by Saul Carliner

"Why do you want to become a technical communicator?"

After all, Jody had been a successful mechanical engineer for a few years before beginning her studies in technical communication. The professor wanted to know why Jody would leave one promising career to begin another. In particular, the professor wanted to understand why Jody chose this field.

"Because of my grandparents." she replied.

Jody explained that, one year in the early fall, her grandfather suffered an angina attack. Among the doctor’s various prescriptions afterwards was more exercise so Jody’s grandfather purchased a treadmill. Jody was therefore surprised to see that the treadmill was still in its box when she visited her grandparents several months later.

"Grandpa, I thought you were supposed to use this."

"I am. But I can’t figure out the instructions for assembling it. I’ve been waiting for my engineer granddaughter to visit so she could build it for me."

At that moment, effective communication became Jody’s personal passion. She vowed that no one else’s grandparents should risk their health because they don’t understand the instructions. That’s when she decided to change careers from designing technology to helping people use it (Wahlstrom, 1993).

"Technology does not just mean [software,] machinery, and equipment¾ but the skills, abilities, knowledge systems, and processes necessary to make things happen" (British Council, 1996). Technical communicators develop those skills, abilities, and knowledge systems. We transfer technical information from those who know it to those who need it. Our primary job is facilitating this exchange. In doing so, we play a pivotal role in introducing technology and can have a significant, positive impact on people’s lives.

Technical communicators share this information through user’s guides, references, brochures, newsletters, tutorials and similar types of materials that we collectively refer to as technical communication products. Like more products, the most effective technical communicatoin result from a deliberate process, in which technical communicators:

1. Receive a request to prepare a communication product from a group that is developing a new technology. The group usually includes several technical experts, such as engineers, programmers, and scientists, as well as a manager. Marketing groups also initiate requests to prepare technical communication products.

In some instances, the problem is well defined, such as telling users of a new software package how to install it. In other instances, the problem is unclear, such as naming commercial uses for technologies developed in scientific laboratories. One of our first tasks, then, is clarifying the request.

2. Perform background research to better understand how the intended audience might use the technology, and the business challenges faced by clients and that might affect the budget, schedule, and quality of the communication product. The product of this research process is a set of clearly written goals for the communication product.
3. Working with clients, design and develop one or more communication products to address those needs and achieve those goals.
4. Provide ongoing maintenance of the information to make sure that the people who use it, called users, continue to find the information complete, accurate, and relevant to their needs.

This series of topics introduces you to the process and principles of developing technical communication products. Specifically, after reading this series, you should be able to:

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(c) Copyright. 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002. Saul Carliner. All rights reserved.