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Got Skills? Get the Skills You Need to Succeedby Savita TaylorYou know the difference between a transitive and an intransitive verb. You can troubleshoot computer networks in your sleep. You know the ins and outs of the latest help authoring tool. Now think fast. How do you set up an account in ICI 5.0? Technical writers have to learn, and document, unfamiliar systems and products all the time. This is in addition to learning new software applications and industry terms. Learning quickly is just one of the transferable skills you need to be a successful technical writer. Five more of these valuable skills are presented below. Think like your audience You take the time to analyze your audience before you begin writing for a reason: You must think like an audience member as you write. Is this tutorial too complicated for someone who is navigating the Internet for the first time? Is this quick start guide too elementary for someone who has used the three previous versions of the product? Remember, you are writing for your audience, not for yourself. Just because something makes sense to you, doesn’t mean it will be familiar or logical to them. Visualize abstract ideas Technical writing does have some creative aspects to it. You have to be able to picture how to best represent information on a page. This is not always as cut and dry as using a template. At one point or another, you will have to turn an orange, blue, and green flow chart scribbled on a white board into useful information. After you decipher and develop the raw ideas, you need to use your imagination to transform them into an effective, readable document. Ask probing questions Getting product information goes beyond asking how something works. Why does the product work a certain way? Does the user need to know this information to use the product? As you interview subject matter experts, start by asking open-ended questions that require an explanation. Then base your line of questioning on established information to drill down to what you need to write your document. Follow a moving target The product that’s supposed to launch on Tuesday will actually launch on Thursday. And it will have 12 more features than it has today, all of which have to be documented in the user manual. Projects will inevitably stray from that pretty plan that was initially unveiled. You have to know how to roll with the punches. Get involved early on projects and stay involved throughout. Updates that may seem negligible to your work at the time can help alleviate surprises down the road. Have a thick skin Getting feedback from developers, managers, users, and other writers can be very beneficial and can help you become a better technical communicator. Remember, the document is being critiqued, not you. Don’t become so attached to your documents that you can’t separate yourself from the words on the page. As you can see, successful technical writers bring more to the table than writing and technical skills. A new help authoring system will come out, and the industry you work in will change, but knowing these transferable skills will carry you a long way in your technical communication career.
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