Selling Yourself With Specifics

Be specific. It's one of the golden rules of marketing. As technical writers we need to be specific when we create technical documents. But we also need to be specific when we create our resumes, cover letters, and other marketing documents.

To quote the legendary advertiser, Claude C. Hopkins, "Specific facts, when stated, have their full weight and effect. The weight of an argument may often be multiplied by making it specific. Say that a tungsten lamp gives more light than a carbon, and you leave some doubt. Say it gives three and one-third times the light, and people realize you have made tests and comparisons."

Five Ways to Make Your Cover Letters, Resumes and Other Marketing Material Specific

When you're looking for a technical writing job or freelance project, your cover letter and resumé are your sales staff. Let's look at five ways to make them specific:

1. Include specifics about documents you created

Instead of saying, "Created two sample processes to showcase my technical writing skills," say, "Created two sample processes for Microsoft Excel functions to showcase my technical writing skills. Each process consisted of the following:

- 5 instruction steps - 4 visual aids - User feedback - what the user should expect after performing each step

2. Be specific about how your work is being used by someone

Let's look at these two statements:

Statement 1 Created two user guides for the CISCO C2000 series digital phone.

Statement 2 Created two user guides for the CISCO C2000 series digital phone. User Guide 1 is being used internally by 240 engineers. User Guide 2 has been distributed to a test market of 550 participants.

Statement 2 is more impressive than statement 1.

3. Be specific about how your work benefited someone

Specifics add credibility. For example, by saying you saved company XYZ money by creating its website content, you hope to impress the reader. But by saying you saved company XYZ $3,500 by creating its website content, you increase your chances of impressing the reader by adding credibility to your claim.

4. Add specifics to your resumé

You can be specific when listing your technical writing and software skills. For example, in a skills based resumé, you could replace the title "Technical Writing Skills" with "Technical Writing Skills: Writing Processes, Creating User Guides and Operational Manuals."

When listing your software skills, include the version number of the software. Write Microsoft Excel 2002 - 2007 instead of Microsoft Excel.

5. Be specific about the dates and places you worked

Instead of saying, "Worked for six months as editor for the college newsletter," say, "Worked from January 2007 until July 2007 as the editor for the University of Maryland's weekly technology newsletter. Subscription levels for the newsletter ranged from 2000 to 3000 readers."

When creating any document, whether technical or marketing, try and be as specific as you can. It boosts your credibility. It impresses the reader. It increases your chances of getting a project. Above all, it will make you a better writer.

Being a tech writer is a great job. Go interesting places, meet really smart people, learn new things and make really good money. Which is why it's such a rapidly growing profession. The down side, though, is that there are people who get into the business without knowing as much about it as they should.

If you want to become a technical writer try out our free weekly exercises. They are easy and fun to do. You'll also learn common tech writing terms and current industry trends. Click the link below to check out these exercises:

http://www.techwritertoolkit.com/exercises.html

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