The definition of a technical writer is the following: a technical writer is an expert that deals with technical communication and transforms complex information into clear and concise technical documentation. A technical writer creates the following types of technical documentation: user manual, user guide, release notes, API documentation, reports, reviews, web pages, specifications, etc.
What makes a good tech writer? This profession only seems easy and straightforward. There are many hidden rocks in being a technical writer, and, as for being a good one — there’s even more.
As a company that has a lot of experience working with technical writers because we create software for technical documentation, we decided to create this list.
If you are an employer looking for a new employee, you can use this article as a checklist with the examples of technical skills. If you are a tech writer, we hope to provide you with ideas for growth. If not — then just enjoy reading and learning new things.
Writing Skills
The first and foremost, technical writers are supposed to excel at writing itself. The main criterion of good software documentation is the clarity of text. This can be achieved only by someone who knows how to write, how to put the most complicated ideas in simple words.
A good writer usually just knows these things, feels when to use this or that construction, which words suit best, etc.
It sounds like some talent a person either possesses or not. But, in reality, it all comes down to hard work and practice. Read quality texts more, analyze the word choice there, figure out text structures — you will be well underway to improve your writing skills. Or, you can also try attending training sessions on the subject.
Interest in Science and Technology
Surely, a technical writer should have a special background to be able to describe complex things. A lot depends on the industry: engineering, medical, pharmaceutical, aerospace, and many other industries have their own standards and requirements. The deeper a tech writer dives into an industry, the better they can explain complex things as they have a clear understanding of common processes and concepts in that industry. Let's say a person who is not interested in coding and has no idea of what it is will hardly succeed in creating software documentation. The same can be said about all other fields. Ideally, a technical writer should always track the latest news and trends in the spheres of science and technology to develop technological skills.
Ability to Work with Technical Writing Tools
Technology keeps moving forward. Nowadays, everything is about efficiency, teamwork, and being agile.
The number of companies using software for documentation authoring is going through the roof. No wonder — technical writing tools are designed specially for technical writing, they offer task-specific functionality alongside with just being a user-friendly text editor.
How can a technical writing tool make the work of a tech communicator easier? As a rule, such documentation tools feature workflows developed for tech writer teams; they support popular tech writing formats like Word, PDF, CHM. There’s also a thing called Single-Sourcing that can save a lot of time and effort for a documentation team. As a reference, you can check out a list of features offered by ClickHelp, a tool for online documentation authoring.
A good technical communicator needs to be aware of what’s offered on the market. Ideally, they should try out a couple of documentation tools to know how things work and figure out what appeals to them personally.
Research and Exploration Skills
These skills and knowledge may concern any tech writer, but it probably affects outsourcers the most.
Working in an outsourcing company means that experts have to deal with a variety of client companies you have never heard of and are unaware of their products.
Writing software documentation under such circumstances is a tough call and requires expertise. Only after hours of thorough research, you can gather enough information on the given field to start with the writing process.
Besides, doing some research is always great even for the area you feel pretty confident about. Remember, we live in a constantly changing world. So, here’s to double-checking!
Proofreading Skills
Proofreading is an essential skill for a technical writer. It is important to be able to review your own texts and your colleagues' content. Ideally, there should be an editor to proofread technical documentation, but sometimes it is not like that. If you are the sole tech writer in a company, most probably, you'll have to rely on your proofreading skills only.
Being Systematic
Software documentation is a system. Some user guides can get so big and complex and stuffed with help articles that it is hard to believe that it is a system. Well, maybe, it isn’t anymore. And, that's bad.
First of all, poorly structured documentation ruins user experience as it fails to fulfill its primary function — provide people with easily attainable data.
Secondly, documentation writers suffer, as well. When there’s no system, it is really hard to maintain the user guide.
So, a good technical writer is the one who always plans the documentation structure in advance and never makes a mess hoping to clean it up later.
Teamwork
A technical documentation team is part of a bigger mechanism. They must be able to communicate well with other departments.
Tech writers need to talk to one another, editors, designers, developers...
At first, technical writing seems to be the work cut out for introverts, but this appearance is deceitful. Don't forget about all the conferences made by and for technical communicators!
The thing is — a user guide can only be clear and make sense when its author knows how everything works. So, there’s always a lot of communication and inquiries about all sorts of things.
Being Good at Single-Sourcing
You can use a tool for technical writers and never fully realize its potential. Single-Sourcing is a time saver for any tech writer. If you want to be able to get more things done without additional effort, you should learn these techniques.
Basically, Single-Sourcing allows creating multiple documents using the same source. For example, there’s a task to create pro and beginner versions of a user guide. With Single-Sourcing, you can create just one document, mark the parts meant for pros only and get two different documents as outputs.
Another example would be the usage of variables in your documentation project. You can create a variable (a kind of a container for keeping some data) with the product version. This way, later, you’ll be able to change the version in your documentation by just changing the variable value once.
Sociology
Knowing the basics of sociology is quite a useful tech communicator skill.
Technical documentation is created for users of some product or service. Each product or service has its core user base and target audience. One of the tasks of any tech writer is to figure out who the end-users are. As soon as this is done, the writing process can begin.
The easiest example is the difference between B2C and B2B user guides. In the first case, the explanations must be really simple and somewhat down to earth. While, in the second case, the content is supposed to be more profound, more complex, and detailed.
Sociology, in terms of documentation authoring, is knowing how the readers think and figuring out the best way of delivering content for this particular part of society.
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is a broad term. And, also, it seems to be one of the most necessary skills for a tech writer.
Basically, critical thinking can be explained as the ability to make reasoned and clear judgments.
This concept includes gathering information, analyzing, and systematizing it. Just being systematic is only a small piece of the whole critical thinking story.
What makes a good critical thinker? Well, most of the theories on this matter are saying that the answer is personal experience. And, this does make sense. The more conscious the whole process of getting and processing information is, the clearer the output will be.
Web Design Basics
This skill is optional. But, recent years show that writing in Notepad is not enough anymore. More and more online documentation tools appear on the market. Some of them offer ready templates that you can use as is or tweak them to your liking. And, the tweaking can also be done using HTML and CSS.
Even if we look from the UX point of view — design can either improve or ruin UX — bad-looking color schemes, ugly screenshots… Users won't be satisfied with this, for sure.
Education
So, does a tech writer need a special diploma?
Yes and no.
Of course, it is somehow easier to become a tech writer than a front-end developer without one. In most cases, you don't need a degree in technical writing, you need certain qualification. Many employers have some expectations and requirements. Here’s the list of the most appreciated bachelor degrees for a technical writer:
- Journalism
- English
- Communications
- Computer science
- Engineering
Common Sense
Yet another ‘must-have’ for a tech communicator. And, for any human being, for that matter.
Your common sense will help you see when you are doing the right thing. Like, how many screenshots will be enough to explain this topic on rocket science. If your common sense is telling you that no screenshots are needed for rocket science then I’ve got bad news for you ;)
Reality checks help restore common sense significantly. Don't be too self-assured too often — ask around and listen to people’s opinions.
Conclusion
The list of skills that can be useful for any tech writer is now complete. This doesn’t mean, of course, that a technical writer has to be all of these things, no. But, in tech writing, like in any other professional field, there’s always an opportunity to grow as a specialist.
If you are really interested in achieving a lot as a tech writer, check out the blog post we have recently published on what a technical writer career path may look like. We hope that this info combined will show you the direction towards improvement and success.
Good luck with your technical writing!
ClickHelp Team
Author, host and deliver documentation across platforms and devices