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The craft of technical writing with Marcia Riefer Johnston

The craft of technical writing with Marcia Riefer Johnston

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 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 larger conversation about what the problems or issues were, rather than only focusing on solutions. We theorize that part of the value tech writers bring is our ability to identify less-than-desirable user experiences and to not just take suggested edits as gospel but to question and explore the need for those edits.About Marcia Riefer JohnstonMarcia’s loved tech writing from the time she first heard the words technical and writer together. These days she brings technical and writer together as a consultant for Baxter International. In 2013, she fulfilled a dream by writing her book Word Up! How to Write Powerful Sentences and Paragraphs (And Everything You Build from Them). Two years later, her pocket-sized collection came out: You Can Say That Again: 750 Redundant Phrases to Think Twice About. Occasionally she posts on her own blog at Writing.Rocks. She lives in Portland, Oregon, where she makes things with scrumptious yarn, does New York Times crossword puzzles with her husband (especially the Thursday and Sunday puzzles), and lures in family and friends to play Wingspan and other games.Resources discussed in this episode:How to put the customer first in your sentences - Marcia’s blog post for KnowledgeOwlWriting.Rocks - Marcia’s websiteTo Be or Not To Be — First chapter of Marcia’s book, Word Up!Be and Me — Why writers want to watch for be-verbs. Bonus: the be-verb song.Single Sourcing: Building Modular Documentation by Kurt AmentRead Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry by Sun Microsystems, Inc.Garner’s Modern English Usage by Bryan GarnerThe LavaCon conference on Content Strategy and Content OperationsBuy the Books - Links to Marcia’s books (You Can Say That Again: 750 Redundant Phrases to Think Twice About and Word Up! How to Write Powerful Sentences and Paragraphs (And Everything You Build from Them) and how to buy themResources for Writers - A more complete list of Marcia’s recommendations than we could discuss in the episode.—Contact The Not-Boring Tech Writer team:We love hearing your ideas for episode topics, guests, or general feedback:Email: tnbtw@knowledgeowl.comthenotboringtechwriter.comLinkedInBlueskyJoin the discussion by replying on Bluesky Contact Kate Mueller: knowledgewithsass.comLinkedInBlueskyContact Marcia Riefer Johnston: Writing.RocksLinkedinBlueskyContact KnowledgeOwl:KnowledgeOwl.comLinkedIn—TranscriptKate Mueller: [00:00:05] Welcome to the Not-Boring Tech Writer, a podcast sponsored by KnowledgeOwl. Together, we explore topics and hear from other writers to help inspire us, deepen our skills and foster our distinctly not-boring tech writing community. In today's episode, I talk with Marcia Riefer Johnston, a tech writer who's been in the field for the last 40 years. We talk about how things have changed, or not changed, over time, some of the simple grammar tips that Marcia's found most useful, and how to handle conflicting feedback from multiple ...

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