Sheridan Multimedia

Technical Writing

Sheridan Multimedia has highly experienced technical writers, with clients ranging from Fortune 100 corporations to sole-proprietor businesses. We specialize in translating difficult subject matter into understandable, easy-to-use documents that lay people can understand. We can provide unique and effective solutions for your documentation problems.

User's Manuals

User's Manuals are some of the most popular forms of technical documentation. Packaged with the product they describe, they explain how to use the product under all operating circumstances. The information included in a User's Manual should be task-oriented, brief, and complete. Sheridan Multimedia will work with you to determine the user tasks required to install and operate your product, how to partition the information, and how to present it in the manual.

Documenting Software

When developing application software, thought must be put in to the end-user documentation. You must decide whether to provide the customer with a printed book, an electronic book that the customer can print out, or provide online help. Online help is an integral part of the software, and if the help system is done properly, a paper manual is often unnecessary.

Paper vs. Online Help: Which is right for you?

Paper: Online help:
  • Can be developed independently of software.
  • If the book must be printed, it adds to cost of goods (COGs), may delay product shipment (due to printing and packaging turn around times) and there may be obsolete stock after program updates.
  • If a printed book is not required, an electronic version of the book can be created that is bundled with the program on the same CD, typically in Adobe PDF (portable document format).
  • Updated with software, included with software (so user can't misplace it)
  • Must be integrated with software.
  • Different packages require different amounts of writer/programmer interaction.

Business Writing

Business and Marketing writing serves a variety of needs.

Brochures and fact sheets

provide potential clients and customers with the information they need to make a purchasing decision. They should be impeccably written and designed to evoke confidence in both the product or service and the company.

Newsletters

and other correspondence keep your customer base informed about your current activities including new products, services, sales, news, and awards. These should be distributed on a regular basis, but not often enough to annoy your customers.

Proposals

are typically written for a specific client as a response to a request for proposal (RFP). Sheridan Multimedia has experience writing and editing technical proposals for multi-million dollar contracts, and working with in-house proposal capture teams.

Editing

There are many types of editing, and each type requires different amounts of time and effort. Here we describe the various types (or stages) of editing, from the simplest to the most complex. Sheridan Multimedia can provide any or all of these types of editing at reasonable rates.

Proofreading

is a thorough check of your written material to ensure that words are spelled correctly and that punctuation and verb tense follow the rules of English grammar.

Style editing

includes proofreading and ensures that the document has a consistent voice from start to finish. The editor checks for the consistency of verb tenses, and confirms that paragraph breaks and sentence structure make sense within the context of the document. The manuscript is marked up, either by hand or electronically, but the changes are not permanent.

Copy Editing

includes both proofreading and style editing, and includes fact checking, where applicable.

Rewriting

a document is not actually part of the editing process. It is part of the writing process. Sometimes during a rewrite, you might be able to use significant portions of the original document without too many changes. But it is a much more involved and time-consuming process, sometimes taking as long as if the document were being written from scratch. This is particularly true if the writer doing the rewrite also has to engage in extensive fact-checking and research.

Determining your needs

Before we can provide you a quote for work, you will have to describe your project in detail. Some questions to think about are:

If you would like to recieve a proposal and quote on a technical writing project, please contact us.

Documenting Hardware

Hardware manuals

are written for a variety of audiences: the consumer, the technician, and the hobbyist.

Consumer manuals

require safety information (for product liability issues), and complete, yet easy-to-understand instructions about how to install, operate and maintain the equipment being described. There is an art to describing complex systems so that a lay person can understand and use them. Successful documentation at this level allows the consumer to complete tasks without having to call a customer support line or making a service call, thus saving in overall installation and service fees for your company.

Technicians

need much less hand-holding than a consumer, but they require more detailed information about how to troubleshoot problems, and what actions to take to resolve problems. Technicians do not care why or how something works, only what they need to do to fix it and move on to the next job.

Hobbyists

like to know why as well as what, and are like development engineers in that respect. Generally, documentation does not take this particular market segment into account.

Other Documentation

Other technical documentation may include

Creative Writing

Sheridan Multimedia has experience in all facets of online and print publishing, and writing all sorts of materials, from books to auction copy to song lyrics, fiction and non-fiction, as part of a collaborative team or working individually.

Non-fiction

materials require client-provided source material and/or independent research by the writer. Non-fiction writing is used for informing readers about specific topics, ideas or opinions, and also to convince the reader to take a specific action (such as purchasing a product). Sheridan Multimedia can provide any or all of the following:

Fiction

materials require guidance from the client as to subject, tone, and subtext. Sheridan Multimedia would be delighted to produce any of the following for you:

Determining your needs

Creative writing, unlike technical writing, is usually billed on a per-word basis, instead of billing by the hour. The rates depend not only on the total word count, but also the ultimate ownership of the completed work. "Work for hire" (ghostwriting), where the copyright is assigned to the client, is more expensive than if the rights are retained by the author (Sheridan Multimeda), and the client is granted a license. The types of rights and licensing are numerous and depend on many factors.

Estimating page or word count

A standard manuscript page is unformatted 12-point courier (typewriter) text, double-spaced with one-inch margins, and typically contains about 250 words. For comparison, a page using 10-point Times Roman (proportional) font, single-spaced, and one-inch margins holds about 700 words. When estimating page counts, please use the standard manuscript page estimates, regardless of what format the final deliverable will be.

Tools We Use

We are expert or advanced -level users of all the software that we employ. We have access to a variety of commonly used desktop publishing software, including

If you would like to recieve a proposal and quote on a creative writing project, please contact us.

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