What Do You Know About Technical Writers?

Technical writer
The person responsible for writing hardware and software documentation, online help, technical definitions and technical product descriptions on Web sites. Quite often, the technical writer is given the task of documenting an application at the last minute, allowing very little time for a thorough understanding of all the options, let alone time for others to read and edit the material before it is published.
Although technical writing is a skill that takes years to learn, and while some companies do appreciate it, most do not. Technical writers are often given less attention than other professionals in the field. In many enterprises, technical writing is considered a necessary evil. As a result, almost all of the documentation we read could be better, and much of it is downright indecipherable. It is no wonder that users and even technical people avoid reading manuals at all costs.
A Note From the Author:
Describing technical material is as difficult a job as some of the most complex programming. However, poor programming is invisible.
But, poor writing is visible. It is up front, staring you in the face. And, everyone is an expert in judging its quality. You either comprehend it or you don't. If you have to reread a paragraph over and over, it is poorly written. If written well, the most complicated material can be brought down to bite-sized chunks that are understandable.

Technical writer is a writer who writes documentations regarding hardware and software issues. He can work for some organizations or 3rd party vendors who called them for their services. They might right help files for user guides of different products. They can also work on online files of different formats and also white papers. Technical writers should reveal solid consideration of technology, high quality writing and view skills, and expertise with authoring tools like Frame Maker.

A technical writer must have great understandability to their audience and also the purpose of a specific document. The major goal of technical writing is just to translate the technical terms and ideas for people who can understand them easily and efficiently. So, the technical writers must have great knowledge about all technical terms of a particular issue, if he wants to write user friendly and easy writings. In other words we can say that a technical writer works as a medium between products (might be a device or software etc) and the end users. If he is unable to write in easy words then there is no use of these technical writings as they might lead a user to more and more ambiguity.

Technical writers may write procedures, user manuals, maintenance manuals, engineering and safety policies, quality engineering manuals, quick reference guides, operational checklist, software interface procedures, engineering design summaries, etc.  The technical writer can be an integral part of a research and development team by creating and managing technical meeting notes, action items, milestones and providing the final documentation package for the project.  When supporting a large, integral operation that may have many geographic locations, the technical writers are often responsible for the configuration management of the documents.  This means the revision control and document release are maintained and orchestrated by the technical writing team.

For instance, an R&D team may be designing a security system for three DOD facilities.  In this instance, the technical writer would be attending meetings, following the development of testers, software, etc.  No matter what the subject or type of document (a simple checklist), the technical writer's chief responsibility is to create material suitable for their audience. This often means "writing down to the least common denominator," considering fonts, font size, white space, use of color, photographs, etc.  The user of a document may not be sitting in front of a computer.  A good writer can not forget how the document works and reads as hard copy! Often the user needs hard copy when they are physically working through a procedure (e.g., cleaning a delicate widget under a microscope). Yes, technical writers should be well trained in using on-line authoring tools.  No matter what the medium, the technical writer must have strong writing skills, an eye for detail, solid editing skills, tenacity, and an interest in documenting complex, technical material.  This is not creative writing.  In addition, a standardized "language" has to be maintained by a writing team.  The author is transparent; every document should have the same "look and feel."
  
If a procedure is needed for a complex, mission critical process and the audience is new to the equipment used in the process, the procedure will tend to be broken in to smaller, steps including steps that may be obvious to the engineer.  The technical writer must observe the process from the users (audiences) stand point and be able to clearly write the steps with understanding.  Most technical documents are not static.  When the engineer/designer changes something as simple as a light indication on a tester, the procedure must be revised released to the users, and the master list of documents and revisions are recorded (often in a database).

Any good quality assurance program will place controls to ensure the users have the current issue of a document.  Something as simple as a light indication could be mission critical.  Should anything catastrophic happen, the root cause analysis will always include a review of the technical documentation for that given operation.

A technical writer becomes valuable to the engineers by earning her/his stripes.  This means dealing with egos, stretching your communication skills to fit different personalities, and understanding how to pose meaningful questions. The technical writer is the liaison between the engineer/designer and the users.  Creating this hand shake is a challenging, often fun, task.