Sharp Words

I’ve been a technical writer/author/communicator for more than seven years now, and I’ve been passionate about my job pretty much from day one. After all, how many other careers would actually pay me for applying my inborn pedantry? I get to exercise my love of language and my love of technology in equal amounts, and it’s a job that I generally find fulfilling and interesting, even if it wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea.

Because of this, I’ve decided to write a series of posts about a job in technical writing is all about - this is just the first, and I’ll probably post weekly as long as I a) remember and b) have enough material.

1. So what do technical writers do, and why are they needed?

Simply put, technical writers add value to a company’s products. The value of a good manual or help file should not be underestimated. A guide that has clear instructions about a product - be it computer software or a video recorder or a self-build set of shelves - means that customers can use the product easily and confidently, which makes them more likely to use the product (or recommend it to others, and so on). An online help file or knowledge base which contains lots of useful information can reduce the number of phone calls to technical or customer support, freeing up support to deal with more important or problematic (or just interesting issues).

Of course, the reverse is true. A badly-written guide can cause more work for support teams, or discourage customers completely. If they can’t find out about half the features of their new mobile phone because they’re not documented, then it was a waste of time and effort and money by the manufacturer to have those features included! If important health and safety information is missing - perhaps from a piece of equipment used in a hospital - then there could be detrimental effects on people’s health.

Technical writers - or technical communicators, if you want to include everyone who deals in information - generally research, write and produce documentation for internal and external use. They include graphics, sometimes ones they themselves have produced. They design the layout and look-and-feel of documents as well as designing the structure of the information that goes into them. They tackle subject matter experts (developers, engineers and the like) to gather the information in the first place, and they often have to ‘translate’ this information from jargon into something a casual user can understand, using their own technical knowledge and skills. They use their excellent grasp of language and style to write - grammatically and correctly spelt - user guides and help files and functional specifications and marketing material and training courses. They proof-read, they edit, they write glossaries and compile indexes. And often, they do all this while justifying their need for cooperation and assistance from the rest of the company, and sometimes their very existence, to their bosses.

It’s a busy job, and sometimes a misunderstood one. There are some very good technical writers - and there are unfortunately some very bad ones, as anyone who’s tried to work out a new device based on a badly-written (or sometimes just badly-translated) manual can testify. Some writers are better at one kind of document than others; some enjoy working more with style than with substance, and some prefer writing to font-fiddling. But technical writing is definitely an essential component of any successful company.