Top 10 Skills to Become a Good Technical Writer

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Top 10 Skills to Become a Good Technical Writer
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1. Technical skills 

• To start with, technical skills act as a building
  block in the area of technical writing. Without
  this, you cannot accomplish your goal. 
• Theres a difference between acquiring a degree
  or diploma in any technical field and having a
  thorough knowledge of technical areas. The latter
  one is a must to work as a technical writer. 
• As a technical content writer, you would need to
  extensively read through several high level
  documentations. A specific skill set is required
  depending on your subject matter of interest. It
  can range from engineering to medicine or
  science. 
• In order to achieve effective technical writing
  skills in a particular sphere, you need to
  generate your niche and specialize in it. When
  writing on a niche topic, you end up developing a
  great understanding of it. This will help you to
  enhance your technical writing skills when
  working for any client or company. 
• Examples of technical skills programming
  languages, coding, operating systems, data
  analysis, etc. 

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2. Writing Skills 

• Every technical writer has to work out on writing
  a technical report , technical manuals,
  proposals, SOPs (standard operating procedures)
  and many more. 
• These all types of writing styles have to be well
  conveyed in layman language such that your
  readers do not struggle with the content.
  Technical content writers strive to make their
  piece in a very concise manner. 
• Only a well-crafted piece can be viewed as a work
  of a good technical writer. 
• Some common nuances of technical writing skills
  would include 
• A. Always use active voice B. Use plain language
  C. Avoid jargons and overusing pronoun D. Well
  crafted sentence structure E. Attention to clear
  formatting 
• For better and advanced learning of effective
  technical writing skills, you can also enroll in
  some certified courses available on online
  digital platforms. 

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3. Research Skills 

• When you are working as a technical writer under
  any client, you will be required to write about
  new products launched or data related to its
  features, which you would have never heard of
  before. 
• Developing good research skills can help in
  digging in several sites to get extensive
  information in order to formulate your content.
  Technical content writers often spend hours to
  complete their thorough research on any given
  topic. 
• At times, when you are working as a freelance,
  clients tend to provide specifications and data
  to write about in the content. However, if they
  do not, it is always better to have a hold on
  your research skills which can save up your time
  and help you produce your draft within time. 
• You need to practice aggressively to get a grip
  on effective technical writing whether you are
  looking for a full time or a part-time job. 

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4. Editing Skills 

• Most technical writers usually are very well
  versed in the formatting tools and editing
  styles. Technical writing skills involve editing
  and proofreading your content. 
• When writing a technical report or manual, the
  use of diagrams and visuals comes in handy to
  users or readers. It makes the document more
  comprehensive. 
• Effective technical writing in general follows a
  single layout of style throughout the content.
  Sentences are direct and suitable choices of
  words are preferred over flowery sentences. 
• Better editing skills generally inculcates 
• A. Command over English language, spelling and
  grammar B. Good use of visuals C. Copyediting D.
  Proofreading and reviewing 

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5. Communication skills 

• A technical writer when assigned a new project,
  he/she needs to get more information regarding a
  product from various sources. 
• Here comes communicating with many subject matter
  experts (SMEs). Technical content writers work in
  full coordination with the SMEs to generate
  documents with accuracy. SMEs are the experts in
  the topic. As specialists they determine the
  purpose, guide the idea, and approve the final
  project. 
• Communication skills of the writer define his/her
  ability to listen attentively and record all the
  important notes necessary for the project. Also,
  you should know how to ask correct questions and
  learn from the answers. If you are unclear about
  anything, make sure to clarify it even if it
  seems unreasonable or dumb. 
• Any miscommunication may result in the delay of
  the final product. 

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6. Audience Analysis 

• Analyzing your audience in technical writing is
  essential to your success. In order to understand
  how to present your text you need to
  differentiate your readers whether they are
  highly technical or average or less technical. 
• Basically, if your audience knows very little
  about technical areas then your text needs to be
  least technical more likely for a layman. 
• Technical writers revise their texts based on the
  readers knowledge. They intend to target their
  primary and secondary audience for the product
  effectively. 
• For this, you need to be sure of a few basic
  questions 
• A. Who is your target audience
• B. What they know about your technical field
• C. What is their occupation
• D. What are their interests and needs 

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7. Understanding The User 

• Theres a very minute difference between the two
  and yet a very significant one. Audience analysis
  is done to target customers who would read your
  content. Understanding users is defined as to
  know who we are writing for, more specifically,
  who will use the content and not just read. 
• Readers goal is kept in mind while identifying
  users for your technical document. The entire
  writing process is determined following the
  readers needs and making sure to answer all
  their questions. 
• For technical writers it is important if their
  user holds any expertise in the topic or if it is
  completely new to them. 
• Example- If you are writing a technical report
  for c-suites or manager of the company, basic
  questions you would ask yourself could be 
• A. What did they read?
• B. When they will be reading? (If your text is
  related to something current or has already
  occurred before)
• C. Why will they read? 
• Now, these are your executive-level audience.
  Here, you need to prepare the report relating to
  managers knowledge of the research area. You
  need to present the factors affecting their
  decision. The same document for end-users or
  customers would be completely different as it
  would include solutions to their problems. 
• The document report consists of the same
  technical information. But it has two different
  users and therefore, two very different documents
  have to be produced in order to make it useful
  for both. 

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8. Mind Mapping and Planning 

• After audience analysis and understanding the
  user, the next step is to map your ideas and plan
  them in a flow. For this, you need to
  conceptualize the document. 
• Technical information is complex. Technical
  writers plan accordingly to break it down for the
  common person. A lot of factors are considered
  but not all are included in the final product. 
• There are several ways to process all the bulk
  information but mind mapping tools work the best
  in such cases. You can prepare this before you
  start writing.
• A mind map helps you to include a wide range of
  information and then highlight the key points or
  add additional details. It provides an overview
  of your entire project and makes the process of
  writing much easier. Mind mapping tools can save
  a lot of your time which is spent during the
  planning of the draft. 
• Some examples of mind mapping tools available for
  free are Coggle, Mind Meister, and Draw.io. 
• Also this skill can prove to be very useful when
  writing a technical report wherein you are
  working along with SMEs (subject matter experts).
  You can easily explain your ideas, add or delete
  inputs with more accuracy. 

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9. Fluency with Digital Tools 

• Technical writing skills arent just about
  writing content for technical projects. 
• Tech writing is also about dealing with various
  digital tools. The tools could be for content
  writing like MS Word, Grammarly, Hemingway,
  Evernote, Freemind, Madclap, Robohelp. 
• Apart from writing tools, technical writers are
  often required to create visuals, graphics, and
  screenshots for the content. This step helps the
  readers to get an easy understanding of technical
  information. 
• Thus, basic knowledge about Adobe Photoshop,
  Framemaker, Microsoft Visio, Camtasia Studio, etc
  could be beneficial in developing effective
  technical writing. 
• Technical content writers, who are working for
  some time now, would know that clients mostly
  provide the digital tools for the required
  content. But, you need to be well versed with the
  use of those tools to create high-quality
  content, or else it might get rejected or
  delayed. 

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10. Teamwork 

• You already know technical content writers need
  to go together with SMEs. Apart from this, they
  also need to communicate with other departments
  of designers, developers, editors, and so on. 
• Technical writing requires so many involvements
  with other spheres for various reasons. The
  process of document preparation works along with
  the entire team. Coordinated teamwork could be a
  great value for any team that desires to produce
  the best. 

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