There are several categories of technical writer. The tasks and responsibilities will depend on the type of work you are doing:

1. Hardware technical writers create online and printed (and sometimes translated) manuals, typically for end-customer use in manufactured goods.
2. Software technical writers document user interfaces for end users. They typically have some coding experience and understand the software development lifecycle and its tools. They often use structured markup such as Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA).
3. Process and procedure technical writers create documentation for an audience that is mostly within (i.e., internal to) the organization they work for. This includes process and procedure-driven documents such as operations manuals, business processes, user guides, and work instructions.

Insight

Developer Documentation Technical Writers A relatively new specialization for software technical writers is the developer documentation technical writer. They are a more “technical” breed of technical writer, as amateur coding skills are a minimum requirement. They follow a “docs-as-code” approach by integrating their documentation into the software code written by developers to create records such as API documentation for a developer audience. They have a strong understanding of the software development lifecycle.

Technical writers will often specialize in one of the above categories, as the toolsets and skills tend to be distinct and often carry a steep learning curve. The necessary soft skills [see below] are of course common across all technical writing types.