Technical writing & its importance in FinTech

Table of contents

Blog· 7min January 24, 2023

Technical writing involves communicating complex information in an easily understandable format. Technical writing is sometimes defined as simplifying the complex where the author is writing about a particular subject that requires direction, instruction, or explanation.

What is Technical Writing?

Technical writing involves communicating complex information in an easily understandable format. Technical writing is sometimes defined as simplifying the complex where the author is writing about a particular subject that requires direction, instruction, or explanation.

Technical writing is performed by a technical writer and is the process of writing and sharing technical information in a professional setting. A technical writer’s primary task is to communicate technical information to another person or party in the clearest and most effective manner possible.

There are many professions that require strong technical writing, such as financial services, IT, manufacturing, energy, consulting, medical business, and engineering.

Technical writing isn’t limited to these domains. In the age of information, being able to provide clear instructions or information for the intended audience is more important than ever. Technical writers work in software, consulting, academia, government, broadcasting, transportation, energy, telecommunications, health, security, publishing and the list could go on.

Technical Documents:

Technical writing comprises the largest segment of technical communications. Technical writers work together with editors, designers, developers and analysts to produce different type of technical documents such as:

01

Instructions & Procedures

02

Manuals

03

API documentation

04

Descriptions

05

Case Studies

06

White Papers

07

Specifications

Why is Technical Writing important in FinTech?

At its core, FinTech is helping companies, business owners, and consumers better manage their financial operations, processes by utilizing specialized software and algorithms. Therefore, technical documentation has to be very accurate in FinTech to provide precise and flawless value to customers and clients.

Technical writing has a clear, direct and neutral style. The text should present the information in the most professional and accessible way possible to FinTech customers.

Key principles of Technical Writing in FinTech:

01

Grammar: Readers expect technical documents to be written in standard language. Certain grammatical errors can actually cause the reader to misinterpret the information. As technical documents must be precise and accurate, readers expect documents to be professional and flawless.

02

Write concisely: In technical writing, clarity and brevity is the goal. Effective technical writing suggest that the average length for a sentence is 10–15 words.

03

Use standard punctuation: Your readers expect standard punctuation when they read your documents. Complicated or “creative” punctuation will confuse them. One suggestion is to select syntax that minimizes the need for punctuation. You may wish to divide compound or complex sentences into shorter sentences to avoid excessive or confusing punctuation

04

Use active voice: Imperative sentences, or command sentences are written in the active voice. The active voice is more natural to people when they speak but technical writers often turn to the passive voice when writing technical documents. One of the main reasons why active voice is used because it closely resembles the way people remember and process information.

05

Using positive statements: Technical writers should word instructions as positive statements.

06

Avoid long sentences: Short sentences are easier to understand than long sentences. It is best to write technical documents in short sentences. Whenever the user is asked to perform several steps, begin the step with an active verb.

How Technical documentation is a strength at Form3:

At Form3, we have a dedicated Technical documentation team to take care of all documentation requests for business and are responsible for developing and maintaining the following documents:

01

Product User Guides: Documents intended to assist the users/customers with the service introduction, description, implementation process and supported flows (Happy & Unhappy paths).

02

API DocumentationForm3's API is based on the principle of REST. The API is resource-based and calls are idempotent through unique resource IDs. Form3’s API documentation contains information about general description, rules and conventions that apply for the APIs. We also offer links and examples to resources to help our customers/users get started with Form3 as fast and easy as possible.

03

TutorialsDocuments intended to provide detailed instructions of Form3 API which will let our users/customers manage all aspects of the payment workflow, which includes the ability to: Send and receive payments across a number of different schemes, Generate and manage scheme-addressable customer account numbers, Handle payment exceptions such as rejections, returns and reversals, Manage access with a flexible security and approval model and view full audit trails of all changes.

Technical documentation team at Form3 uses advanced technology stack as listed below to develop and maintain documents:

01

Language: Markdown

02

Version control: Github

03

Markdown editors: Sublime/Typora

04

Postman: API platform to build and test APIs

05

Swagger: Swagger allows us to describe the structure of APIs and document them so that software program can read the APIs and map the elements accordingly

Conclusion

We glanced over the detailed introduction of Technical Writing, glanced over different key principles to follow for FinTech technical documentation and why technical documentation is a differentiator at Form3.

Written by

Shilpa Guttikonda
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Shilpa Guttikonda Technical Writer