Technical Writer

There is no room for ‘artistes’ in technical writing.

If you are precocious about your writing, this is the wrong job for you.

It’s a business relationship, pure and simple, and (in most cases) the client owns the work, you don’t. Your job is to give the customer (the client) what he wants.

That doesn’t mean you can’t be passionate about writing, passionate about the end result. You can, and should, but leave your ego at home.

What do I mean?

Here’s an example.

If the house style is short, partial sentence bullet points in the step-by-step instructions, don’t make yours full sentences just because you don’t like partials. Even worse, once it is pointed out to you, don’t argue about it forever more and refuse to change to suit the standard.

If you don’t like the standard, you have three options: live with it; work yourself into a position where you have some say in changing it; or get another job.

Another example.

The house style manual chooses the American-style spelling of ‘analyze’, rather than ‘analyse’. You can’t stand it. You write for an Australian audience and the word should be ‘analyse’. Whether you like it or not, that is the house style for the company you work for. It’s a common enough issue that they have specifically listed in in their style guide. You have the same three options if you don’t like it.

As I said earlier, it’s not your writing, it’s the company’s. Lovely clean, clear writing is good, but remember—you are not out to sell yourself but to sell your company, or a specific company product.

Last Modified : December 17th, 2006
Filed under : Tech Writer
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