The technical writer's problem space: a survey of strategies and attitudes

The author compares novice and experienced professional writers in an attempt to understand their problem solving activities as they create technical manuals. She addresses 21 questions from a survey administered to the IBM Information Development community in Kingston, New York. She outlines three main activities that writers engage in during the writing process: generating ideas, organizing ideas and translating ideas into text. Within each of these main activities, the goals, constraints, and actions of writers are discussed.<>