Technical writing:

Technical writing:

With the expansion of various multinational companies through out the global economy, as a result of LPG “ Liberalization, globalization, and privatization”, it became very important for all the companies to educate the customers about their products and services.
In order to provide all the information about the companies and their products and services, they have adapted various means of advertisement
Such as tele-calling, flyers, brouchers, and user manuals etc.
In the process of their publicity, writing assumes a great significance besides the graphics, audio-visuals, electronic media etc.
There are different forms of writing, like the business writing, content writing, abstract writing, technical writing and so on.
All these forms of writing have the common objective in mind, to impress the customers with the content, contributing for the expansion of a company and its products and services.
Writing occupies a prominent place in the promotion of any company or the organization.
The clarity of a writer contributes tremendously to the promotion of a firm, it’s goods and services.
Based on the inputs you have now, you might be wondering, what this technical writing is.
As many believe, technical writing or technical communications is not writing about the rocket science or the brain surgery, it has nothing to do with aironautics,.
It does not mean you have to work or write about the computers all your life, need not write about programming.
In the world of rapid technological developments, people are falling behind and constantly becoming technological illiterates, resulting in the emergence of a new field called the technical writing.
Technical writing or technical communications is a craft which aims at communicating the information about a technical product or a topic to it’s technical and non-technical audience.
It is a new and different area where you are expected to write the content which is very technical in nature.
It is a unique field which expects you to use sixty percent of your writing and fourty percent of technical skills.
It is not confined to a single technical product, it expects you to be able to write about all kinds of technical topics.
In the recent past, it has acquired a great prominence due to lack of good writing skills among the technical professionals.
Therefore, it occupies a vital place in the industry with more growth and income potential.
Another important factor to be considered in technical writing or technical communications is the receiver of the information, the audience.
It is the delivery of the technical information to it’s reader (Viewer or listener),
The information conveyed should be in accordance with his or her level of understanding English, background.
Indeed, the element of audience is very important source for your performance as a technical writer. They challenge you to write about the products and services which can be understood by the beginner or non-specialist.
It may include graphics, images, presentations, diagrams, flow charts, audio-visuals, word or the text documents, and so on.
You need not be a trained graphic designer to be a technical writer, if you have the basic skills in word-processing is sufficient.
It is very important to impress a beginner or non-technical person with your content, through which you can play a crucial role in the expansion of a company and it’s services.
The role of a technical writer:
Though the role of a technical writer can be found indirectly before, during the development of a technical product, his or her direct role can be seen during the post-test of a technical product in the form of the preparation of user manuals, help files, tutorials, instructions, brouchers, flyers, release notes, and so on.
Before we assess the role of a technical writer in detail, let us know the process involved in development of a product.
“Note: this procedure is applicable only for large firms like IBM, MS, Wipro and so on, small firms and organizations have their own means of production”.
There are three important processes involved:
1. SDLC: “software development life cycle or system development life cycle”
2. . Technical writing process:
3. The different file types:
1. SDLC: “ System development life cycle, software development life cycle”
In SDLC, the following procedure is applicable for any reputed software firm.
Marketing department plays a very important role in manufacturing a product.
In the sense, it acts as a link between the company and the client.
It acts on the suggestions and the recommendations of a consumer.
Based on their recommendations the marketing team prepares a document called CRS, “ Customer requirements specifications”.
This will be sent to the system analyst, for consideration,
Based on the recommendations of the analyst, the software or the application begins taking shape.
This is followed by the testing by a tester, unless the sixty percent of testing is done a technical writer cannot come in to the picture.
Based on the suggestions of a tester, the required manuals for that particular product will be composed by a tech-writer.
This includes the product information, user manuals, help files, tutorials, instructions, release notes, in accordance with the requirements of the customers, in the manner which is adapted to them.
This should enable them to understand the material given by the company, the use of language, vocabulary, the sentence structure, and so on, should reflect the nature of a consumer, the manuals of a writer should realize the aims and objectives of the company.
These materials should be clearly understood by the customers.
The materials produced should be available in all the formats, this enables the customers to view the materials at their own preference.
Another important job of a tech-writer is to produce the technical reports of a company:
Much of the focus of a technical writer will be on writing lot of technical reports in accordance with the requirements, of customers.
These are very long documents of a company ensuring all fournished information by a consumer.
These reports should be divide of ambiguity, they should be clear.
The use of vocabulary, headings, links, graphics and other effects should be appropriate to the context.
You don’t need to do an exhaustive research to compile your report, instead you can pull the information from various sources likesome books and half a dozen articles.
You should concentrate more on writing than the research.
How well you incorporate the headings in to the document,
How far it is comprehensible to the reader,
How efficiently you use the graphics to convey the information better,
How far the language is accessible to the reader.
While writing a report the following issues should be addressed:
Subject:
You must decide which topic you want to compose your material on.
Defining the audience before the hand:
You must define the specific audience whom you are going to write your materials for.
Define the purpose of the report:
You should be clear with why you are writing this report,
Define the report type:
You must decide what kind of a report you are producing, is it the feasibility report, or evaluation report, instructions for the application.
Every report should contain the following items:
There should be true and reliable data in the report.
It should have at list one or two graphics.
It should be very realistic in nature.
It must not give any scope for imagination.
Thus, the field of technical writing is unique and very intresting profession, since it enhances one’s technical and writing skills.
It paves the way for all the companies to market their products better.
It ensures that the product is user -friendly.
It enables the companies to produce the goods according to the requirements of the customers.
With the advent of various multinational companies in to our nation the technical writing has acquired much significance.