When people ask what type of work I do and I say, “I’m a technical writer,” most people go blank so I usually add, “I write user manuals and things like that.”
Actually I don’t.
I am a technical writer. My users are mostly developers and other back-end IT users. While it’s not rare, it’s less usual in a technical writer. Most of us work in the front end, writing for end users of a product or a system.
Wikipedia defines technical writers as people who create technical documents and user guides for a professional field or consumer technology.
I’d say that’s a pretty accurate summary.
The title of the person who does the technical writing is a little more difficult to pin down.
Wikipedia gives the following definitions:
- Technical writer
- Technical author
- Information designer
- Information developer
- Information architect
and I have also heard the terms
- Technical communicator
- Documentation specialist
- …
I could go on, and on. Call us what you will, if you’re reading the help for a computer program, or instructions on how to set up up your VCR they were probably written by a tech writer. Likewise, a lot of training material is written by tech writers, particularly for IT and training on systems implemented in the workplace.
This blog talks about what it is to be a technical writer and how you might become one, along with the experiences and frustrations in my own day-to-day work. It also talks about good technical writing, and the people who are passionate about it.