Re: Newbee looking for advice

["Nancy Osterhout" <bluetwilight -at- home -dot- com>]

R Senthilnathan <rsenthil -at- crosswinds -dot- net> wrote:

<<I am contemplating moving into technical writing. <snip>I
have been a journalist for almost fifteen years, <snip> I
would appreciate any help/advice.>>

Hello, R.  I would imagine that having such a strong
experience in journalism that you do would be very
well-suited to the transition that you want to make.
Actually, I'd say that you already ARE a "tech writer."  I
have just one question.

What kind of "tech writing/communication" do you want to do?
Web stuff?  User manuals?  Process and/or procedure
documents?  Annual reports?  Editor?  Help screens?  Grant
requests?  OR... do you want to skirt the edges of being a
software programmer in your career direction?

Not every tech writer writes for a high-tech audience or
even high-tech content in what we write.  The definition of
"technical writing" is simply "Communicating specialized
information to an audience so that they can use it."  The
kind of information can be anything ... like the Farmer's
Almanac or instructions on how to fill out tax forms.
(There's not much more technical kind of information than
the stuff from the IRS to us unhappy taxpayers!)

I'd suggest that you begin with your local chapter of STC
(Society for Technical Communication) -- www.stcwvc.org.
There are all kinds of Special Interest Groups.  I found
that just by attending local chapter meetings that I
enriched my own professional network greatly.

There is an official definition of how STC (Society for
Technical Communication) defines it for purposes of its
competitions.  Here is the relevant extract from the
Competitions Handbook.

**********begin quote**********

What is technical communication?

Defining "technical"

STC generally does not place restrictions on the content of
materials submitted to its technical communication
competitions, provided the entry meets the criteria for the
specific category. STC also trusts the judgment of local
competition committees and judges in making decisions about
whether a particular entry is acceptable. However,
competition committees and judges might have questions about
whether an entry qualifies as "technical" communication.

Technical communication (and this encompasses scientific and
medical communication as well) has come to mean two quite
different things.

---  A piece can be technical because it is about a
technical product, service, or subject matter (for example,
computer software and hardware manuals). This is what many
of us are used to thinking about as technical communication.

--- A piece can be technical because it comes from a
technical organization. The piece itself need not describe
technical aspects of the organization. Examples:
newsletters, annual reports, policies and procedures, and
employee guides.

It would be impossible to answer the question of what is
"technical" to everyone's satisfaction. STC recommends a
liberal interpretation in which "technical" encompasses any
entry having to do with a mechanical or scientific topic, or
with practical, detailed methods, processes, or means of
accomplishing objectives. Such entries will typically
contain specialized information in a wide variety of subject
areas for audiences that might range from laypeople to
subject-matter experts. Under this definition, the content
might seem to be non-technical (cooking is an often-cited
example), and yet the communication about it would be
technical if the intent is to inform or instruct.

Note the important distinction that "technical" applies to
the content of an entry, not to the delivery mechanism. That
is, the delivery method alone (for example, Web pages) or
the tool used to produce an entry (for example, a
sophisticated drawing application) is not enough to qualify
an entry as technical. A book of fairy tales produced on the
most elaborate publishing or online system is still a book
of fairy tales."

**********end quote**********

Hope this helps.  I, myself, write process documentation.
And help groups to develop the process itself in the first
place.  The most satisfying part of this kind of writing is
helping groups to figure out what it is that they would
rather do to get the outcome they desire from the process.
The document itself is a by-product of that shared
experience.

Depending on the purpose and audience of the process, I
write the document so that it will meet the international
standard for quality (ISO 9000) or to meet Level 2 criteria
for the CMM (Capability Maturity Model for software
development).  Guess you would call me a "process
specialist."  Unfortunately, folks mistake my job
description all the time because the term "technical" means
different things to different people.

Hope this helps.

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