Technical writing is the process of designing documents to communicate their message with the maximum clarity and efficiency possible. It is, contrary to what many industries rationalise in hard times, a skill that cannot be replaced by your average engineer with a word processor and a diagraming tool. It demands high levels of English (or your language of choice, but most documents will need an English translation at some point) grammar and communications, analysis, design and organisation, attention to detail, and discipline.

Due to the aforementioned industry opinions, it also requires a thick skin, as a lot of the SME's (Subject Matter Experts) you'll be interviewing while you research the document will think you're a waste of their time, and that there's nothing wrong with the document they have already, even though it's only three pages long, contains no diagrams, and hasn't been updated since the initial software release. Welcome to techwriting.

Techwriting isn't just software manuals and requirements - though that makes up a lot of it. Techwriters can work on all manner of documents for businesses, governments and institutions, include policies and procedures, training documents, business plans and analysis, product briefs and design specs, design guides, errata and addendums, and a host of other things. The industry is branching out from straight printed documents, as well - many writers are now commissioned to design complete training packages, utilising videos, interactive media, self-tests and other technology.

Usually, the copyright resides with the person who commissioned the document, and sometimes you'll even have to sign non-disclosure agreements, but there's no end of fascinating projects to discover. Unfortunately, there's an even greater number of mind-numbingly dull projects that need documenting, but both kinds pay the bills - and well.  It's one of the better-paid gigs around for someone with an Editor's skillset - sadly, better than most editors can hope for. The 2007 industry survey had the majority of techwriters earning between AU$80,000 and AU$100,000 per annum, compared to the AU$30,000 - AU$50,000 an editor takes home.

In future posts, I'll be introducing some key techwriting techniques and concepts, such as consistency, single-sourcing, and function-first design, which are useful not just for techwriting, but anyone having to create documents as part of their profession or project.