What makes a technical writer: writing talent first.

[Beth Kane <Kane -at- VENTANA -dot- COM>]

To me, tech writing is less related to "technical" and more related to
"writing."

Above all, a good tech writer is someone who has a talent for explaining
complex things in a way that makes it easy for people with no previous
knowledge of the subject to learn it very quickly.

This talent for explaining complex things also includes organizing the info
well, into logical, helpful sections, chapters, etc. And then there's
indexing -- the info is worthless if they can't find it. This applies to
help systems as well as manuals.

A tech writer must also be able to learn an application quickly _without_
the benefit of talented teachers. You must be an extremely tactful
investigative reporter, gleaning info from stubborn sources, and (very
important) also from playing with the software and _figuring it out
yourself_.

(Note: my reference to stubborn sources doesn't mean I think most engineers
don't want to give you info. Some of them are reluctant, to be sure -- but a
great many of them are simply unable to explain things in laymen's terms.
That's not their area of expertise. That's why the company hired you, to
figure it out and explain it to others.)

You must have _both_: writing talent and technical curiosity/aptitude.
I maintain that it's easier to learn the latter, later in life, than it is
to suddenly pick up a talent for clear and concise explanation.

Beth Kane
kane -at- ventana -dot- com
Tucson, Arizona
Ventana Corp.
www.ventana.com


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