Technical writing

Clear documentation for all applications

No matter what product you bring onto the market, you always need good documentation. This applies not only to machines, electronic equipment and machinery, but also to software applications, chemical products and medical devices. Technical writing is one of the services we provide to help you address this need.

Every product requires its own specific documentation: manuals, instructions for use and process descriptions for complex machines, online help texts for software, product information leaflets and safety instructions for medicines and chemical products. To name but a few.

The user friendliness, clarity and readability of the product documentation are crucial for the users of your products. Good documentation supports and enriches your product. The technical writers at Wilkens c.s. produce clear, accessible documentation that describes the production properties and functionality and explains them in an understandable way.

Structured approach

Our writers have ingenious methods for writing your documentation. Using support software, the documentation is divided into modules that correspond with the functionality or properties of your product. This modular approach has considerable advantages.

In the first place, it makes it very easy to maintain your documentation. As the specifications or properties of the product change, the applicable text can quickly be identified and adapted. In addition, the texts can be reused in different parts of the documentation. This saves time and money when maintaining these texts.

Do you market your products internationally? The texts we produce for you are written in such a way that they are quick and easy to translate. This also has a positive effect on the readability and comprehensibility of the text. Our writers use simple sentence structures and avoid the use of ambiguous or complex words.

E-learning

The structured approach used by Wilkens c.s. is also ideal for the production of e-learning modules. E-learning or training using interactive educational software is very suitable for familiarising employees with complex processes, equipment or software. The modular writing method used at Wilkens c.s. greatly simplifies the production and maintenance of the e-learning texts. Our writers are trained to convey complicated subjects in clear, step-by-step descriptions and instructions.

Optimising your current documentation

The optimisation of your existing documentation is often surprisingly cost-efficient. With relatively little effort, the maintenance of your documentation is made much simpler – and therefore also cheaper. What’s more, the costs of translating optimised documentation are much lower.

Prior to the optimisation, we make a thorough analysis of your existing documentation. We use authoring tools and smart methods to streamline your texts:

• short, unambiguous phrasing – without compromising content or meaning
• ‘undoubling’ of texts, so that texts with similar content are phrased in a similar way
• the use of illustrations where possible – a picture is worth a thousand words…

The result: a smaller volume of text (up to 25% smaller), simple maintenance of the documentation and quick, reliable translations.

Approach

For smaller writing assignments with a relatively short timeline, we can second one or more technical writers to your premises, if you so wish. For larger writing assignments, we recommend a project approach. Then you receive a plan of action beforehand in which the working method and the schedule for the assignment are set out. While the project is being implemented, you retain control of the planning schedule and progress. This means that you can easily adjust the project, if you wish.

This project approach is very consistent with the business philosophy of Wilkens c.s. We attach great importance to good relationships with our customers. When we are familiar with your organisation, products and processes we can produce texts that match your expectations and specifications. This is why we always try to build long-lasting business relationships with our customers.