The one rule of technical authoring

Because I deal in the tools and techniques of data analytics, I’d say I have a technical blog. So, when I share tips, advice and reflections on building authority, I usually qualify it as technical authority.

Generally, it’s not that these tips would only apply to building a technical authority, but rather that these tips are especially important to technical authority.

Before getting to the specifics, let’s cover one universal: authority and authoring are inextricably linked. If you want to be an authority, you have to publish. Fortunately the internet has lowered the barriers here and provided a wide range of media. If you prefer editing videos to writing, or podcasting to public speaking — you do you, it’s all authoring to me.

Now, let’s look at what I call the “one rule of technical authoring.” It could pretty easily be labelled the “one rule of authoring,” but again, special emphasis is attached to fields that are information and technology-rich.

So, what is this one rule. Here it is:

“Are you honestly helping people?”

This may seem so obvious as to not be worth stating. But like most truisms, its value emerges as a practical compass, consulted subconciously. Here’s what makes this rule so important for technical authoring. We can unpack this into two sub-tasks:

Don’t cut corners

Emphasis here is on the honestly.

I sometimes joke that if you write a data science blog and don’t plagiarize, you’re already in the top 20% of data science blogs.

This is an exaggeration, but it underlies the ubiquity of corner-cutting in technical content. Plagiarism is just one example, and the gravest. Because this is information-rich content, authors often struggle to communicate it clearly. They may not quite understand the topic themselves, and then pass on instruction to their audience: the blind leading the blind.

Good technical authoring takes time and can’t be rushed. Take the time to clearly lay out learning objectives and audience personae. Be patient with your production schedule and the growth of your audience. More on that next.

Don’t worry about volume

If you get into content production, you get bombarded with tips on how often to publish a newsletter, how long a blog post should be, and how many keywords to target.

Writing solid technical content is already hard enough that focusing too much on these outcomes can be overwhelming, and can even detract from producing solid content in the first place.

Let’s go back to our rule: “Are you honestly helping people?”

Really, we could make this “Are you honestly helping a person?” Really, if you are helping just one person, that is all you need to get off the ground with technical content.

Because, guess what? If you could help someone with that content, then chances are it will help other people too. In fact, some of my most popular blog posts were written to answer the question of a single friend.

I’m honestly helping people… now what?

Over time, absolutely you want to refine your content strategy and processes. I’ve absolutely shifted my blog’s topics and goals.

But when are just getting started, don’t worry about these things too much: they are not your primary goal. Your primary goal is to honesty help people — it doesn’t matter how many people, and it means not cutting corners.

If you would like assistance in growing your technical authority, let’s get in touch.