Software engineers · Technical writers · English and Japanese
We're Clinton and Hiromi De Young, two software engineers who write documentation in English and Japanese. Our API references, developer guides, and technical documentation are accurate from the first draft, so your engineers don't have to explain everything twice.
Past work includes teams at Microsoft, Intel, Meta, Amazon, NVIDIA, and Epson.
$2,500 fixed for up to 25,000 words of documentation, English and Japanese combined. Written report typically within one week. If we're not the right fit, we'll tell you.
We do our best work for three kinds of teams:
01
Your API works, but developers get stuck, open support tickets, or give up during integration. You need writers who can read the code, run the examples, and document how the product actually behaves.
02
Your Japanese customers, partners, and evaluators need documentation that reads like it was written in Japanese, because your champion there may be translating your docs themselves just to get a deal approved. Hiromi writes or reviews every Japanese document we deliver, and we're available from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm Japan time, during your workday.
03
Your engineering is excellent, but your English documentation doesn't show it yet. We read your Japanese source material natively and write English docs for international developers. We also help your product and docs get ready for more languages (internationalization).
If your engineers are writing your documentation in their spare time, it's usually time to bring in help.
Before you commit to a full project, find out exactly what's wrong and what to fix first. We review your existing documentation the way a new developer would, then give you a written, prioritized plan.
REST and GraphQL references, authentication guides, quickstarts, SDK docs, and code samples that work when you paste them into a terminal. We've built software long enough to understand your architecture, your APIs, and your edge cases, so the first draft is accurate, not the fifth.
API documentation →
User guides, onboarding docs, release notes, migration guides, and knowledge-base articles. Most documentation gets it backward: paragraphs on installation, a sentence on the concept that actually trips users up. We spend the words where users struggle, which is what reduces support load.
Technical documentation →
Japanese technical documentation written or reviewed by Hiromi, a native speaker and former software engineer, never run through a translation mill. English documentation for Japanese products going global. And internationalization guidance so your product and docs are ready for more languages. One team covers both languages, with vetted partners for additional markets.
Japanese localization →Engineering blog posts, white papers, and conference talks for technical leaders who have the ideas but not the time to write. Your name on the byline.
Fill out a short form or book a call. We reply within one business day. Before you share anything confidential, we'll send our mutual NDA (or review yours).
You'll know what you're getting, when, and what it costs before any work starts. Most projects start with the $2,500 Documentation Audit, which is also how we scope an exact quote for larger work.
Your code, your API, your existing docs, plus a short list of focused questions for your engineers, not hours of meetings.
Your written scope states how many revision rounds are included. We prefer docs-as-code (Markdown or AsciiDoc in Git, reviewed through pull requests), and we work in whatever your team already uses.
In your format, ready to publish. Japanese deliverables are written or reviewed by Hiromi before they reach you.
Our past engineering and documentation work includes teams at:
Microsoft · Intel · Meta · Amazon · NVIDIA · Epson
That work was done under NDA, so we don't describe it, show it, or name the products, and we'll treat your unreleased product the same way. We offer our own mutual NDA before you share anything, and we're happy to review yours instead. To see how we write, read our public documentation sets below.
Clients include FamilySearch and Actiphy, Inc., and you can read what people there say about working with us below.
"Clinton has an uncanny sense of where readers will get stuck. He cut pages of setup instructions nobody needed and used that space to explain the one concept that generated most of our support tickets. Within a couple of months, tickets on that topic fell sharply. He holds a very high bar for quality, and working with him raised ours too."
"Clinton's knowledge of internationalization is technically superior and unbiased. He willingly applies his expertise to practical and profitable implementations. Clinton has a talent for using professional, diplomatic humor to diffuse tension or stress and make the team laugh. I highly recommend Clinton."
Co-founder
Clinton is a software engineer and technical writer. He studied software engineering at the University of Washington and earned a degree in English and Creative Writing from Southern New Hampshire University, graduating summa cum laude. He moved to Japan in February 1989, and the Japanese language has been part of his life ever since. He started Inkwright after seeing the same problem from both sides: users struggling with documentation that failed them, and engineers' best work going unappreciated because nobody explained it well. He also builds documentation tools, including Sogo Docs, a Git- and Markdown-based docs platform launching in October 2026.
Clinton on LinkedInCo-founder
Hiromi is a native Japanese speaker who has also worked as a software engineer. She writes and reviews Inkwright's Japanese documentation, so Japanese readers get documentation written by someone who understands both the language and the technology.
Hiromi on LinkedInWe're partners in the business and in life, and we're both picky about documentation. We believe it should spend its words where readers actually struggle, and that vague explanations of complex ideas are disrespectful to the reader.
More about us →Every project gets a written, fixed price before work starts. Typical starting points:
The $2,500 Documentation Audit is how we scope an exact quote. It shows us exactly what exists, what's missing, and how much work the fixes involve.
$2,500 fixed for up to 25,000 words of documentation, English and Japanese combined. Larger doc sets are $100 per additional 1,000 words (for example, 40,000 words is $4,000). If your docs are very large, you can instead choose a representative 25,000-word sample for the base price. Documentation problems tend to repeat across a doc set, so a well-chosen sample reveals the patterns, and the fix plan applies them to everything. And if you hire us for the fixes within 60 days, the full $2,500 is credited toward your project, so the audit effectively costs nothing.
The Audit is typically delivered within one week for up to 25,000 words. Larger audits scale accordingly, and we confirm the date when you book. Review and editing projects typically take 1–2 weeks. New documentation from scratch often takes several months, depending on scope and how quickly reviews come back. Your written scope includes a schedule.
Yes. We'll send you our mutual NDA up front, before you share anything confidential, and if your company requires its own, we're happy to review it instead. Much of our past work, including everything for the large companies listed above, was done under NDA, which is why it isn't in our portfolio.
Hiromi De Young, a native Japanese speaker who has also worked as a software engineer, writes or reviews every Japanese document we deliver. We write from your product and your engineers' answers, not just from the English text, so the Japanese says what the system actually does. For other languages, we coordinate with vetted native-speaking technical writers.
Yes. We review products and documentation for internationalization problems (hard-coded strings, date and number formats, text expansion, terminology) and write the guidelines your team needs to localize efficiently.
We prefer docs-as-code: documentation kept in Git, written in plain text, and reviewed through pull requests like code. Our usual stacks are Markdown with Zola and AsciiDoc with Antora (see our Antora portfolio set). We're equally comfortable working in your existing setup, including Git and pull requests, OpenAPI/Swagger specifications, and the Markdown-based tools most teams use. If your team uses something else, ask, and we'll tell you honestly whether we know it.
Clinton is also launching Sogo Docs in October 2026: a documentation platform built on Git and Markdown that publishes a separate version of your docs for each Git branch, like Antora but much easier to set up.
Yes. An OpenAPI spec is a great starting point for an API reference, but it isn't the whole documentation. Developers also need guides that explain how to accomplish real tasks. We build on what you have.
We're based in the US Mountain time zone and work with clients worldwide, in English and Japanese. US clients get us during regular US business hours. Japanese clients get us from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm Japan time, during your workday, so you can hold meetings and get answers without waiting overnight.
We'll tell you, and if we can, we'll point you to someone who is.
Start with a $2,500 fixed-price Documentation Audit, covering up to 25,000 words in English, Japanese, or both. You'll get a written, prioritized plan, typically within one week, whether or not you hire us for the fixes.
Book a Documentation Audit ($2,500)Or describe your project, and we'll reply within one business day →
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