POSITION TITLES OF TECHNICAL WRITERS:

Technical Writer is the most commonly used job title for this occupation. Other titles used include, Communications Specialist, Policy and Procedure Writer, Proposal Writer, Documentation Specialist, Health Writer, , Technical Editor, Web Editor, Copy writer, Courseware developer, Information Developer, Information Designer , Information managers, Instructional designer, Knowledge managers, Multimedia content developer, Publications Specialist, Publication-in-charge, Technical editors, Technical communicator, Web content developer, Scientific Writer, Medical Writer. As it is obvious many titles indicate the particular industry in which the occupation is found.

Copy writer:
The copy writer writes advertising material to be used in printed documents and media broadcasts to promote the goods and services offered by a company. A copy writer also prepares sales letters and articles relating to the product which they are promoting. They also develop product names and slogans for products. They need to come up with creative representations of the product to attract new customers.

Scientific Writer:
A Scientific writer takes scientific findings and translates them into a form both comprehensible and captivating to a non-specialist.

Medical writer:
The American Medical Writers Association describes a medical writer in the following manner:
‘Although successful medical writers come from many backgrounds, we share certain attributes:
o Knowledge of medicine or an aptitude for understanding it
o Ability to write (most medical writing does not require us to write like Hemingway, but medical writers must be able to write clearly at a level appropriate to the audience and the project)
o Education: College degree in science, pharmacy, medicine, journalism, or English. Scientific medical writing generally requires a scientific degree (science, pharmacy, medicine).
o Marketing medical writing generally requires a degree in journalism or English
o Deadline orientation

Policy and Procedure Writer:
A policy and procedure writer creates new documentation and updates the existing one. He is responsible for researching, gathering, documenting and writing policies, procedures, processes, and guidelines. He visualizes graphics and document layout and design. He specializes in organizing multiple pieces of information and translates information into clear written documentation, and also reviews, analyzes, evaluates and refines policies and procedures. He should keep abreast of new or updated regulations and modifies the policies accordingly.

To be continued........

ESSENTIAL SKILLS OF A TECHNICAL WRITER

Technical Writers obtain and present specialized information within strict accuracy and format requirements and strong organizational skills. Technical Writers use the following skills, knowledge, and abilities to accomplish their daily tasks of technical documentation:

• Communication: Communication may be of following types:

• Written - Communicating effectively in the form of technical writing as dictated by the needs of the audience.
• Verbal - A technical writer must have the ability to interact well with SMEs and clients. This helps in getting relevant information from them in a professional and personable manner. Conducting in-depth interviews with subject matter experts helps in understanding the product or procedure. Excellent verbal communication helps technical writers to convey information by talking effectively.

• Active Listening - Listening actively to other people and asking appropriate questions.

• Analyzing- Capability to analyze the needs of the target audience.
• Strong Concentration-Technical Writing requires the ability to concentrate for long periods of time.
• Information Gathering Skills - Knowing various sources of information and identifying essential information.
• Strong Organization Skills- Organize multiple pieces of information, so that the need for further information is recognized and redundant or irrelevant information is discarded.
• Continuous Learning - Keeping abreast of new information, material, recent advances and technology.
• Technical Attitude – Interpreting complex technical material
• Giving and Taking Constructive Criticism: Technical writers should welcome useful criticism, which should be analyzed and taken forward for reworking their original ideas until the satisfaction of the customer or user.
• English Language – A good grasp of grammar, composition, structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words is essential for doing justice to the technical writing profession.

What is Technical Writing?

Technical Writing is everywhere around us, so much so that it doesn’t even get noticed. You get exposed to technical writing in everyday life when you try to operate your new washing machine, camera, microwave (or any other product) using the user’s manual. Do you know that the user manual has been written by a technical writer? Yes…it is the technical writer who has done this marvelous job of explaining all the steps required for operating the device in a logical procedure. The piece of technical writing also explains the parts of the product considering your level of understanding and your requirement of knowledge of the technicalities involved in the device.

So, we see that technical writing is a unique and diverse field of communication written for business, industry and customers. Technical Writing is writing on a particular subject for a defined purpose and is adapted to a specific audience which may range from experts to a layperson. It is a structured way of writing that presents technical information to readers (the audience) in such a way that it is adapted to their needs and understanding level. You write about a technical subject in such a manner that even a beginner can understand. The main purpose of technical writing is to communicate technical information, e.g. user manuals, online helps, training materials etc to the user. The technical content may be printed or electronic documentation.

In today’s customer-centric business model, an organization’s technical writing activities serve as a reflection of its customer-oriented attitude. For example, the main purpose of writing the user manuals of a company’s products or services, for instance application software, is to provide easy reference to readers for efficient usage of the software. In addition, the writing explains the functioning of each screen of the application along with its navigation to other screens. The reader’s purpose of reading the communication is to get an insight into the functionalities covered by the application software so that they can use the application efficiently and independently.

In addition to the above example of a user manual there is a vast array of different forms and types of technical writing existing in the work place. This includes memos, letters, proposals, reports, brochures, software requirement specifications, websites, online helps, technical descriptions and the list is endless. In each case, the common goal, which is achieved by technical writing, is to create clear, crisp and easily understandable written communication.

Principles of Technical Writing

Well written technical documentation serves valuable purposes in the workplace. Reviewing the basic principles of technical content writing can help you become successful technical writer to a great extent. The key principles of technical writing are as follows:

Audience Orientation: Focus on what need of the audience does the document aim to fulfill. Take into account the level of expertise of the audience. Consider how the document should be organized so that it fulfills the need of the user most conveniently.

