Getting Started with Technical Writing: A Beginners Guide
Have you ever been confused about a technical concept and then stumbled across a blog or article that broke it down so simply that it felt like the author was explaining it directly to you? That article was likely written by a Technical Writer.
Technical writing has become crucial across various sectors and fields as it helps companies and teams effectively communicate and share information with their customers or audience. Without clear communication, businesses risk creating a disconnect with their audience—a gap that can ultimately lead to their downfall.
In this article, you will learn more about what technical writing entails and why it is important. In the end, I will also show you things you should know about being a technical writer.
Let's dive right in.
Outline
What is Technical Writing?
I know you might be asking, "What is technical writing?" So, before we go deeper, let's examine what technical writing is all about.
In technical writing, you break complex information down into simpler, more easily understandable documents. This helps your audience understand and use the tool, programming language, or concept you’re writing about. So technical writing is all about breaking down complex ideas into smaller, understandable chunks.
It’s also important to note that the people who break down this complex information in this way are referred to as technical writers. Now that we’ve gotten this out of the way, let's move on.
Applications of Technical Writing
Now you might be thinking that technical writing is only for people in tech, but that’s not the case. Though it has been traditionally used most often in tech, it’s becoming common in other fields as well.
Below are various fields where technical writing can be super helpful, along with some use cases:
1 Information Technology: Though the tech space is very vast, technical writing can be used for:
- Writing product or framework documentation for beginners, mid-level, and senior personnel.
- Writing How-to guides
- Writing UI docx to help people navigate a product
2 Health Field: Shocking as it may seem, technical writing is also applied in this field. Here are some places it can be applied:
- Creating documentation for healthcare software.
- Writing how-to guides for manuals for medical devices or equipment.
- Producing regulatory and educational documents for both patients and staff.
3 Finance and Banking: Technical writers are also found in the finance and banking sectors. Here are some of their tasks:
- Creating training manuals and developing user-friendly guides for services or financial products.
- Creating regulatory documents for both staff and customers.
4 Aerospace and Defense: Here are some common tasks for technical writers in this field:
- Preparing reports and compliance documents for regulatory bodies.
- Creating detailed how-to manuals or guides on how an aircraft or defence system functions.
- Writing/creating safety protocols for staff to abide by.
These are a few areas where technical writing has become quite common. But trust me, there are many more fields where it can be applied.
At this point we are done with the surface of what technical writing is and its importance. Now let’s go further to see the characteristics of a technical writer.
Key Characteristics of Technical Writing
To write a technical document, there are three important things you have to keep in mind:
Clarity and conciseness: When it comes to writing documentation, one of the things you should think about is how clear and straightforward the content is. It's best to read and reread it to make sure it’s very easy to understand and that some unnecessary words are filtered out of the documentation.
Audience awareness: Your audience should be one of your top priorities when writing a technical document. It’s essential to identify who they are, their level of education, and what they hope to gain from reading your document. By understanding these factors, you’ll be better equipped to address their needs and solve their problems effectively.
Use of visuals and formatting: Adding visuals can significantly enhance the reader's understanding of your technical document. For instance, if a reader initially grasps only 40% of the content, a well-designed visual (like charts or diagrams) could increase their comprehension to around 90%. Additionally, how your document is formatted is crucial in providing clarity. Proper formatting can maximize the reader's understanding, potentially reaching 100%. This ensures that the reader achieves the purpose of consulting your technical documentation in the first place.
Types of Technical Documents
Just as we previously talked about various fields where technical writing can be applied, you should know that there are various types of technical documents needed in these fields. Below are the most commonly used documents across all fields:
User Manuals and User Guides: These are practical guides designed to help users understand how a product works or how to navigate processes within an organization. They can include step-by-step instructions or serve as a reference for regulations and best practices.
Reports and Proposals: Reports are written to share findings, provide analysis, or give updates on a specific task or decision. They are widely used in organizations, regardless of size, to communicate important information. Proposals, however, are meant to persuade or convince others to support or approve a project or plan.
Documentation: Documentation, just as it sounds, helps users understand and use a product. It provides detailed solutions to possible problems that could be encountered by a user.
The Technical Writing Process
As promised, here are things you need to know as a technical writer. Before you think of writing a technical document, it is important that you know the three stages of writing, and they are:
- Pre-Writing Stage
- Writing Stage
- Post Writing Stage
Pre-Writing Stage
The pre-writing stage is a very important stage in writing, as it takes up the major part of your technical writing process, which is the topic research, information gathering of the agreed topic, etc.
Here are things to consider in the pre-writing stage.
Audience and purpose: This is where you consider who the audience/readers you are writing to are, what their educational background is, and also what issue you are trying to solve for them by writing the document.
Tone and style: After you have figured out the basic/important information about your target audience, the next thing for you to consider is how you can present your technical document to them for them to understand. In most cases, your target audience might be the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a large firm/organization, so by identifying them, you should be able to write in a tone and style that resonates with them.
Gathering of Information: This is the point where you do proper research about the information you want to write about. For example, if you want to write a “How-to” manual for a specific product, you must have done deep research about the product or, if possible, used the product for a while; this will give you enough evidence/facts to write about that product effectively.
Outlining: At this point, you’ve figured out who your target audience is, you’ve figured out the tone and style to write to them, and you’ve also gathered enough information on the topic you want to write about. An outline makes the remaining process easy for you. Outlining is more like a guide; it shows you what to do at a particular point, and it also helps in the proper formatting of your technical document.
Writing Stage
This is the phase where the actual writing takes place. During this stage, three key aspects are considered:
- The main content or body of the technical document
- The development of Paragraphs within the document
- Ensuring coherence and adherence to genre conventions.
Post-Writing Stage
This is the final phase of the writing process, where you focus on:
- Assessing the quality and organization of your content.
- Ensuring grammatical accuracy.
- Thoroughly editing your manuscript
- Conducting proofreading and seeking peer reviews of your work.
Conclusion
At this point, you can see how important technical writing is and how it closes the huge gap between companies and their audience/customers.
As an individual, getting a technical writing skill is an added advantage to you because of how important it is in our day-to-day lives.
Thanks for reading, and peace.
