Technical Communication

When people refer to careers in the IT industry, they usually think of programmers, network
engineers, hardware designers, graphic artists, web designers, quality assurance professionals, so on
and so forth. They probably never think of the people who write the reference manuals and user guides
that come with every single product they use. Why only the IT industry? Most of the products that we
use in our day-to-day life, music system, VCD/DVD player, camera, mixer-grinder, oven, electric
cooker, etc. come with an instruction manual/booklet. Have you ever imagined having to use the
gadgets without an instruction manual?
Technical communication is a means of conveying scientific, engineering, and technical
information to the audience who want to use that information to learn, understand or perform some
task. Technical communication is a broad field and includes any form of communication that exhibits
one or more of the following characteristics:
(a) Communicating about technical or specialized topics, such as computer applications, mechanical
tools, medical procedures, or environmental regulations.
(b) Communicating by using technology, such as web pages, help files, or social media sites.
(c) Providing instructions about how to do something, regardless of how technical the task is or even if
technology is used to create or distribute that communication.
Technical communication is also called technical writing. It is is about expressing a subject or
technology to a specific audience in an easy to understand language and user-friendly format.
Technical writing focuses on audience as it conveys specific information about a specific technical
subject to a specific audience for a specific purpose. So, it is true to say that one of the most important
element of effective technical writing is knowing your audience and meeting their need and
expectations.
Individuals in a variety of contexts and with varied professional credentials engage in
technical communication. They are called technical writers or technical communicators. These breed
of writers use a set of methods to research, document, and present technical processes or products.
Technical communicators may put the information they capture into documents, web pages,
computer-based training, digitally stored text, audio, video, and other media that facilitate leaning.
Very often, people judge the profession by its name. Hence, the writer part of the term
technical writer can be misleading. Many people assume that the profession is directly related to
journalism, literature, and writing. I still remember the queries I used to face during my early days in
this field. People were more concerned than I was regarding my choice of career, “You are an
engineer. What are you doing as a technical writer?” they would ask.
As the name suggests, technical writing is a combination of technology and writing. It is often
difficult to decide which factor is more important of the two. There can be a debate on technical versus
writing, to decide what is more important. Are language and writing skills important? Is technical
competence more important? Neither! A healthy combination of both writing talent and technical
aptitude is essential to make a good and successful technical writer. The weight age of the requirement
(between the two) depends on the job profile, the organization you are working for, the product you
are writing about, and the type of document you are writing. There are some instances, wherein you
need to possess the subject knowledge because of the subject matter you have to write about. So it is
important to understand the value of (and not underestimate) both parts of the job title Technical
Writer.

1.1 Technical Communication Skills

The skills of a technical writer is a debatable topic. Different people will have different
opinions and different organizations will look for different skill sets. Inspite of all the differences and
disagreements, there is also a common area of agreement regarding the basic skills required to become
a technical writer. Some of the qualities have to be in-built, a few others can be learned in a short
duration, and yet others can be developed over a period of time.
Basic skills are the in-built skills and qualities present in an individual which can be further
developed with some effort. The most important skills other than language and writing skills is the
ability to express and give good instructions. That seems pretty easy doesn’t it? Here, let’s discuss
some of the main skills required for technical communication.

