I’m Mark Baker. You can find me on the web at any of the locations listed on the right. I am a twenty-year veteran of the technical communication industry, with particular experience in developing task-oriented, topic-based content. I have worked as a technical writer, a publications manager, a structured authoring consultant and trainer, and as a designer, architect, and builder of structured authoring systems. Through Analecta Communications Inc., I can do the following for you:

Topic based writing: training, migration, and design

You don't make topics by cutting up books!

Topic based writing is not simply about chopping books up into chunks and then putting them back together again. Writing this way can sometimes reduce costs, but it does nothing to help modern, impatient, Google-loving users to get just the information they need quickly and easily. For that you need what I call Every Page is Page One topics. Analecta Communications provides training in the Every Page is Page One approach to topic-based writing. I can also train you to refactor book-based content into true task-oriented Every Page is Page One topics. Or, if you prefer, I can migrate content for you, or help you design your Every Page is Page One topic types.

Task-oriented writing

Make the connection between the craft and the product. (Image Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos)

There is more to task-oriented writing than procedures. Indeed, some tasks do not involve procedures at all. Task-oriented writing should be seen as a complete focus on enabling the user, rather than documenting the product. It is about removing stumbling blocks from the user’s path. The user’s stumbling blocks usually go beyond the procedural problem of which buttons to push in which order. They include planning issues, reference issues, and issues relating the features of the product to the conventions of the user’s craft. Analecta Communications can help you move your documentation toward a more fully task-oriented style through training and coaching in task-oriented writing.

Structured authoring systems: design, implementation, extension, rescue

Without a reliable architecture a structured writing system can fail over time. (Image Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos)

Structured authoring is essentially about making content processable by computers. Why you do it, and how you do it, should depend on what business problem you are trying to solve. The key to achieving and maintaining productivity gains with structured writing is making processes reliable. A reliable process is one the can be performed by a machine without the need for human inspection of the output. Without reliability, human beings must either check the machine’s work or do the work themselves, which reduces the productivity advantage of structured authoring.

Many structured authoring systems achieve a reasonable degree of reliability in formatting, they often leave other important areas such as reuse, linking, validation, and document assembly largely to human effort. Each of these areas will be more important to some businesses than to others.  Specific business problems demand specific solutions, and structured authoring is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. Analecta Communications Inc. can assist in the design, implementation, extension, and rescue of planned or current structured authoring systems, with a strong emphasis on reliability and efficiency in content processing.