ChatGPT and the Future of Technical Writing

I started writing this blog post by entering the following request into ChatGPT: “Write a blog post about ChatGPT and the future of technical writing.” I received this in response (“Revolutionizing” indeed):

ChatGPT: Revolutionizing the Future of Technical Writing

Technical writing has always been a critical aspect of various industries, from software development to engineering and medical fields. However, with the rapid advancements in technology, it’s no secret that the way we write and communicate information is changing rapidly. That’s where ChatGPT comes in.

ChatGPT is an advanced language model developed by OpenAI. It uses cutting-edge deep learning algorithms to generate human-like text and respond to user inputs. This technology has the potential to revolutionize the field of technical writing by providing faster, more efficient, and more accurate writing assistance.

One of the primary benefits of ChatGPT is its ability to automate the writing process. Technical writers can use ChatGPT to quickly generate reports, summaries, and other written materials, freeing up their time to focus on more critical tasks. This not only improves productivity but also helps to ensure that important information is communicated accurately and efficiently.

ChatGPT can also help to reduce the risk of human error. Technical writing often requires a deep understanding of complex subjects, and even experienced writers can sometimes make mistakes. With ChatGPT, these errors can be avoided, as the model can generate accurate information based on its vast database of knowledge.

Another advantage of ChatGPT is its ability to provide personalized writing assistance. Technical writers can input specific information, and the model will respond with relevant, customized text. This means that writers can produce unique, high-quality content that is tailored to their specific needs.

Finally, ChatGPT has the potential to make technical writing more accessible to a wider audience. With its ability to generate text in multiple languages and respond to user inputs in natural language, it can help to bridge language barriers and make technical information more widely available to people all over the world.

In conclusion, ChatGPT has the potential to significantly impact the field of technical writing. From improving productivity to reducing human error and making technical information more accessible, the technology offers a wealth of benefits for technical writers and their audiences. With continued advancements in AI technology, we can expect to see even more exciting developments in this field in the years to come.

While some articles I have read on this topic wait until the end to tell you that ChatGPT was used (either entirely or as a guide), I chose to disclose this right at the beginning, and for a good reason.

This blog post not only serves as an example of how ChatGPT can be used to provide a guiding template to write an article, but it also demonstrates how technical writers can improve upon the future of AI-based writing to make their prose sing like a hymn, and not read like a telephone directory (but more on that later).

Here is what this blog post covers:

• ChatGPT is here to stay
• Automating the writing process
• Reducing the risk of human error
• Providing personalized writing assistance
• Making technical writing more accessible
• Learning from limitations
• Technical writing and creative human design

ChatGPT is here to stay

My technical writing colleague Ryan Stevens at Q4 rightly states that technical writers are a necessity to the success of any business and its operations.

Technical writing has always been critical in various industries like software development, engineering, education, and medicine. “Print promotes clarity” is a motto that nicely applies here, especially when it comes to writing tasks, concepts, and reference topics that customers need to use the products we produce for them. Product Help Centers are still the last line of instructional defense against misuse and misunderstanding.

However, with the rapid advancements in technology, it’s no secret that the way we write and communicate information is rapidly changing. That’s where ChatGPT comes in, and it is here to stay.

ChatGPT is an advanced language model developed by OpenAI. It uses deep-learning algorithms to generate human-like text in response to user inputs (from documenting CRUD calls to composing Waka poetry). For example, here are three command inputs you can feed into the AI model:

• Explain string theory in simple terms.
• What is the right gift for a 4th year wedding anniversary?
• How do I make an HTTP request using JavaScript?

At this stage, it is a moot point to debate whether technical writers should be either for or against AI-based writing technologies. The question for writers now is how ChatGPT (and technologies like them) can be used to improve upon an already existing craft that can only stand to benefit from AI.

Bill Gates is right: “We find ourselves with a tool that can make even white collar type jobs far more efficient — looking at invoices, medical claims, or, you know, writing letters. Reading and writing are now within AI’s capabilities…This will change the world.”

Automating the writing process

One of the primary benefits of ChatGPT is its ability to automate the writing process. It is the remedy for writer’s block (technical or otherwise). This is important to address. Our Q4 documentation team writes topics for products under tight deadlines.

ChatGPT can generate reports, summaries, and other written materials. This kind of automation improves productivity (you don’t have to stare at a blank screen any longer as you try to construct an outline) and helps ensure that important information is communicated accurately and efficiently.

