When people refer to careers in the IT industry, they usually think of graphic artists, programmers, web designers, network engineers, hardware designers, so on and so forth. They probably never think of the people who write the reference manuals and user guides that come with every single software and hardware product they use. They value these book and their bookshelves would probably be full of such manuals. This is the sorry state of technical writing in India. This is the sorry state of technical writing in India. Why only the IT industry? Most of the products that we use in our day to day life(music system, mixer-grinder, oven, electric cooker, toasters etc.) come with an instruction manual.
How many of you have ever thought of the people who have written these booklets? There are people who have not heard of technical writing. Those who have, generally assume that technical writers are typists doubling up as data entry operators in the software industry. This is not true.
What is it?
As the name suggests, technical writing is a combination of technical aspect and writing. It is difficult to decide which factor is more important of the two. On the whole technical writing is less related to technical and more related to writing. A technical writer should have both writing talent and technical aptitude. The type of talent that is required depends on the job. It takes different level of writing talent to write different kinds of documents.
For example, conceptual introductions are much more difficult to write than procedural reference material. Technical writing is also a combination of art and a science. It is an art because it takes information and conveys it to the reader in a way that enables them to understand the product better. It is a science because it deals with theory, methods, systems and design. knowing your audience and meeting their needs and expectations. Audience is the most important element of effective technical writing.
How is it different?
Technical writing is very different from the other forms of writing. It is not for any reader. It is directed to a narrow, specific audience who reads to understand a product. So, technical writing should be clear, accurate, easy to understand, and concise. In creative writing, one can distinguish the writer by the style of their writing. You can read a write-up and identify if it is written by Shobha De, Robin Cook or Agatha Christae. This means that the creative writers have their own style and mode of writing.
Skills Required
To become a technical writer you must have the following skills. They might seem to be unimportant, but are very essential to make a good technical writer.
The first skill a technical writer should have is writing.
A good command of grammar and vocabulary
A sound knowledge of at least one desktop publishing application(MS Word, FrameMaker)
Good interviewing skills
Ability to grasp the information
Ability to structure large information.
Concern for verbal consistency
Appreciation of tone and style
Awareness of logical development and assumptions
Clear thinking
Rapport with the learning process
An ability to analyze and grade the audience
Interpersonal skills
Editorial judgement
I was an invited speaker at STC Trivandrum session(May 2005). I spoke on the subject of setting up a documentation team. For media coverage, please see:
https://twin-india.org/html/downloads/indian-express.jpg
https://twin-india.org/html/downloads/kerala-news.jpg
An article published in Hindu(Trivandrum and Madhurai editions) in April 2005 https://hindu.com/edu/2005/04/18/stories/2005041805700400.htm.
Published an article in Indus, (Newsletter, STC India) titled “Books Were My Best friends”: https://stc-india.org/Indus/dec2001.pdf
I was featured in the DIGIT magazine in an article, “A Write Job for Techies” in October 2001,
https://zdnetindia.com/techzone/coding/stories/39978.html