Technical communication

Technical communication is the process of conveying usable information about a specific domain to an intended audience. The domain is usually academic, job-related, or technological in nature. The information is most commonly conveyed through writing and speech. Information is usable if the intended audience is able to perform an action or make a decision based on its contents (Johnson-Sheehan 7). Technical communicators often work collaboratively to create products (deliverables) for various media, including paper, video, and the Internet. Deliverables include user manuals, technical manuals, product specifications, process and procedure manuals, training, business papers, reports, etc.

Technical domains can be of any kind, including the soft and hard sciences, high technology including computers and software, consumer electronics, and business processes and practices.

In 2006, Scott, Longo, and Wills (SUNY) in their edited collection Critical Power Tools, suggested that technical communication should be analyzed through a cultural studies lens, thus minimizing technical communication's hyper-pragmatic stance. Technical communication jobs include the following:

• Technical writer
• Technical editor
• Technical illustration
• Technical Illustrator
• Information architect
• Usability expert
• User interface designer
• Technical trainer

Content creation

Technical communication is sometimes considered a professional task for which organizations either hire specialized employees, or outsource their needs to communication firms. For example, a professional writer may work with a company to produce a user manual. Other times, technical communication is regarded as a responsibility that technical professionals employ on a daily basis as they work to convey technical information to co-workers and clients. For example, a computer scientist may need to provide software documentation to fellow programmers or clients.

The process of developing information products in technical communication begins by ensuring that the nature of the audience and their need for information is clearly identified. From there the technical communicator researches and structures the content into a framework that can guide the detailed development. As the information product is created, the paramount goal is ensuring that the content can be clearly understood by the intended audience and provides the information that the audience needs in the most appropriate format. This process is sometimes described as The Writing Process (Gerson and Gerson, Technical Communication: Process and Product, 6e).

The technical writing process can be divided into five steps:

1. Determine purpose and audience.
2. Collect information.
3. Organize and outline information.
4. Write the first draft.
5. Revise and edit.

Determining Purpose and Audience

All technical communication is done with a particular end in mind. The purpose is usually to facilitate the communication of ideas and concepts to the audience, but may sometimes be used to direct the audience in a particular course of action. The purpose may be something as simple as having the audience understand the details of some technological system, or to take a particular action using that system.For example, if the workers in a bank were not properly posting deposits to accounts, someone would write the procedure so these workers might have the correct procedure. Similarly, a sales manager might wonder which of two sites would be a more appropriate choice for a new store, so he would ask someone to study the market and write a report with the recommendations. The sales manager would distribute the report to all parties involved in making that decision.In each of these instances, the person who is writing is transferring knowledge from the person who knows to the person who needs to know. This is the basic definition of technical communication

The most commonly used form of technical communication is technical writing. Examples of technical writing include: project proposals, persuasive memos, technical manuals, and users' guides. Such materials should typically present an (informal) argument and be written diplomatically. A user's guide for an electronic device typically includes diagrams along with detailed textual explanations. The purpose should serve as a goal that the writer strives toward in writing.

The identification of the audience will affect many aspects of communication, from word selection and graphics usage to style and organization. A non-technical audience will not understand, or worse yet, even read a document that is heavy with jargon, while a technical audience may crave extra detail because it is critical for their work. Busy audiences will not have time to read an entire document, so content must be organized for ease of searching, for example by the frequent inclusion of headers, white space and other cues that guide attention. Other requirements will vary on the needs of the particular audience.

Identification of multiple audiences indicates that multiple concepts may need to be communicated, and Pfeiffer and Boogerd suggest planning for this situation by first identifying the following for each audience:

• Purpose
• Needed information
• Educational Background

With this information, important needs can be satisfied in a way that caters to all. If this is not possible, audiences may be prioritized by importance, and serving important audiences first. Remaining audiences can be served by including clearly denoted content within the text, such as the advanced topic sidebars that frequently occur in user's guides.