One of my tasks as a technical writer at Q4 is to write technical release notes for our R&D teams for each release. I cannot begin to list how many times I’ve read a Jira ticket about a feature that contains concepts I have either not encountered before or did not understand fully (like SPIKE, TIMEBOX, or DAG).

Using ChatGPT helps me to define concepts like these and to understand how they are used to classify tickets in a Sprint. You could use Google to search for a term, but ChatGPT provides a human-like output that discusses the term within a topical context instead of solely providing a definition.

In short, ChatGPT automatically improves upon one of the central skills that every technical writer needs: the ability to learn technical concepts on the fly and to convey them to a general audience with clarity and concision.

Reducing the risk of human error

ChatGPT can also help to reduce the risk of human error. Technical writing often requires a deep understanding of complex subjects. Even experienced writers can sometimes make mistakes. This is especially the case when writing developer documentation.

Writing Application Programming Interface (API) documentation is a good example. Consider the following questions:

• What are Representational State Transfer (REST) APIs?
• What are Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) APIs?
• What are the differences between REST APIs and SOAP APIs?
• Can you provide a good example of how to document an API call?

Entering any one of these questions into ChatGPT provides you with accurate and comprehensive information that can be used to create and maintain your API documentation.

If you are unsure about the nature and scope of a REST API call, you can input questions about HTTP verbs like GET, POST, PUT, PATCH and DELETE to ensure you understand these operations. This helps you avoid possible errors in your API documentation since the model generates accurate information based on its vast database of API architecture.

Providing personalized writing assistance

Another advantage of ChatGPT is its ability to provide personalized writing assistance. Technical writers can input specific information, and the model will respond with relevant, customized text. This means that writers can produce unique, high-quality content tailored to their specific needs. Here are three examples of how ChatGPT personalizes your writing experience:

• It remembers what a user said earlier in a conversation.
• It allows a user to provide follow-up corrections.
• It is trained to decline inappropriate requests.

Making technical writing more accessible

ChatGPT has the potential to make technical writing more accessible to writers entering into this field (either as a first job or as a new career choice) and to writers who write in more than one language.

With its ability to generate text in multiple languages and respond to user inputs in natural language, it can help bridge language barriers and make technical information more widely available to people worldwide.

And it is not just for technical writers. I am encouraging potential blog post writers here at Q4 to use this tool to create an initial draft of the posts they want to write. This draft can then be used as a guide for writing further drafts.

Learning from limitations

While the benefits are extensive, there are limitations to using ChatGPT. There are at least two that I can think of from my time using this tool:

• It may occasionally generate incorrect information. At this stage, this is only a minor limitation. The information it produces still might require fact-checking.
• It may occasionally produce harmful instructions based on biased content. The information that ChatGPT uses comes from fallible human beings. It is, therefore, biased by definition.

Technical writing and creative human design

At the start of this blog post, I said that technical writers can improve upon AI-based writing by making their prose “sing like a hymn, and not read like a telephone directory.”

This might seem technically out of place. It is not. It emphasizes what I consider to be the aesthetic point of technical writing, something that has been overlooked in the past. We ignore the element of beauty in our writing at our peril now.

AI technology is being incorporated into every aspect of software development (from product design to feature delivery). The only way technical writers can usefully contribute to this technology is to aesthetically apply the lessons listed in this blog post (and others like them).

This means doing what I have done here: generate a ChatGPT template, use this template as a guide to produce multiple drafts, and then make it your own by creating your unique literary voice in the process. The beauty of doing this is that another writer could use the same content found in the Coda section to write a very different blog than I have written here!

Technical writers should therefore see their task as not only providing depth of content, but also “beautifying” the products they write about. I once thought that to “pretty things up” was an insulting way to describe the role of the technical writer. With the advance of ChatGPT technology, I no longer see it as an insult. Rather, I view it as the result of technical writing at its contemporary best.

At Q4, the technical writing team is part of the Product Design team. When I first joined Q4, I was delighted by this organizational model. In the past, I was always a part of an engineering team, whether it was an ASIC design team (AMD), a database administration team (IBM), or a middleware team (D2L).

But the wisdom of the organizational decision to deliberately characterize writing as an instance of product design resonated with my aesthetic philosophy of technical writing. At Q4, the Product Design team designs, writes about, and publishes beautiful (because useful) tools.

Because beauty is in the widgets and the words of the designers and writers, our colleagues and customers benefit from our artistic craft. Therefore, the future of technical writing is found within the process of creative human design, which ChatGPT can only enhance.

If you’re looking for your next adventure, explore our open positions and learn more about Q4 by checking out our careers page.