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If you’re interested in a career in writing, then a good definition for technical writing may come in handy, because for the right person it can be a very lucrative career. Technical writing is exactly what it sounds like - it’s a form of writing where you take information or concepts that are technical in nature, and you put them into coherent written form.
The end product could be a manual, a technical paper or proposal, reports, newsletters and even web pages. The true value of a technical writer is in their ability to convey either simple or complicated technological ideas in a way that’s targeted toward a specific audience. This is important considering that the audience could either be a layperson reading a product manual, or a fellow scientist conducting a peer review of a scientific finding.
A Definition for Technical Writing as a Career
A technical writer usually focuses on a topic or niche that revolves around a particular skill that they may have. This means that technical writers aren’t usually effective covering a broad range of topics. This means that if you want to be a technical writer, you need to have a good grasp on your own skills, training and expertise. Your background training and experience will define the fields that you should focus on as a technical writer.
Every field has an entire library of terminology and lingo, which is why the core definition for technical writing is that it’s a form of writing centered upon a specific skill set or career - such as lawyers, psychologists, computer experts or any other profession that requires specialized knowledge. It’s also important to remember that technical writing isn’t always even your standard form of writing. Sometimes you’ll find yourself creating forms, detailing step-by-step instructions with diagrams and schematics, or developing multimedia presentations and similar content. For larger projects such as these, you’d likely be involved in a team that includes graphic design artists and computer programmers, especially if a website is involved.
Translating and Conveying Technology and Specialized Knowledge
A truly skilled technical writer has the ability to take concepts that are conveyed to them from one highly specialized group, process that information and then convey it to a second group or individual in a way, and using terminology, that they can understand. Sometimes this might involve incorporating detailed information from programmers or engineers into a summary report or a project status report that executives and managers can understand and process. In order to do this, you need to understand what terminology they can understand, and how to translate the terminology that they can’t understand into something that makes sense for them. Technical writing is very much like acting as a translator of sorts.
This is also why technical writers are necessary within almost every discipline. Most scientists and experts have little ability to convert their highly specialized language into concepts that a lay person can understand. A technical writer is necessary, because the person has just enough knowledge about the specialized field to understand the scientist or specialist in their lingo. However, the technical writer can do what the specialist can’t - and that is to convey that highly technical information in a language and in a way that others who are not specialists can understand, and with appropriate grammar, punctuation and spelling. Unfortunately many technically trained individuals, like engineers, are very poor writers.
If you’re considering entering the field of technical writing, understand that it can be a grueling career at times. However, the fact that you are making good use of your training and specialty, in combination with your excellent writing ability will result in a writing career that you will find very fulfilling and rewarding.
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