What is Technical Communication?

Technical communication is as diverse as our economy. field has its own focus; each enterprise—commercial, non-profit, or government—has its own messages, markets, and requirements. Technical communications professionals tend to specialize to varying degrees. For example, some work within medical or health care, others are hardware or software specialists or generalists. Experienced professionals tend to be good leaders and managers, though their résumés show a succession of independent, sole-writer, contracts.

What Do Technical Communicators Do?

My professional field includes many fields, such as:

• Information design & arcitecture
• Usability
• Quality assurance
• Marketing
• Editing
• Online Help authoring
• Instructional design
• Graphic & technical illustration
• Requirements analyses
• Design specifications
• Database & system architecture
• Product guide books

Before you can develop an effective communication product, you have to know what you’re to speak about and to whom you’ll speak. If you miss on either of these, you won’t get the job done. Thus:

The process of developing information products in technical communication begins with ensuring that the nature of the audience and their need for information is clearly identified. From there the technical communicator researches and structures the content into a framework that can guide the detailed development. As the information product is created, the paramount goal is ensuring that the content can be clearly understood by the intended audience and provides the information that the audience needs in the most appropriate format. (from Wikipedia)

How Does Technical Communication Help?

Technical communication helps:

• Managers, administrators, engineers, and support staff to use the same software and hardware tools, despite their differences in perpective, dialect, and work environments.
• Customers effectively and efficiently use the products and services they have purchased or licensed.

My profession involves many fields, including:

• Technical Writing
• Technical Editing
• Technical Illustration
• System analysis
• Information Architecture
• Usability
• User Interface Design

“Technical Communication” includes the professional, scientific, medical, and technical industries. No individual is an expert in all areas of the profession, although there are quite a few very good generalists.

I create easily understood and used content.