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> How can I possibly know about this stuff, when these engineers are world
> renowned experts on it? How can I possibly be viewed as worthy of doing
> this documentation?
It is important to realize that while a technical writer does need a degree
of technical expertise, it is not the technical expertise of the engineer
that he needs. It is the technical expertise of the user. When I was doing
documentation for OmniMark Technologies, I needed my technical knowledge to
match that of my audience -- OmniMark programmers. I needed to know how to
program in OmniMark and to solve the kinds of programming problems the
OmniMark programmers typically face. I did not need to know what the
developers knew: how to build a compiler, how to architect a streaming
parser, or how to write portable C code.
To prove yourself worthy to write the documentation, therefore, you need to
figure out who uses the products you are writing about and see if you can
acquire their technical knowledge -- not necessarily all of it, but enough
so that you understand their jobs and how your company's products help them
do their jobs.
That may or may not easier that learning what the engineers know, but at
least you will be facing in the right direction.
---
Mark Baker
Analecta Communications
