A technical writer is someone who explains technical concepts to an audience, traditionally through written text, and these days also through images, charts, and even videos. The goal is to help the audience understand the concept as quickly and fully as possible for the purpose of achieving some goal,^1,2 such as using a new gadget or software product. The goal is not to show off how smart you are by using complicated words—if you’re trying to sound smart, you’re doing it wrong! If you’re trying to help your audience learn by using straightforward language that’s appropriate for their level of education, you’re doing it right.

The type of person who’s drawn to tech writing is the type of person who’s drawn to things that tech writers infuse in their work: a love of structure and information, a desire to empathize with their audience, and of course a technical focus. Great technical writers have an innate sense of curiosity that drives them (beyond monetary reward) and a passion for communicating their understanding to others. Technical writing, therefore, is a job for people who are passionate about building information and communicating that to others as knowledge.

If this sounds like you, you’re in the right place—or at least reading the right page!

Voice of Practitioner

John Role: Senior Technical Writer with more than 25 years of experience Location: Sydney, Australia Expertise: Process, procedure, and software documentation “I did a librarianship graduate diploma thinking I’d become a librarian. But I couldn’t get a librarian job—in the early 1980s, jobs were a bit tight. So I got a job proofreading Braille books, using computers to produce Braille. Eventually I became the manager in the production unit, where I wrote documentation on how it worked. I thought, ‘This is pretty interesting. How can I find a job that combines computers and writing?’ And I found out there was a job called technical writing. It suited me—it had everything that I enjoyed doing, and for the last twenty-five years, technical writing has been the perfect job for me.”

1. Gales, C., & Splunk Documentation Team. (2020). The Product is Docs: Writing Technical Documentation in a Product Development Group (2nd ed.), p. 121. ↩︎
2. Schlotfeldt, J and Bittner, C. (2018, September). How Can You Leverage Data to Know You Have Effective Content? Intercom, 65(5), pp. 16-19, at p. 19. ↩︎