Collecting Information

The next step is to collect information needed for accomplishing the stated purpose. Information may be collected via primary research, where the technical communicator conducts research first-hand, and secondary research, where work published by another person is used as an information source. The technical communicator must acknowledge all sources used to produce his or her work. To ensure that this is done, the technical communicator should distinguish quotations, paraphrases, and summaries when taking notes.

Organize and Outline Information

Before writing the intial draft, it is important to organize all the ideas in a way that will make the document flow nicely. A good way of doing this is to write all random thoughts down on a paper, and then circle all main sections, connect the main sections to supporting ideas with lines, and delete all irrelevant material.

Once each idea is organized, the writer can then organize the document as a whole. This can be accomplished in various ways:

• Chronological: This is used for documents that involve a linear process, such as a step-by-step guide describing how to accomplish something.
• Parts of an object: Used for documents which describe the parts of an object, such as a graphic showing the parts of a computer (keyboard, monitor, mouse, etc)
• Simple to Complex (or vice versa): Starts with the easy to understand ideas, and gradually goes more in-depth with complex ideas.
• Specific to General: Starts with many ideas, and then organizes the ideas into sub-categories
• General to Specific: Starts with a few categories of ideas, and then goes more in-depth.

Once the whole document is organized, it's a good idea to create a final outline, which will show all the ideas in an easy to understand document. Creating an outline makes the entire writing process much easier and will save the author time.

Writing the First Draft

After the outline is completed, the next step is to write the first draft. The goal is to write down ideas from the outline as quickly as possible. Setting aside blocks of one hour or more, in a place free of distractions, will help the writer maintain a flow. Also, the writer should wait until the draft is complete to do any revising; stopping to revise at this stage will break the writer's flow. The writer should start with the section that is easiest for them, and write the summary only after the body is drafted.

Revising and Editing

Once the initial draft is laid out, editing and revising must be done to fine tune the draft into a final copy. Four tasks transform the early draft into its final form, suggested by Pfeiffer and Boogard:

Adjust and reorganizing content

During this step, go back to your draft to 1) focus or elaborate on certain topics which deserve more attention, 2) shorten other sections, and 3) shift around certain paragraphs, sentences, or entire topics.

Edit for style

Style refers to changes that make the writing more interesting, appealing, or more readable. Some changes are made by choice, not for correctness, and may include:

• shorten paragraphs
• rearrange paragraphs
• change passive-voice sentences to an active voice
• shorten sentences
• define technical terms
• add headings, lists, graphics

Edit for grammar

At this point, you can start looking through the document for grammatical errors, such as comma usage and common word mixups (for example, there/their/they're). To get the most out of this step, pay special attention to mistakes which you have repeatedly made in your previous writing.

References

Gerson, Sharon, and Steve Gerson. Technical Writing: Process and Product. Columbus, OH: Pearson, 2007.

Johnson-Sheehan, Richard. Technical Communication Today. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2006.

Pfeiffer, William S. and Jan Boogerd. Technical Writing: A Practical Approach. 4th Canadian Edition. Scarborough: Prentice Hall, 2007.

Associations

• Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators (UK)
• Society for Technical Communication [1]
• Association of Teachers of Technical Writing [2]
• Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication [3]
• IEEE Professional Communication Society [4]
• INTECOM [5]
• Technical Communicators Association of New Zealand [6]

External links

• KnowGenesis - International Journal for Technical Communication
• Docsymmetry
• EServer.org Technical Communication (and Technical Writing) Library
• KeyContent.org
• TECHWR-L, The Internet Forum for Technical Communication
• MITWA (Mentors, Indexers, Technical Writers & Associates) Online resource for Professional Technical Communicators
• What is technical communication? An FAQ by Thomas Albert
• TechCommPros (online resource and email list for Professional Technical Communicators)
• A theory of presentation and its implications for the design of online technical documentation Looks at technical communication and the role of off- as well as online documents in a problem-solving context (service engineering department)
• Technical Communication & Technical Writers in Russia

See also

• Technical communication (Forums)
• Technical communication tools
• Information_graphics