Technical Communication, Website Design and Internet Marketing

Becoming a Technical Communicator

I encourage anyone who wants to break into Technical Writing to take at least one course in Technical Writing. This is where the methodology of technical communication is taught. Many believe that a degree in English and/or knowing how to string words, sentences, and paragraphs together is enough. It is not enough if one doesn't learn the methodology of creating technical documents.

I have been a technical writer for many years with business and technology degrees that includes a Masters degree in Technical and Scientific Communication. I presently consult and teach for an online university. I believe that anyone with a good command of English can be a good technical writer if they learn to do the following:

1. You do front-end analysis, You know the purpose and the audience for the documentation.

2. You research to provide the information that satisfies the purpose for the intended audience.

3. You organize the information and present it in a form suitable for the purpose of the intended audience.

4. You do usability testing. You use reader(s) as representative sample(s) of the audience to test the documentation. You monitor and take notes to determine where the documentation works and where it doesn't work. You must make it clear to participants that you are testing the documentation and not them participants. (Use search engine to learn more about usability testing. No matter how good you may be, usability testing is the key to determining good documentation).

5. You revise until the documentation works as intended. I have seen technical documentation that looks good, gets signed off by managers who are not a part of those that will use the documentation, and yet the documentation does not work as intended. If you learn to do the five basic steps above, you can create good technical documentation that works. A certificate does not guarantee that you will obtain an entry level technical writer position but you can be confident that you will know technical writing methodology.

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