A technical writer is usually someone with a communications degree who prepares manuals, articles, journals and how-to guides that contain complex data, processes, instructions, and information. This usually entails gathering, researching, documenting and disseminate deliverables through an organization’s media platform and communication channels. What a technical writer does depends on their employer who may offer IT, medical, scientific, engineering or technology products and services.
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Technical Writing
An entry-level technical writer who works at a company that sells products may create document standards and structures for assigned product lines. They will work with management to gather and write information for new product releases. This may include online FAQs, printed manuals, release notes, product overviews, and technical specifications. Therefore, they must attend product planning meetings to estimate the documentation content, length, and requirements. They will provide feedback to product developers regarding product functionality and ease-of-use. Their goal is to make products easier to use with fewer instructions and customer service inquiries.
Grant Writing
A grant writer’s primary responsibility is to create proposals to obtain new grants, contracts, funding, and program sponsorships. They accomplish this by creating request templates, maintaining grant archive databases and exploring federal, state, nonprofit and private funding sources. Granter writers will perform data collection, entry and reporting duties related grant opportunity research, program evaluation activities and annual budget reports. Grant writers who work for medical, scientific or technical organizations may need to use photographs, drawings, and diagrams to increase the readers’ understanding. This means that they must translate and simplify complex data into visually digestible information.
Proposal Technical Writing
Technical writers who work in STEM-based employers, such as engineering consulting firms, will create project proposals for investors, executives, and shareholders. They must create written deliverables based on verbal and written input from various players, so they must be able to revise material from multiple sources to maintain consistency. This means that the may solicit information from sales, services, engineering and project management members who will likely communicate at different levels of details, logic, clarity, and quality. A technical writer at an engineering firm will need to verify the accuracy of written material with internal and external experts.
Why is a Communications Degree Recommended?
Graduates of communications programs will possess effective speaking, listening, reading and writing skills for public and media communication. They will know how to observe events, gather data, write reports, edit documentation, apply persuasion and foster engagement. Technical writers who have a degree in communications will understand how media and public opinion shape and are shaped by society, culture, and politics. A degree in communications may be specialized in public relations, applied research, professional writing, and digital, medical, scientific and corporate communication. A technical writing specialization may include classes that cover text, format, style, rhetoric, software, and grammar.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics states that employers prefer technical writers who have a communications degree. The Society for Technical Communication offers certification, education, job help and general support for technical writers.