Key concepts

Logo of a pointer cursor being drawn by a fountain pen

Key concepts

keys

Good techical writing

Two images of Ahsoka. One looks disapproving beside the text 'Good technical writing follows all the rules'. The other looks approving beside the text 'Good technical writing communicates with the audience.'

Rule Zero

Image of a skull and crossbones
"Text: 'Most writing advice is what you’d call GUIDELINES rather than actual RULES

Cognitive load

The mental effort required to learn new information

Image of a measuring cup with three different layers. Each of them corresponds to one kind of cognitive load. Reading from the bottom, they are: Germane CL, Intrinsic CL, and Extraneous CL
(John Sweller, 1988, image via Wikipeda)

Cognitive styles

Verbal thinkers

"Please explain what you want me to do."

Visual thinkers

Image of a puzzled person taken from IKEA build instructions.

Style guides

Image of different men’s hairstyles from the 1950’s.

Fin

Line drawing of a fish