Writing for developers workshop

Alice Bartlett Principal Engineer, Customer Products team @alicebartlett Writing for
developers

@alicebartlett Disclaimer: I AM NOT A WRITER

1. Why writing is important for developers 2. Tips for
writing well 3. A exercise!

1. Why writing is important for developers @alicebartlett

@alicebartlett This should be obvious: part of being an eﬀective
developer is being able to communicate ideas and instructions well

@alicebartlett A useful tool for communicating is writing!

@alicebartlett Writing clearly and concisely can be diﬀicult, but the
payoﬀ is huge

@alicebartlett Writing clear and concise documentation is going to be
strategically important this year.

@alicebartlett This year we have more code than ever to
maintain and so people are going to need to work on things they haven’t worked on before

@alicebartlett If these codebases are well documented the it’s a
lot easier to work on them

@alicebartlett Writing well doesn’t need to be onerous. It requires
a bit of eﬀort, but luckily there are a lot of tools around.

@alicebartlett Good writing is clear and concise.

Clear writing is unambiguous. The reader understands precisely what the
writer intended. @alicebartlett

Concise writing is short. The writer communicated her idea in
as few words as possible thereby not wasting the reader’s time. @alicebartlett

1. Why writing is important for developers 2. Some tips
for writing well 3. A exercise!

2. Some tips for writing well @alicebartlett

@alicebartlett

Grammatical correctness is important but it is not everything @alicebartlett
Its, it’s, there, their, they’re. It’s easy to get hung up on apostrophe usage or spelling but there are more important things to focus on

@alicebartlett These minor errors can be a distraction from thinking
further about the words you’ve chosen and how well they're communicating your thoughts and intent

@alicebartlett Ideally your words would be good and your grammar
would be ﬂawless. But grammar won’t save you if the communication of your idea is poor in other ways

@alicebartlett And, yes, there are cases where an apostrophe can
change the meaning of a sentence.

Structure things for skim readers @alicebartlett Use headings, tables, lists,
asides, bold, emphasis…

Don’t bury the lede @alicebartlett Put the most important information
at the top of the section. Don’t make people read a whole paragraph to understand the most important part

Headings should give you the gist @alicebartlett They should summarise
in a single sentence what follows

@alicebartlett How do I raise a ticket? // information on
how to raise a ticket Raise a ticket in Jira // information on how to raise a ticket

@alicebartlett How do I raise a ticket? // information on
how to raise a ticket Raise a ticket in Jira // information on how to raise a ticket // Better // OK

@alicebartlett Be conversational It’s OK to use contractions like “there’s”
instead of “there is”. Our documentation can be useful without being formal.

@alicebartlett Be conversational Unless you’re writing a formal document such
as a technical speciﬁcation as deﬁned by the W3C.

@alicebartlett Be concrete and personal Use “you” and “we” Use
“will”

@alicebartlett Not “The aim is to complete phase one by
June”

@alicebartlett Not “Aiming for completion end of June”

@alicebartlett But “We will complete phase one by the end
of June”

Avoid words like “probably”, “maybe”, “might”, “could be” @alicebartlett Don’t
equivocate

@alicebartlett These words are bad for the reader, who is
looking for clear instructions.

@alicebartlett Avoiding them forces you to think about what you
actually mean.

@alicebartlett “We think the best strategy is X” Not

@alicebartlett “The best strategy is X” But

In the active voice, the subject of the sentence does
the action @alicebartlett Avoid the passive voice

@alicebartlett The active voice forces you to take responsibility for
what you are saying

@alicebartlett We use the passive voice when we’re trying to
distance ourselves from the message

@alicebartlett I’ve made a mistake We’ll email you We’ve decided
A mistake was made You will be emailed A decision has been made

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-interactive-guide-to-ambiguous-grammar

@alicebartlett Monzo’s style guide contains a useful hack for telling
if you’ve used the passive voice

@alicebartlett I’ve made a mistake We’ll email you We’ve decided
A mistake was made You will be emailed A decision has been made

@alicebartlett I’ve made a mistake by monkeys We’ll email you
by monkeys We’ve decided by monkeys A mistake was made by monkeys You will be emailed by monkeys A decision has been made by monkeys

@alicebartlett Avoid metaphors and idioms

@alicebartlett “You can’t have your cake and eat it too”

@alicebartlett This phrase exists in other languages

@alicebartlett In Italian, the equivalent phrase is

@alicebartlett “Volere la botte piena e la moglie ubriaca”

@alicebartlett “Volere la botte piena e la moglie ubriaca” “Want
a full wine barrel and a drunk wife”

Avoid “simply”, “just” @alicebartlett

Simply rotate the key @alicebartlett

“Simply” adds no value to this sentence. If you don’t
know how to rotate the key, it makes you feel bad. If you do, then you don’t need to know it’s simple @alicebartlett

Simply rotate the key @alicebartlett

@alicebartlett Avoid jargon and acronyms

@alicebartlett Jargon and acronyms create an in- group who know
what they mean, and an out-group who do not

@alicebartlett Jargon is lazy

Hemingway (named after Earnest Hemingway) is an app that shows
when your writing isn’t clear @alicebartlett Use Hemingway

@alicebartlett

1. Why writing is important for developers 2. Some tips
for writing well 3. A exercise!

Writing for developers workshop

Writing for developers workshop

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