Why Programmers Struggle To Write Good Documentation

For a programmer, proper documentation is a must-have. Its presence keeps track of the development process and later assists during the maintenance period. Successful documentation will make information accessible while providing limited users with entry points. It further helps new users learn quickly by simplifying the product and cut support costs as well.

However, everything is in the opposite direction for those enthusiasts programming students. Surely everyone wants to be a good software developer but honestly, no one bothers to be good at documentation.

Writing, on the other hand, is a highly ignored skill. Many students and even professionals sometimes find it hard to structure sentences and paragraphs. An informative and interesting article discusses the positive impact of writing on university programmers.

However, at the university or college students have to write essays and thesis to graduate with good grades. It is so hated that most of the developers either get low grades in non-programming subjects or prefer using essay tools for assistance.

There can be a lot of reasons for this strange behavior. Let’s take a deep dive and discuss them.

Why programming students are bad at writing?

Avoiding to write horrible essays is a common scenario in most of the software engineering students. What makes it true? Let’s learn by understanding it deeply.

Programmers are too interested in product development

This may sound a bit romantic, but programmers love what they are good at - ‘coding’. They didn’t care about their writing and other skills. This might be the reason we commonly see programmers in comfortable and informal dressing even at meetings and events. There have been many memes around programmers being busy in coding while others are celebrating some event.

The developers aren’t thinking anything outside the coding, which is why they are unable to explain things clearly to the readers. Even though some might disagree with this thing but we can’t deny the reality. This might be one of the reasons they hate writing.

The pressure to deliver the assigned project

Those who are still studying would agree that every time a professor assigns a project there is a due date hanging around the corner. The development of the project is very time-consuming that no one bothers to be good at writing a thesis or documenting the project. On the other hand, presentation is the first thing that the reader looks to understand the product.                  

This leads to low grades in subjects that require writing. On the contrary, it’s necessary to have good grades throughout your career. To solve this problem, programmers could take assistance from essay editor, which assist in achieving good grades and enhancing your writing at the same time. 

Programming and writing are two different skills

Imagine if you are a programmer/developer(you probably are if you are reading it this far) and like to programme stuff. You know it requires logical and spatial skills, which often are in mathematical forms. Even though writing requires some traits but they are usually manifested quite differently. In short writing and programming are two different skills and mastering both isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

According to an interesting article, "Most programmers can’t write a single coherent sentence, never mind string together a paragraph.”

This is often true for most of the software engineering students. While it all may sound demotivating and negative but you could easily master both skills if you work hard and learn more.

Reference

• https://hackernoon.com/how-to-solve-programmers-block-18363c040656
• https://edit-proofread.com/blog/scientific-paper-format
• https://essaytoolbox.com/guide/how-to-write-a-thesis-statement