Photo by Rob Ireton used under CC BY NC SA 2.0
Technical writing tends to baffle a lot of those who went to college for English or other Arts majors. There’s a lot of writers out there who want to get into technical writing but they don’t know where to start. This is especially true of those who had English majors in college and graduate to find that tech skills are in high demand. You have to be a bit technically inclined in order to get a job even as an entry level content writer. If you’re planning to get into technical writing or have a career, you should start reading before you jump in with both feet into a job you might end up really hating.
For technical writing skills specifically, you should read a lot of technical papers, instructions etc. and then write a lot. When it comes to writing skills, practice does make it perfect (no matter how cliché it is). Ask yourself what niche market are you going to focus? Do you want to write software manuals? Manuals that come with electronics like cell phones, digital cameras and so on. Or are you interested in writing “how to” articles on using a particular system?
Find that niche first and start reading those articles, manuals etc. in that field so that you’re aware of the vernacular. I find WordPress Codex to have great information — the information is well organized and easy to follow, even for a non-technical person. They write stuff on how to use WordPress and things that you can do with it. It acts as an online manual for the masses. It is also a very popular blogging platform. For every great product, there is always a great support system. Technical writing IS first contact between the consumer and the product. Firefox support is another great support online. More and more people will be looking for support online in the coming years. Instead of calling customer support, consumers will be Googling and contacting other consumers. That’s why online written support is going to be really important for Web 2.0 products.
Once you’re familiar with the format, you should start writing your own manuals/technical articles, posts etc. You can do it on your own blog as tutorials. You can also join a community like Ubuntu and contribute to documentation. There’s a ton of open source projects that need help with documentation. What’s more, the open source community will support you as a writer, and as someone who is learning the ropes. Later on, you can even become an expert and you’ll be known for that.
Personally see technical writers as translators between geeks and the laymen. Geeks are great when it comes to developing new technologies but some of them don’t know how to communicate to the rest of the population who speak “English”. As a technical writer you need to understand geeks and translate that into English, breaking things down to the simplest level that everyone can understand. So, don’t forget to test it out on your mom after you’ve written something!
Pingback: Tweets that mention How to develop Technical Writing Skills | The Semblr Blog -- Topsy.com