What Do Technical Writers Do, Technically?

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I can’t write advanced code to program machines, but I can write standard operating procedures (SOPs) to program department workflows.

Since my first job out of college, I’ve been writing technical documentation to guide peers through technical processes. It saves me from performing repetitive one-on-one training sessions. I’ve also written documentation to address frequently requested IT support issues for the same application.

I also wrote step-by-step how-to guides on a personal tech blog, which I presented as a writing sample when I interviewed for my current full-time technical writing position at PlayStation.

Though I write SOPs and troubleshooting documents, the technical writing career demands far more responsibilities, stretching skills in project ownership, workload management, and relationship development.

Job Duties and Objectives

Some of my technical writing duties include:

• collaborating with cross-functional teams (CFTs),
• presenting proposals to leadership,
• creating documentation templates,
• organizing knowledge base articles into intuitive page trees,
• managing knowledge base permissions,
• simplifying articles for efficient onboarding,
• designing learning management system (LMS) courses,
• composing standard operating procedures (SOPs) to help engineers execute and streamline their work, and
• designing visual guides and workflows to complement documentation.

These are my objectives:

• Write clear, easy-to-follow documentation. Simple sentences in active voice are key. Even the smallest distractions and ambiguities could cost me precious time clarifying and rewriting documentation.
• Know my audience. Non-technical audiences need elaborate details and imagery to supplement their documentation. Meanwhile, technically proficient audiences are more efficient when guided with fewer details.
• Organize my documentation intuitively. A knowledge base should have an organized page tree. Expanding page trees should reveal content matching the audience’s expectations.

Beware the Curse of Knowledge

At my previous companies, I was the subject matter expert (SME) for all my technical documentation. To my surprise, what I considered common knowledge was advanced material to my colleagues. My documentation needed to fill that gap in understanding.

At my current company, my department’s engineers are the SMEs. I hold SOP creation meetings with engineers to document their technical procedures. During our meetings, I often need to ask them to break down their single sentence of instructions into five separate sub-steps for entry-level analysts who would need clarification.

The technical writer is an exorcist who casts out the curse of knowledge. People with deep understandings of subject(s) possess this cognitive bias, which makes it difficult for them to fathom the gaps in knowledge between themselves and others.

Since I am an average Joe with lots to learn, my lack of understanding actually helps me drill down on these gaps of knowledge to better serve my audience.

What Technical Writing Unlocked

Technical writing is a highly visible career. Your documentation will speak for you, and your organized pages will be a digital environment to please your reachable audiences.

In my role, I love having the full autonomy to plan my schedule and lead meetings. My work is often recognized with compliments by leadership, and has led to some substantial wins for my department. I’ve developed and exhibited management skills by owning projects with care and attention. My management grew to trust me more and involve me in larger projects beyond the scope of my job description.

On top of all this, my leadership granted me opportunities to dabble in other roles within our environment so I could gain project management experience. Technical writing pays well AND pays off.

How To Break In to Technical Writing

To become a technical writer:

• you don’t need to be a creative writer,
• English doesn’t need to be your first language, and
• cost won’t be an issue.

Try these, and you’ll be on your way:

• Research technical writing job postings to learn their preferred qualifications. It’s never too late to learn.
• Study Google’s free technical writing guide.
• Study GitLab’s free technical writing guide.
• Study and implement Google’s free developer documentation style guide.
• Brush up on note-taking skills.
• Learn to use Atlassian’s Confluence software. The free version is enough.
• Practice writing technical guides and designing page hierarchies on a blog, Google Docs, or Confluence. Then, turn them into writing samples for your first interview.
• Join a tech writing community, such as the Southern California Technical Writers group! Request free advice from experts and get the scoop on job opportunities near you.