Technical Writing ToolBox

A Blog on Technical Writing

Category Archives: Humor

How to document a sound?

2 Comments Posted by Gurpreet Singh on January 24, 2014

As intriguing it may seem, have you ever considered the idea of documenting a sound in your writing? It seems impossible, right?

Apparently, technical writers working at Electrolux have discovered a creative way to do exactly that. This illustration describes various sound (noises) which occur inside a freezer during its normal use.

The ambiguity of it!

1 Comment Posted by Gurpreet Singh on January 16, 2014

The ambiguity of it!

“The sign stopped me– or rather, this text stopped me. Words are my profession; I seized these and demanded that they explain themselves, that they cease to be ambiguous.”
― Daniel Quinn

Elements of Technical Writing, Humor ambiquity, Daniel Quinn, writing humor

Difference between Literary Writing and Technical Writing

3 Comments Posted by Gurpreet Singh on September 18, 2013

What_is_Technical_Writing

Elements of Technical Writing, Humor, Whatis difference between literary and technical writing, different between literary and technical writing, Gurpreet Singh, Gurpreet Singh Technical Writer, Literary writing, Technical writing, Writing

Speaking about Instructions

2 Comments Posted by Gurpreet Singh on July 31, 2012

As they say, the unstructions were good 🙂

Humor

Getting Rid of Misplaced Modifiers

7 Comments Posted by Gurpreet Singh on April 29, 2012

Modifiers are words, phrases, or clauses that restricts or provide additional information about other words, phrases, or clauses. Modifiers can be adjectives or adverbs. Modifiers that appear before the head are called premodifiers and modifiers that appear after the head are called postmodifiers.

We have a certain amount of freedom in deciding where to place our modifiers in a sentence:

We rowed the boat vigorously.
We vigorously rowed the boat.
Vigorously we rowed the boat.

Brand Damage due to Bad Translation

5 Comments Posted by Gurpreet Singh on April 16, 2012

Canada Government Immigration department ad in Hindi language having 5 typos (out of 18 words)

Canada Government Immigration department advertisement in Hindi language (Indian language) having 5 typos (out of 18 words)

I love studying in Canada. It’s a land of opportunity.

People in my class, College, and even strangers walking on roads of Canada are helpful (except for few weirdos I often encounter) and even Canadian Government supports many programs that help immigrants to adjust in the Canadian society.

Introducing Google Tap- Tap into the future of Technical Writing

11 Comments Posted by Gurpreet Singh on April 1, 2012

Technical Writers often burn midnight oil typing long, lengthy, and often boring documents for their bored employers.

Let’s face it- typing is hard work considering that you need to work with 26 characters keys and five helper keys (alt, spacebar, shift, capslock and shift). Wouldn’t it be cool if you can reduce your work by typing from only two keys instead of 31 keys, usually required for normal typing?

Google, once again, comes to your rescue by providing a technology called Google Tap (aka Gmail Tap) that can make your dreams come true. With Google Tap, it’s time to move beyond the QWERTY keyboard. Google Tap allows you to ~~type~~ tap a letter, email, or a user manual with just two keys!