The next stage in technical writing is to access the document for clarity, consistency, conciseness, and comprehensiveness, focusing on the organizational and contextual structure of the text and graphical materials. Sometimes, technical writers develop preface, acknowledgments, lists of tables and figures, an index, and a glossary. To eliminate grammatical errors from documents, technical writers correct grammatical and syntax mistakes to maintain consistency in spelling, abbreviations, and capitalization.
As revealed by Al-Othmany et al. (2012), technical writers must use tables and graphs to present technical information. Tables, charts, and graphs are invaluable aids, to highlight patterns and clarify technical information to the intended audience. When technical writers write reports, they often use illustrations, tables, diagrams, photographs, charts, and drawings to present information more effectively, thereby assisting in providing a professional outlook of the report.
The BLS reports that technical writers earn a median pay of $34.10 per hour or $70,930 per year. However, the highest paid technical writers are those offering technical, professional and scientific services, as well as information and support services, in which their median salary reaches $72,850.
- Identification of audience
- Analyze information and tasks based on the target audience
- Information architecture
- Develop/prepare documents
- Technical and editorial reviews
- Publish the document
Product development and prototypes
Torin (2018) notes that technical writers are often asked to produce technical documents for engineers or technicians. For example, an organization may decide to develop in-house software. They will require a guide that explains step-by-step how to implement the software. Thus, technical writers create documents that will guide engineers in developing this software that meets the company expectations. Torin also revealed that technical writers develop guides for a product. They describe how people use this product without immersion in technical details.
Although, technical writers should be proficient in all the major citation conventions, such as APA, IEEE, MLA, and Chicago styles, when preparing technical documents, IEEE is often used to cite technical documents. Thus, technical writers must become familiarized with IEEE citation style, as it is widely recognized as the preferred format for engineering documents.
Professional technical writers represent a valuable resource for managers and technical staff for accomplishing their communications goals, as technical writers create manuals, online help, white papers, project plans, design specifications, and software test plans. With a rise in e-learning, they are also asked to create online training material. Technical writers also assist manufacturers, designers, companies, and clients in developing technical information. Computer and engineering companies often hire technical writers on a full-time basis because they specialize in writing technical topics that include medical procedures, computer applications and environmental regulations.
Some technical writers help write grant proposals for research scientists and institutions.
Although not mandatory, these credentials demonstrate competence and professionalism, making candidates more attractive to employers. A professional credential also may increase a technical writer’s opportunities for advancement.
Technical writers are also responsible for managing the consistency of technical content and its use across departments including product development, manufacturing, marketing, and customer relations.
Employers generally prefer candidates who have a bachelor’s degree in English or another communications-related subject. Technical writing jobs may require candidates to have both a degree and knowledge of a technical field, such as engineering, computer science, or medicine.
What Technical Writers Do About this section
Prospects for advancement generally include working on projects that are more complex and leading or training junior staff.
Explore resources for employment and wages by state and area for technical writers.
Technical writers create paper-based and digital operating instructions, how-to manuals, assembly instructions, and “frequently asked questions” pages to help technical support staff, consumers, and other users within a company or an industry. After a product is released, technical writers also may work with product liability specialists and customer-service managers to improve the end-user experience through product design changes.
Of course that’s a completely unreasonable idea, and as a customer service professional, I should know that. Very often I read a customer’s question and have no clue what the answer should be. My skill is in knowing where and how to find the answer, and in knowing how to communicate that back to the customer in a way that will make sense to them.
I was surprisingly disconcerted! My mental model of doctors was pretty naive, informed by everything from Doogie Howser to House. Somehow I still expected doctors to just know the answer without ever needing to check reference materials.
Often by the time tech writers are brought in, the knowledge base is less a reflection of current reality than a “Museum of the Previously True(ish)” — halls full of inaccurate instructions, incorrect labels, and confusing screenshots of interfaces long since removed.
In the SaaS world, your help documents can be up to date when you arrive at work and then wildly wrong by lunchtime after a design update is released. The rate of change is particularly tricky for agile software teams, where the product can barrel forward without support or technical writers necessarily being included.
1. No dedicated knowledge base authors
At SurveyGizmo, David Domagalski was a support agent who was eventually moved into a full-time technical writing role. His knowledge of support is invaluable to both his writing and his efforts to work more closely with the support team.
Plan, create, and deliver effective knowledge base content to create better customer experiences.
Recently I gave a talk to technical writers at Write the Docs Melbourne on how they can help their customer service colleagues improve their documentation, and in this article I want to share those ideas with you.
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Support teams can help elevate technical writers by reporting on the impact of their work in reducing incoming support, and by feeding useful information from customers back into the writing process.
Busy customer service teams won’t spend their time sending in documentation requests or updates if they don’t think anything will really happen. Find ways to let your team know their effort is paying off.
I limped in to see a doctor, and after she took a look and did some tests, she asked me to sit down. Then she turned to her computer and, in full view of me, began Googling my symptoms.
3. The tyranny of the urgent
Look for opportunities to get useful work done. Do you offer “out of queue” time for your team that could be used for writing help guides? Is there a Ship-It Day type project you could run around documentation?
For customer service professionals, a reliable, accurate, and well-organized knowledge base is an incredible gift. It helps save customers’ time, reduces duplicated effort, and creates consistency across the whole team.
When the support-technical writer relationship is broken, technical writers are isolated from customer feedback, and the support team loses trust in the documents, instead creating their own internal knowledge hoards. The customers are left out of the loop, with an inaccurate or unclear knowledge base and inconsistent replies from the customer service team.