ABSTRACT

Writing that lacks understandable structure would be useless. A statement of work should be created setting out vision, scope, costs, reporting lines, resources, budget, and makeup of the team responsible for doing the actual writing. The urge to jump in and start writing should be resisted until these things are understood and approved by leadership. The writing team needs to be led by a Subject Matter Expert (SME) who has a deep understanding of the aircraft systems, how to operate the aircraft in the “real world,” and has an understanding of the pilot demographics, how actual pilots in that environment think and work, both individually and as teams. It’s a big help also if the SME has a degree of technical writing skill as well as other communication skills. The SME should have a talent for making the publications user-friendly for pilots in the real world.