Promoting technical writers

By ADAM GIFFORD

The Technical Writers Association is on the lookout for people who are technical writers but do not know it.

The association is holding its second conference at Auckland's Waipuna Lodge on September 7 and 8, where members will share experiences, pass on the latest industry tips and trends and try to raise the status of technical writing in this country.

It will include sessions on writing for the web, useful writing and graphics tools, and creating working relationships between technical writers and engineers.

Speakers include innovative online help specialist Tony Self from Sydney company Hyperwrite, indexing guru Janet Hughes from Victoria University and author Rachel McAlpine whose latest book is a guide to web wordsmithing.

"A lot of people do technical writing as part of their job, but it's not recognised as such," says association president Ruth Hamilton.

"The association promotes technical writers in the workplace so companies know they exist and the people who do the writing know what they are called," says Ms Hamilton, who teaches technical writing as part of Unitec's bachelor of international communication as well as running her WriterInc consultancy.

"It also offers collegial support and tries to find formalised training for technical writers."

She says by coming together writers can establish industry norms and standards.

"If a company says documentation has to be finished by a certain date, a writer is able to draw on their wider experience to say what a reasonable time is, what the likely cost is and what difficulties may arise.

"It gives a writer more control and it gives companies realistic benchmarks."

One of the association's founders is Rudi Huijsmans, whose 10-year-old business and training consultancy, Noesis, has developed a strong technical writing focus.

He says that in the United States technical writing is a post-graduate degree, while here it is, at best, a brief adjunct to a university or polytechnic communications course.

Technical writing covers not just software and hardware manuals but people who map business processes, prepare courses or assemble franchise guides.

"They are a group who communicate a concept or business process or technology to an end user group.

"Technical writing requires business knowledge, a natural ability to write and strong analytical skills. You also need to understand how people learn about new materials and concepts. The people who really like this sort of work get a buzz from picking up something technical and showing it to someone else."

Mr Huijsmans says the best writers have often worked in an industry. "The best technical writer in terms of IT is the person who finds programming too tedious and becomes more interested in the end user."

And while only 3 per cent of users might read manuals, "the others ask the person who reads the manuals. That person becomes the product champion."

NZ Technical Writers Association