNOW” Syndrome: One of the candidates scored very high in a writing test, but when I get a chance to meet, you know he expected me to know his father name to a permanent address. His every sentence was starting with YOU KNOW. Finally, I have to say I don’t know. Rotating chair: It was her final round, in the interviewing panel my HR Manager and Director of R&D was with me. An interview was going well, but her chair was rotating at 180 degrees. Believe me, it irritated all of us. Negative attitude toward the previous employer: Yes, we all look for good opportunity and we have our share of problems in the organization that sometimes force us to quit. But the attitude and the word chosen for the previous employer made us negative on her. Diplomacy is key. It’s OK to say that you’ve had disagreements with your boss and/or coworkers. Look cool attitude is not always cool: It’s good to be original, and truthful, but sometimes silence is wisdom. One guy arrived without a resume, reason? He does not have a printer, Cyber cafes were not open so early, Friday he returned late from office, Saturday went to resort with a girlfriend he was tired so he slept whole day and night on Sunday. So he was not able to take a print of his resume. I denied interviewing him, not because doesn’t have a resume, because…hope you can find an answer. I was looking for the serious candidates who are really in need of a job, not someone for whom this is just one more interview. I mean to say be serious with your approach. I’m not a fish trader: One gentleman was already working in one of the reputed organization and had two other good offers with decent increment want to check if I can pay more. Sorry, I do not promote this attitude. In the final round, he opens this truth that he got an offer letter from XYZ company can I prove to him that we are better paymaster. I send him to HR. Salary negotiation is not my job. Yo-Yo Honey Singh: The T-shirt you are wearing might be the best in your wardrobe, but I expect not to see you out-of-bed look or Yo-Yo look during the interview. No need to wear costly stuff be simple, clean, comfortable, and organized. Avoid fancy or party wear. Semi-casual is also fine. Fancy caller tune: Kindly take out your precious half hour out for me during the interview. Your fancy caller and going out to answer the call even to tell your friend that you are busy disturbs me. Mute options are available in cell phones. It is advisable to switch off or mute your phone. You and your resume are different: I really find very disturbing when people do not remember what they have written on a resume. Hard to believe when you are saying your experience is more than five years and your resume is screaming something different. Either you faked in Resume or your updated resume is not updated in both the cases I’m sorry dear. Learn to write a great resume. Be comfortable: I want you to be comfortable in the boardroom, but I also want to be comfortable. I really become uncomfortable when you start calling me Rah, Rak or something that you like rather than my original name “Rahul”. I too use slang’s with my friends in cricket ground but not in a boardroom. I do not like somebody invading my personal space. Be polite, soft, humble and formal with your language. Gum-Gum One candidate told me he has a habit of chewing gum during exam or interview, do I mind if he continues chewing it? He was honest, but what you would have done, mind it or ignore it? Avoid chewing gum, tobacco or anything during the interview. It is ok to take a cup of chai or coffee.  A Lesson to me: I was interviewing a beautiful lady with good skills and experience before wrapping up the interview I asked her when you are planning to marry? Will you change the city after marriage? She paused and replied Sir; do you ask this question to male candidate also? I told her this may be an unparliamentary question but….I explained why I asked this to her? It was a good take home for me. One more tip is to go through the website of the employer and try to learn there domain, expertise, and achievements. Read how to write a great resume. Need your view. Feel free to post your comment

  Screen Capture Tools: Yes, you can print screen manually on a window by using [ PrintScreen] key, but as an Information developer, you will need much more feature. There are a plethora of tools I am trying to compile few. SnagIt It is probably most widely used screen capture tools by writers. It has easy UI almost all the feature you need that too with a very competitive price. Madcap Capture Suits Madcap Flare user, well-priced, you may take a little extra time to get used to it. SnapDraw Freeware,  worth a try. FullShot Expensive than above all I standard edition some features are missing. Take care of this before purchasing the order. SCREENGRABBER.NET Free tool to capture screen from movies. EasyCapture The main feature is its ability to capture scrolling windows and adding annotations. It is provided to you free. Capture Me A  free and simple software for your Macintosh. Clarify-it Capture, sequence and annotate screenshots to create documents that are a great alternative to screen recordings Screenpresso.  It’s free and has some basic annotation and editing options. PicPick     It’s free A discussion on LinkedIn on the similar topic. Looking for training on Adobe RoboHelp, Framemaker or Technical writing? Information Developers offers live, online Adobe Tools classes each month. We can also bring the same great training onsite to your facility. Interested? Contact us for details. For more Info on the HAT.