Documentation Assessment Index – an objective benchmark

A text can contain any number of issues

Your installation manual is vague or doesn’t contain all of the necessary steps?
A letter informing you of a price increase of 120% starts with the sentence 'I am pleased to inform you...'?
A proposal you requested does not address the issue you discussed with your service provider?

Definitely annoying! But this is also how your customers would respond to a manual, letter or proposal with similar issues that you may be sending them. Naturally, the impact on your company’s image is not the impact you’re aiming to create.

Often it’s difficult to put your finger on the exact issues of a text. This is not surprising, if you consider the many factors that can affect the message. Take the following examples:
- Has anything been forgotten? Is there any superfluous information?
- Is the text comprehensible?
- Does it contain clear references to a proper subject index?

When analysed more closely, these factors provide a usable collection of criteria that can be used for text evaluation. However, not every factor is of equal weight, and the weight of a factor can vary depending on the type of text. Language which is clear on paper may not be as effective when it’s read online.

The TechText Documentation Assessment Index
The TechText-designed Documentation Assessment Index (DAI) comprises a large number of assessment criteria, each of which has been assigned a value. In this way, we build on other accepted methods. The DAI is suitable for a wide variety of business-to-business communication materials.

When TechText has assessed your text by means of the DAI, you will be able to take decisive steps to improve the quality, as the DAI analysis will have specified the points requiring attention. Alternatively, you can use our writing services to have the work done for you.