Technical Writing and Technical Writers

Knowing what skills are important in effective technical writing or communication helps in understanding why this portfolio exhibits a variety of skills. Because my career focus is mainly technical communication and it still isn't a widely-known field, I have provided insight into what is involved in technical writing. Most skills demonstrated in this portfolio, including the coding of this website from scratch, relate to communication best practices or are instrumental in creating engaging or usable, clear, concise, accurate, and aesthetically pleasing content. These skills include, but not limited to, various forms of writing, editing, information or content design, and research.

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What is Technical Writing?

Technical writing or technical communication is a field that consists of a communicator conveying accurate, clear, and concise messages to an audience through a medium. These messages can be conveyed through text and/or graphics via print or digital mediums. To effectively communicate messages, knowledge of composition, language, information design, and rhetorical theories and how these theories connect to practices is helpful. Usability testing often provides insight into user thought processes relating to user practices. The communicator must be able to analyze various contexts, communication theories, and audience practices to make sense of rhetorical situations and construct the most effective content, conducting usability testing when feasible for better usability.

The difference in technical writing and professional (business) writing is that technical writing helps users solve problems with technologies and technical subject matter; professional writing is grounded in the communication needs of organizations, the daily need for clear internal and external communication ("Definitions of," n.d.).

Why Effective Communication Matters

When communicators mis-analyze the necessary content choices (text and graphics) while developing information, users often misinterpret the text or graphics. This regularly results in unusable content and sometimes unusable products; users can't determine how to use the products because of useless documentation, or they spend a lot of time trying to figure out use. The documentation is the product as an important part of the product package. When customers can't figure out function, they sometimes deem the product as faulty or useless. Customers stop buying products and tell others about their experiences, causing businesses to lose customers, sales or revenue, time, efforts, and a good reputation. .

What are Technical Writers?

Technical communicators create, research, analyze, and distribute information. The goal is to convey information that a reader can understand and act upon. Whenever a group of people has specialized knowledge that another group does not have, the technical writer serves as the go-between. Technical communicators don't just translate but also generate truth by choosing what gets written and for whom, knowing that the readers will depend on the accuracy of the written document. Even though technical writers are expected to have some knowledge of the subjects they write about, subject-matter experts usually provide detailed information and review content for accuracy. The writers mainly serve as editors by transforming the content "from an ugly duckling into a swan:" organizing the information, putting the information in user-friendly language, performing revisions and edits, selecting graphics, writing sidebars, imposing a consistent format for usability, and collaborating with the SME as a consultant who guides the content creation process from start to finish. When writers are required to write content, research and resources are usually required to obtain knowledge.

Common Technical Writing Tasks

• Coordinate the development and distribution of technical content for a variety of users
• Use technical content to resolve business communications problems in various industries
• Oversee the preparation of illustrations, photographs, diagrams, and charts
• Use a variety of multimedia formats to convey information in a way that difficult concepts can be easily understood by users of the information
• May serve as part of a team, conducting usability studies to help improve the design of a product that is in the prototype stage by applying their knowledge of the user of the product
• Conduct research on their topics through personal observation, library and Internet research, and discussions or interviews with technical specialists
• Use computers and other electronic communications equipment daily in performing their work
• Work regularly with desktop and other electronic publishing software to prepare material directly for the Internet or for print
• Work with graphic design, page layout, and multimedia software
• Must have excellent writing and communication skills and be able to express ideas clearly and logically in a variety of media
• Must be detail oriented, curious, persistent in solving problems, self-motivated, and able to understand complex material and explain it clearly
• Must have analytical and critical thinking skills ("Technical Writers," n.d.)

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