Technical Writing

When done right, documentation seems like it was easy to develop. The user can find what he or she needs quickly, it’s easy to understand, and they have very little need to call technical support for answers. When done poorly, documentation is a source of irritation and frustration for your customer. Poor documentation is often the result of writing done by someone who would rather be doing just about anything else. Engineers are often called upon to throw together some documentation at the last minute before a product goes out, "so we can have something in the box." This is expensive for the company, frustrating for the engineer, and annoying for the customer.

Good technical writers save money for the company. They use their interviewing skills to get the right information quickly, not wasting subject matter experts’ time. They use their tools skills to develop the document/help as quickly as possible. They use their writing and editing skills to make the end result clear and concise. Technical writers can also help a product development team by testing the product, writing/editing user interface components, suggesting product improvements - anything the user sees is of interest to the technical writer.

Line

(c) Copyright 2011, Write on the Edge, Inc.
All rights reserved