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Technical Writing Textbook

A free, self-paced textbook in 7 chapters. Read a chapter, then drill it with the 164 companion flashcards using spaced repetition.

7 chapters · 164 cards · Updated

Chapters

  1. 1Foundations of Technical Writing

    Technical writing is the craft of explaining complex information so clearly that readers can understand and act on it without needing the author present. The work pays off by reduc...

  2. 2Document Structure and Information Design

    Strong documents move the reader from context to steps to examples to troubleshooting in a logical order, and the way the page is shaped matters as much as the words on it. Heading...

  3. 3Examples, Code, and Visual Communication

    Examples turn abstractions into concrete cases that readers can copy, compare, or adapt, and they earn trust only when they actually run. A useful example is the shortest one that...

  4. 4Specialized Document Types

    Different reader goals call for different document types, and recognizing which one to write is half the work. A tutorial is a guided learning experience that takes a beginner thro...

  5. 5Site Architecture, Navigation, and Search

    Information architecture is the structure of categories, sections, and pages that determines how readers find content, and good IA matches the reader's tasks rather than the org ch...

  6. 6Quality, Review, and Maintenance

    Quality in technical writing is built through structured review, not just careful first drafts. A docs review checks three things: accuracy, meaning whether the doc matches the pro...

  7. 7Docs as Code, Tooling, and Continuous Delivery

    The docs-as-code approach stores documentation in the same repository as the product, in plain text formats like Markdown or AsciiDoc, reviewed through pull requests and built by a...

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