Technical Writing

191

9

Writing for E-Media

9.1 Introduction

As the costs of printing and maintaining inventory increase, content pro-

ducers are looking for new models to create and distribute technical mate-

rial. In technical materials I include books, technical papers, marketing and

advertising content for technical products, user manuals, newsletters, safety

reports, and so on. The producers of these materials include traditional pub-

lishing houses, companies, government agencies, and every other kind of

entity. To lower costs, the producers of this written technical content rely

increasingly on direct publication via the Web or through electronic media.

In addition, because of the efciency of electronically storing information

and the advantages of archiving and searching, there is strong motivation to

rely more heavily on distribution via e-media. E-media includes CD-ROMs,

small portable memory storage devices (e.g., memory sticks), electronic read-

ers (e-readers), and Web-based hosting of content.

Web-based publication venues may bypass print publication entirely. These

mechanisms include electronic-only magazines (e-zines), corporate websites,

social networking groups devoted to some technical topic, pundit blogs, and

Twitter accounts. Writing for e-media is a unique form of writing that has

certain advantages and some disadvantages. The advantages include

• Lower overall cost

• Potential wider exposure to ideas

• Ease of distribution to rural and remote areas

• Ease in correcting errors discovered post publication

• Capability to publish much more quickly than with print media

• Capability to link related content and direct readers to other mate-

rial of interest

• Discoverability (on the Web by crawlers) and classication (if appro-

priate tagging is done)

192 Technical Writing: A Practical Guide for Engineers and Scientists

• Lower cost to include color content and high-delity graphics

• Capability to embed dynamic content

• Environmentally friendly

There are disadvantages to publishing content on e-media too. These include

• Increased vulnerability to theft of intellectual property (e.g., plagia-

rism, unauthorized copying and distribution of published material)

• Unwanted wide-scale exposure of proprietary or secret information

via hacking

• Wide-scale exposure to potentially embarrassing mistakes

• Low barrier to entry for competition (i.e., anyone can publish to

a website)

But despite these potentially game-stopping disadvantages, use of the Web

has exploded due to the dramatic increase in content coming from publish-

ers, companies, and individuals.

In this chapter I want to focus on writing for electronic publications as a

special form of writing and also share my experiences in writing for various

forms of e-media, including e-mail.

9.2 E-Mail Can Be Dangerous

An electronic mail (e-mail) message is a very desirable form of business

and technical communication. E-mails can have the same informality as

an in-person or telephone conversation, or the formality of a legal con-

tract. Unlike a conversation or phone call, however, e-mails are persistent;

they can be saved and produced as evidence that you said something

that you claim you did not say. Therefore, you must write e-mails care-

fully, and it is a very good idea to “incubate” them before sending them

in haste.

Do not use e-mails as a substitute for in-person communications, however.

Firing or breaking a relationship with someone via e-mail (unless time and

distance necessitate) will be perceived as somewhat cowardly. If a written

conrmation of some interaction is required, but in-person communication

is preferred, I suggest you use both. That is, have the face-to-face conversa-

tion and then follow up with a written conrmation of the meeting, either

via e-mail or in a formal paper document.

Some e-mail software does not support equations, and therefore e-mail is

not always the preferred mechanism for technical communications.