Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Technical tech writers
A few jobs back, I was part of a team documenting a fairly complex suite of telecommunications software. One day, while working on a particularly thorny section of a manual, one of my colleagues turned to me and said "Are we supposed to understand this stuff?"
I've found that this attitude isn't uncommon among technical writers, of any level of experience. Remember that in title "technical writer" the technical part is just as important as the writer part.
I've always felt that to be an effective technical writer, you need more than knowledge of the tools of the trade and to be able to write. You need a good grounding in the software, hardware, and technologies that are used by your employer. Maybe not to the level of the system architects and developers, but more than a cursory knowledge. And if you don't have that knowledge or those skills, you should be willing and able to learn -- either by taking courses, reading books, or asking a lot of seemingly dumb questions.
For a longer take on this topic, read this article at techwriter.dk.
I've found that this attitude isn't uncommon among technical writers, of any level of experience. Remember that in title "technical writer" the technical part is just as important as the writer part.
I've always felt that to be an effective technical writer, you need more than knowledge of the tools of the trade and to be able to write. You need a good grounding in the software, hardware, and technologies that are used by your employer. Maybe not to the level of the system architects and developers, but more than a cursory knowledge. And if you don't have that knowledge or those skills, you should be willing and able to learn -- either by taking courses, reading books, or asking a lot of seemingly dumb questions.
For a longer take on this topic, read this article at techwriter.dk.
