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Technical writer

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Technical writers create informational media for a field or technology. Their responsibilities, like that of graphic designers, are to effectively communicate a message. Technical writers are responsible for creating media which are helpful, accurate, comprehensible, and accessible to the intended audience. Many technical writers are also responsible for the creation or conception of content for other illustrative modes of communication (e.g., writing scripts for industrial film and/or video).

Contents

Technical communication

Technical writing, a subset of technical communication, is used in fields as diverse as computer hardware and software, chemistry, the aerospace industry, robotics, finance, consumer electronics, and biotechnology.

At the beginning of a project, the technical writer identifies the audience for the informational product. For example, a writer might be creating a paper-based document about how to use a VCR for a non-technical person of average literacy, who needs to know how to set the time and record television shows. Or a similar document may be for a technician who must diagnose, repair, or replace internal components in the same device. In the latter situation, the writer may also be called upon to create the storyboard for the training film/video for the procedure. The result in each case will be very different. Quite often, technical documents have more than one audience (such as a primary and secondary audience), and will need to be serve more than one level of technical expertise.

Technical writers often have a certification or degree in English, technical writing, the technical field for which they are writing, or some combination of these. It is important that the writer has enough expertise to understand the audience's background and needs. It is also important that writers have the ability to assimilate highly technical material even if from outside the fields or specialities in which they have trained or previously worked in order to rapidly become productive in communicating new information. Writers with enough command of their technical subject to write for technical audiences are in special demand. For example, writers who develop documentation for software APIs, microcontroller operation, and other technical subjects are often paid more than those who write guides for a nontechnical audience (for example, how to use email), since it is more difficult to find good writers with advanced technical knowledge or the ability to move quickly between advanced technical subjects.

Technical writers also work as part of teams. In most cases, after the documentation is written using a desktop publishing tool or a help authoring tool, it is normally reviewed for accuracy by one or more "Subject Matter Experts" (SMEs).

Technical writers are known in the United Kingdom and some other countries as technical authors. Technical writers are also known as information designers, information developers, and information architects.

Many experienced technical writers have knowledge in printing processes, HTML, Javascript, PHP, Database Administration, Graphic Design, Multimedia, and Business Marketing. Such extra experience may enable a documentation department to create and deliver complete and finished documents to a very large audience. Without this knowledge, the documentation department is more dependent on others to deliver the final product.

Technical writing

The entire point of Technical writing (aka Information Development) is to communicate and disseminate useful information. Technical communications are created and distributed by most employees in service organizations today, especially by professional staff and management. Writing well is difficult and time-consuming, and writing in a technical way and about technical subjects compounds the difficulties. To be useful, information must be understood and acted upon. Fortunately, tools and techniques are available to make writing more accessible and easy to understand.

Effective communications require quality content, language, format, and more. To present the appropriate content, it is imperative to understand one’s audience and writing purpose. If the informational medium does not communicate the information that the writer/designer intends and what he or she wants the audience to understand, then the communication is meaningless.

The writer has a self-interest in making the extra effort: looking credible is as important as being credible and getting results in business. Respect and credibility of the writer/speaker are integral to effective communications. Readers will not trust the information from an author if they do not believe that author is a valuable source of information or the purveyor of worthwhile ideas. Furthermore, being respected is essential to being persuasive, a key ingredient in business.

What is technical writing?

Technical writing is communication, the primary aim of which is to convey a particular piece of information to a particular audience for a particular purpose. It is often exposition about scientific subjects, and various technical subjects associated with sciences. Technical writing is "translating technical ideas into words a specific audience will understand." Audience analysis is thus a key feature of all technical writing.

A \"technical\" approach to writing

How one writes is as important as what one writes. Language itself is important to enable readers to understand and believe the written text. Language affects a reader's ability to comprehend and assimilate what a writer is presenting. Furthermore, people can, and frequently do, judge things by outward appearances; it is essential to make good impressions when communicating in a business setting. When one communicates (whether writing, giving a speech, or talking on the telephone), information must be presented effectively, consistently and, to a large degree, attractively. These elements strongly affect perceived writer and organizational credibility and professionalism -- highly sought-after commodities for individual and organizational success.

Format, organization, and style are important in that they make information available, accessible, and readable. Format, and the like, are the "how" of a written presentation. A central tenet of technical writing is that the more likely the reader is to need to see a piece of information, the more accessible it should be made to the reader. Illustrations are an essential part of technical writing, as are proper uses of natural metaphore.

Format choices not only aid understanding, but they also give a document the highly sought-after technical or business "look" that organizations strive or hope for (Corporate identity" promotion is a natural part of technical writing).

Real world use, and definitions

Most technical writing positions are still primarily offered to those who can write effective end-user manuals, system design documents, Web sites, and the like for engineering and IT firms. However, the need for technical writing is much broader than this.

A good technical writer can create informational media about a complicated technical subject or task in ways that almost anyone can clearly understand.

There are many definitions of technical writing. It has been seen as its own species of business writing. Technical writing is a specialized, structured way of writing, in which information is presented in a format and manner that best suits the cognitive and psychological needs of the readers, so they can respond to a document as its author intended, and achieve the purpose related to that document. This purpose is primarily education (if secondarily it is also persuasion, technical writing may sometimes overlap with advertising or marketing). Technical writing is writing formatted and shaped to make reading and understanding as simple, poignant, unequivocal, and enjoyable as possible (i.e., "user friendly"). The competent technical writer continuously asks: "What does the audience know, and what do they need to know?"

Precision in technical writing is critical because if anything is described incorrectly, readers may act improperly on what is said, causing mistakes, problems at work or, in rare cases, company liability.

The Society for Technical Communication is probably the largest technical writing association. The STC defines technical communication as "The process of gathering information from experts and presenting it to an audience in a clear, easily understandable form". They add: "Technical writing and editing is an umbrella term for any sort of professional communication. It's the interface between your ideas and the rest of the world."

Other definitions:

"Technical writing is the presentation of information that helps the reader solve a particular problem. Technical communicators write, design, and/or edit proposals, manuals, web pages, lab reports, newsletters, and many other kinds of professional documents."
"The transfer of specialized information from subject matter experts to those who need to use it."
"Expository writing that requires a response from the reader."

Tech writing 2.0

"Tech Writing 2.0" is a term coined by Ellis Pratt of Cherryleaf for the application of Web 2.0 technologies to technical documentation. "Tech Writing 2.0" is a move away from static, broadcast, documentation to more participative and aggregative information resources.

Deliverables

Technical writing is most often associated with online Help and user manuals; however, there are other forms of technical content created by technical writers, including:

Associations

External links

Technical writers
Technical writing

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

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