Organization and Content: Convey ideas and analysis, not just raw data and statistics. Illustrate points made in the text using graphics, images and descriptive examples. Allow the reader to digest one block of information at a time by organizing the information into paragraphs and subheadings. Make it easy for the reader to find the main points; don’t bury them in text. Write observed facts from a neutral point of view so that communication is fair and unbiased. Use cross references in the text to clarify or elucidate points. The overall logical organization of the document must lead to the result stated.

Formatting: Document formatting drastically increases the user friendliness and readability of a document. Chapter and section titles must be descriptive and informative. Line spacing and paragraph indentation can give the document an open, easy look by introducing ample white space. Font sizes and styles should be chosen so that they are large enough to be legible, and yet look good. Page numbers and header-footer content make it easy to navigate through long documents.

Language: We must remember that technical writing seeks to convey information in a simple yet (if possible) interesting manner. Keeping this in view, use simple vocabulary and short sentences. Aviod redundant words e.g. “New innovative”. Delete words, sentences and phrases that do add to the meaning. Take special care of spellings, grammar and punctuation. Use active voice wherever possible, since sentences normally turn out to be shorter e.g.

Passive- “It is supposed that…”

Active- “Supposing…”

Avoid using “I” in formal reports. Use “I” in progress reports, memos, letters, sometimes proposals. Use past tense to describe your experimental work and results. Use present tense in most other writing. The document can be made interesting by using an active mix of simple and complex sentences of limited length.

Tips for Writing Good Documentation

Technical documentation. I doubt it's something any of us would list as our favorite genre, either to write or to read. But it's one of those necessities we often curse then begrudgingly accept when we have to wade our way through it in order to solve a problem or when we have to write it in order to explain a technical product.
Good documentation is hard to write. There are a number of forms in which technical documents can take: very general or high-level overviews, step-by-step walkthroughs, or auto-generated documents, for example. Add this to the variety of users who might need your documentation - their different needs, technical expertise, learning styles - and you'll probably find there is really no one single format that will work for everyone.

Writing for the Right Audience
With that in mind, the first thing you need to consider when writing documentation for your project is audience. An end-user will want documentation that's primarily instructional - a How-To. While some technical concepts can be mentioned (and explained), the emphasis should be on the interface, not on the back-end. Another programmer looking at the documentation will want additional information: technical details of how program elements work, where in the code actions occur, and if applicable, how to extend the code. Writing for one audience shouldn't preclude writing for the other, but you should consider separate documents - the user's technical documentation and the technician's technical documentation, so to speak.

Types of Documentation

In Jacob Kaplan-Moss guide to writing great documentation, he points to three categories for documentation: tutorials, topical guides, and reference guides.
Tutorials: Tutorials are important as they are often a first impression when someone uses a new tech tool. As we've written about before, there are a number of tools to help you make good tutorials. But if you're writing one, Kaplan-Moss recommends tutorials be quick and easy - but not too easy - and demonstrate how your project "feels." Example: the user guide for the recently release Anthologize blog-to-eBook tool. Note the screenshots that accompany each step.
Topical Guides: These are, in the words, of Kaplan-Moss, "the meat of your documentation." While a tutorial provides an introduction to high-level concepts, topical guides are for those who want to dig deeper. Their main goal should be comprehensiveness. As Kaplan-Moss notes, books often outshine the official documentation, which is unfortunate as the latter can be kept better up-to-date. Example: Django documentation - everything you need to know about Django (and then some).

Reference Guides: Reference guides are designed for those users who understand some of the "how" found in the guides, but are looking for information. "These should be designed for those who already know how to use some API, but need to look up the exact arguments some function takes, or how a particular setting influences behavior, etc. It's important to point out that reference material is not in any way a substitute for good tutorials and guides!" Auto-generated documentation is a start, but without additional writing, editing, organization, it's unlikely to really answer anyone's questions.
And just because it's "technical writing" doesn't mean that you should forgo poetic language, grammar and spell-check. OK, well, at least please edit for spelling and grammar.
Source:http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2010/08/tips-for-writing-good-document.php

What is Digital Branding?

In order to understand Digital Branding, it is first important to understand the concept of branding thoroughly. Branding involves creating a positive image of a product or service in the mind of the potential consumer. This image could play on a theme; for example, reliability, excellence, customer-friendliness, convenience or even a wide-spread presence. (Remember Hutch? The network that follows you wherever you go?). When a concentrated campaign to drive home the USP (Unique Selling Point) of a company is carried out online, it is called Digital Branding.

Digital Branding Solutions involve creating an aura of the company in cyberspace. This means that whenever a user types a query about a certain product or service, your company shows up every time, that too at the top. Also, the user must really like what he sees and be able to relate to it. This involves a lot of things:

1. A clear grasp of consumer buying patterns, cultural preferences and demographical peculiarities.
2. A good knowledge of the surfing habits of potential clients – what keywords do people use when looking for your kind of product? Do they go to forums, article sites or price comparison sites? (An excellent example: Which sites do people having money to invest surf? Investment sites. Hence, it is a better idea to pitch a piece of land for sale on an investment site rather than a real estate site.)
3. You have to be very familiar with the Internet (Naturally!) and sites where you can make yourself visible.
4. Your concepts of internet marketing and branding must be very clear, so that you know what to deliver, when to deliver it and what medium to use; that’s when branding becomes digital branding.

Good digital branding is an art and a science. It is often best to use the services of a good digital branding and marketing company that can analyze your needs and tailor-make a solution for you. The best part about such services is that they are easily available, extremely effective and give quick results, and also give you a permanent presence on the web.

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