Creating palaces of almost forgotten things

This weekend, we went to the Fabularium on London’s South Bank, where the programme highlighted The Museum of Almost Forgotten Things. It struck me that this concept could also be applied to technical communication. The impetus to write things down, to document policies and procedures and to write user documentation for software written in a… Read more »

Why business writing is so difficult

“Everyone is taught to write at school, so surely everyone can write in business?” Although the quotation above would seem to make sense, the reality is that many people find it hard to write in a business context. They struggle to write clearly, and it can take them ages to produce a piece of content. It’s not… Read more »

The sad case of GDS and the tax manuals

The UK’s Government Digital Service has been doing great work in putting users’ needs before the needs of government, so it was a shock to see the revised tax manuals the GDS and HMRC published recently. In the GDS blog post, First HMRC manual on GOV.UK – give us your feedback, Till Worth explained: “HMRC has built a new… Read more »

Why you probably shouldn’t use Word to create your policy documents

Imagine you are an IT manager for an organisation that has been implementing new IT systems. You have now reached the point where you need to create and document the new IT policies and procedures. The organisation already has some general policies for IT in its staff handbook, but you need to provide more detailed… Read more »

Policies and procedures writing courses – beginner and advanced

You’ll find we’ve updated the Policies and procedures writing courses – beginner and advanced page on our website. This course will train your staff in how to create clear and effective policies and procedures information. This course was originally developed to train NHS staff in how to write and organise non-clinical policy, process and procedures documents… Read more »