HOW Does It Mean It? — What Technical Writing and Literature Have in Common
The clip I include above makes it clear at ground level:
Words matter.
They have meaning, often more than one because people associate different images in their minds with the same word. Images in literature that are used in a recurring pattern to make something clear the easy way are called ‘imagery’.
It is an age-old technique really: Create images in the mind, to make the ‘movie in your head’ start playing.
That is what bridges the gap between people and their ideas — and other people — and it lets you find new ways of expression when you use it all over again:
What does it mean? HOW does it mean it?
Because once you have got that down pat, namely:
how to reach your audience the best possible way to convey meaning -
any writing effort becomes so much easier, including technical writing. The starting point would be your audience:
What do they know? What words matter to them?
