Goodbye, blog
So, this is it—the last post on this blog. As introduced in the beginning, this blog was part of a module in the MA programme I study at the University of Limerick. The blog accompanied me throughout the semester, and I used it to reflect on my learning as well as to cover technical communication…
What I remember from and what changed through the MA programme
After nearly two years of studying the Technical Communication and E-Learning MA programme, the end is near. Although not close. There are still five months to go, and I will write my dissertation during that time. However, the current semester is about to terminate, and I will submit my last assignments for this programme within…
How offering a choice can motivate learners to push their limits
From a learner’s perspective, I can confirm that it is more than helpful to know what the criteria for grading an assignment are. This is why instructors should provide assignment briefs that make clear what the assignment is about and what exactly gets graded. It is also helpful to have instructors who are available to…
Selecting artefacts for an e-portfolio
So, we have to put up an e-portfolio to show examples of the work we had done during the MA programme. It has been two years. I have changed computers in between. My data are … actually, I don’t know exactly, where all the data are. On some hard disks around here probably. Maybe I’ll…
Finding the best research method to answer your research question(s)
With my dissertation, I aim to provide a state-of-the-art set of answers to the overarching question of what would be best practices for API documentation. To find answers, I wanted to review the body of knowledge from technical communication as well as software documentation. I wanted to identify studies that could provide reliable answers. So,…
MkDocs: Write in Markdown, get a website
MkDocs—“make documentation”. 🤖 The static site generator MkDocs builds HTML output (a website) from Markdown source files, which you edit in the text editor of your choice, like Notepad++, Atom, Sublime or others. The very convenient thing about MkDocs is: it renders the output while you edit. That is, whenever you hit “Save” for the…
Trends in API documentation
Recently, tech writer Tom Johnson gave a webinar on trends in the field of API documentation, which I attended because this topic is relevant for my dissertation. Click here to access the slides and the recording of the webinar. The trends he found resulted from an online survey he conducted over the last two months.…
Git & Unix cheat sheet
It’s time for the Git cheat sheet for writers! General command structure: command -o –option argument “another argument, containing blank spaces” Note that Git commands always start with the prefix git whereas Unix commands do not carry a prefix. Unix command Description pwd Print working directory = tell me which folder I am in ls…
How I learned Git, forgot it, and re-learned it
Part 1: Why you need to learn Git for Docs as Code Docs as Code. What? In the software industry, technical writers work close to developers, especially when writing developer documentation, that is, documents that have other developers as target users. The idea of Docs as Code is to employ the same workflows for the…
Usability (testing) for complex information systems
Educating students on how to conduct usability tests is part of the MA programme I currently study (click here to enlarge the module map shown above). The product I decided to test was a developer portal, that is, a website aimed at developers and offering further information about microservices and their APIs. When shaping the…
EndNote: Organise your references and save time when citing them
Technical communicators might work as researchers or practitioners, or both. Stop reading if you belong to the former two groups. Keep reading if you somehow belong to both worlds. This blogpost introduces a tool that helps you to stay organised in academic writing: a reference management tool. Researchers already use this kind of tool as…
Pexels: Setting the mood—for stunning e-learning experiences
Looking at technical documentation, the images you expect to see there would mainly be product photos or drawings, infographics, screenshots, or diagrams, depending on the product documented. As those images are directly related to the product, you would need to produce this type of media by yourself or hire somebody to do it for you.…
Moving on
Sometimes, a Sunday marks not just the end of a week but also the end of something familiar. Today is such a Sunday for me. As a part-time student of the MA programme for Technical Communication and E-Learning, I work during the other “part” of the week. This blog post reflects on an experience in…
Fifty hours per week vs fifty per cent of the workload
Did you read superhero comics when you were a kid? I did. And I wonder if that influenced my temper today. Or is there something to the zodiac signs after all? If so, it would fit: I’m an Aries, and I tend to take on big projects and sometimes overburden myself just because I know…
How to handle (perceived) time pressure
Panic. I feel panic when I think of my dissertation. It is still winter, and the dissertation is only due next summer. However, panic creeps up my back and keeps me from thinking clearly and working effectively. No, not the panic monster type of panic. Not the one that usually would come along if you…
Let’s talk about… e-learning
To be able to talk about a field, one should be fluent with the terms used in the very field. Or as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry put it in The Little Prince: Words are the source of misunderstandings. Recently, in our MA programme, we have been introduced into the terminology of the e-learning and distance learning…
API docs: Writing for developers
What technical communicators do Technical communicators typically produce documents that enable people to use a specific technical product or technology. (Documents in this context are any media communicating technical information.) Technical communicators shape documents according to their target audience’s needs. For example, in the IT sector, target audiences for technical communication documents can be end-users…
Hello world!
This blog is part of a writing course at the University of Limerick. So, although open to the public, the target audience for this blog would mainly be current, former, or future peer students from the MA Technical Communication and E-Learning course. However, everybody is welcome to read by and comment on my blog posts!…
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API docs and me 