Google Technical Writing Course – Cheat Sheet

In this post, you will quickly learn about key learning from free course on Technical writing by Google.

• Define new or unfamiliar terms: When writing or editing, learn to recognize terms that might be unfamiliar to some or all of your target audience. If the term already exists, link to a good existing explanation. In case your document is introducing the term, define the term properly.
• Use acronyms properly: On the initial use of an unfamiliar acronym within a document or a section, spell out the full term, and then put the acronym in parentheses.
• Active voice vs Passive voice: Prefer active voice to the passive voice
• Clear Sentences
  • Choose strong verbs
  • Avoid there is/there are
• Short Sentences
  • Focus each sentence on a single idea
  • Convert some long sentences to lists
  • Eliminate unneeded words
  • Reduce subordinate clauses; Follow the one-sentence = one idea in the mind. Do the subordinate clauses in a sentence extend the single idea or do they branch off into a separate idea? If the latter, consider dividing the offending subordinate clause(s) into separate sentences.
• List and tables
  • Choose the correct type of list
    • Bulleted lists (Unordered items)
    • Numbered lists (Ordered items): Start the numbered list items with imperative words
    • Embedded lists: An embedded list (sometimes called a run-in list) contains items stuffed within a sentence
• Paragraphs
  • Write a great opening sentence
  • Focus each paragraph on a single topic
  • Answer what, why, and how
  • Don’t make paragraphs too long or too short
• Audience
  • Define your audience
  • Determine what your audience needs to learn.
• Documents
  • State your document’s scope
  • State your audience
  • Establish your key points up front
  • Break your topics into sections
  • Define your audience
• Illustrating
  • Write the caption first
  • Constrain the amount of information in a single drawing
  • Focus the reader’s attention
• Creating sample code
  • Provide code samples which are correct and concise code that your readers can quickly understand and easily reuse with minimal side effects.