1.1.1 Language Skills

Language is the basic asset of a technical writer. You don’t have to be a genius with words,
know all the rules of grammar, or have a Masters degree in English or journalism. You just need to
have a good command over the language, know the basic rules of grammar and punctuation, and be
able to express yourself clearly.
Example: Check the following advertisement:
Got a Cold? Try our Cough drops. We guarantee you’ll never get better.
[Isn’t that scary?]
Any error in the writing will change the intended meaning and will create confusion. To avoid such
confusion, you should be able to write your thoughts clearly.
1.1.2 Writing Skills
The Occupational Outlook Handbook defines one of the main characteristics of technical
writing as making scientific and technical information easily understandable to a nontechnical
audience. The writing phase is also about:
1. Writing your thoughts clearly and concisely.
2. Understanding and expressing what your readers need to know.
3. Determining the need of graphics and preparing illustration, flowcharts, and taking
screenshots.
4. Deciding which information needs to go into the document and which should not.
5. Interpreting and translating the complicated information in a simple, clear, accurate, and
easy to understand language and format.
6. Finalizing the style, format, and templates.
7. Deciding the flow of information—organizing and structuring information.
8. Expressing clearly the knowledge, ideas, and concepts to the users.
You can refer to books to check the concepts of grammar and technology as you write. Even though
some of the tasks are not directly connected to writing, you should have a reasonably good command
over spoken and written language for performing all these activities.
Good writing cannot be taught. It can be cultivated and passionately nourished over a period of time.
But focused training can improve the quality of technical writing.
1.1.3 Ability to Understand the Subject
A few years back, technical writers were seen as language experts. Now, many organizations
advertise for writers with technical background. This is because people have now realized that
technical writers are not just linguistic writers. They perform a lot more activities and tasks. Writers
also have to understand the concepts, theories, ideas, designs, codes to effectively communicate them.
Having subject matter knowledge can mean:
1. Having sufficient knowledge of the subject to effectively communicate about it: What is
more important than knowledge of a technical subject is the ability to understand the subject
and write about it. To write different types of documents you require a different level of
understanding of the domain/subject. You should have the ability to understand the subject
(software, engineering, accounts, inventory, law, medicine, science, health, business, etc.)
and express it in writing. You can be an effective communicator only if you understand and
know about what you want to communicate.
Having the critical analysis skills to comprehend and understand complex, technical, and
scientific concepts. For instance, a technical writer should:
(a) Know about the subject not the code to write GUI related information of a
product/software.
(b) Have a basic knowledge about the code or software, or the machine to write for
advanced users.
(c) Know something about the equipment to write the installation procedures.
(d) Know everything about aviation and the working of the aircraft to write an operations
guide for an airplane.
2. Understanding the technology just enough to confidently explain the technology: Even
 if you don’t have the relevant background, it is very important to be able to understand the
basic concepts of the technology, irrespective of the subject. It will help you describe complex
technologies clearly and concisely. As a writer you do not need the knowledge required to design and
build the product. If you have some knowledge about the topic you have to write about, you can learn
the new product faster and write about it better.
1.1.4 Interpersonal Skills
You have to interact with the Subject Matter Experts (SME) to understand the concepts and/or
gather information. You have to interact with the members of other teams. You may also have to
communicate with the customers to understand their expectations. So, it is important that the writers
have good interpersonal skills, some of which are:
 Strong communication (written and spoken) skills.
 Work in cooperation with individuals from different teams.
 Listen effectively.
 Respond promptly, clearly, and appropriately to situations.
To work productively and effectively, you will have to talk and ask questions to make every thing
clear. If you are shy and try to keep the questions with yourself, you will not have a clear picture of the
product, may make the wrong assumptions, and may write wrong information or vague procedures.
This will reflect badly on your work.
1.1.5 Ability to Analyze
As a technical writer, you should be able to think, learn, interpret, analyze, write, and rewrite
to reorganize concepts and information. The keyword for producing good documentation is
ANALYZE! You should have the ability to analyze the following aspects effectively:
1. Demands of the documentation project.
2. Information required for the documents.
3. Users (the audience) and their requirements.
4. Tools to be used for the documentation project.
5. Time taken to complete the job/project on time.
6. Effective ways to communicate the information to the users.
1.1.6 Flexibility
Documents often require many revisions or may even be abandoned after many hours of hard
work. You should exhibit a fair amount of flexibility at work. You should be:
 Flexible enough to move from a large project to a smaller one or the vice-versa.
 Ready to adapt to the new tools, processes, styles, guidelines, technology, etc.
 Assertive, yet cool and in control when dealing with the people. You may have to:
– Gently nudge the SMEs and get them to answer your questions.
– Act a little dumb, yet very curious to understand the matter.
– Seem intelligent even if you don’t know the subject matter properly
Excerpt from Technical Communication by Jayaprakash
(2015)