Any writer should undeniably also be a researcher. However, it is highly improbable to learn the technical details of specialist fields in a couple of days, before the article is to be published. It is for this reason that industry experts should be consulted to provide information as part of the writing exercise. You may ask, why should the expert himself not be writing the article? Would it not be better to exclude the writer or blogger from the process completely? The answer is no. Allow me to explain.

Industry Experts are Not Necessarily Exceptional Writers

With the obvious exception of technical field specialists who happen to be fantastic writers as well, those who can’t should stay away from clicking the save & publish button. Writing is a craft that requires specific knowledge and skills that are perfected through practice. Cold, dry, and painfully factual information does not make for appropriate online articles, especially not for blog posts. Let’s consider the most basic component of writing: language use.

Being set in a profession, the professional gets used to talking an industry specific language. This language will typically include terminology, jargon and the use of abbreviations and acronyms that the majority of website browsers will not understand. They might even find themselves in a space where they don’t even realise when they are throwing strange terms around at a dinner party with friends.

Exceptional Writers Gauge Their Sources

When writing web based articles for specialist industries such as medical, law or engineering firms – it is best to have the specialist/field expert provide the subject matter, its skeleton and then the details of the article. In time the person responsible for writing the website content of a technical organisation will get to know the industry well, and become more and more confident and comfortable in writing about industry specific subject matters.

Factors for the Technical Writer to Consider

Website content and blog articles should be interesting, compelling, relatively informal and simply written, not too lengthy and clear and comprehensive to the average browser. This includes some of the criteria to strive towards. Let’s look at a couple of practical steps.

1. Convert technical language to colloquial language.
2. Simplify technical concepts and processes.
3. Explain or transcribe terminology that is not widely used.
4. Find an interesting angle to pursue and to lead information in that direction.
5. Form a strong argument or claim and use the given information as premises.

The digital writer must also subscribe to those elements specific to his or her own industry of digital writing such as good structuring, appropriate formatting, on page search engine optimisation.

In closing

Where the engineer has spent a lot of time and energy to become a field expert, the writer has spent years studying and mastering the skill of effective writing. The latter describes in essence an approach for technical companies to generate compelling online content for their own digital presence. In short, the best is to source skilled digital writers.

Sound Idea Digital is a full service digital marketing agency. For more information contact 012 664 4227 or email to info@soundidea.co.za

Carla van Straten is a writer for Sound Idea Digital | Carla@soundidea.co.za| @SoundIdeaLMS | www.soundidea.co.za

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