As a technical writer, you are responsible for providing detailed instructions and conceptual information on a specific product. You will help the user understand what the product is, why you need the product or what problems the product can resolve for you, and how the product works.
As a technical writer, you need to understand the product and the user for whom you are writing. This means that you not only have to keep learning new products but also understand each feature that you are documenting while considering how your user will use the information. Since you need to write about the technical product in simple and straightforward terms, you must be well-versed with the product.
If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself. Albert Einstein
Some of the fundamentals for being a good technical writer are:
Audience analysis
Know your users. Write based on your user’s context. For example, ask yourself if your user is experienced or novice or somewhere in between. Do not assume a user would know the concepts. Someone who comes to documentation would have either tried everything in the product or might be new to the product and is looking to get started. As a writer, you want to cover content to help them.
Adapt your writing
When writing, think of user experience and adapt your writing to match your audience requirements. Think how they will search for information, or navigate through the doc. Will they go based on a workflow? Or will alphabetical order be a better approach? When developing content, take some time to go over the overall flow and think like a user. You want to write a document that is useful as usable by your users/readers and not just comprehensive. Having all the information in the world will not help if the information does not provide what your users need.
Use proper English
You must be able to explain not just steps but concepts on features in simple and clear English. Do remember that the content might be translated to other languages. You are not just writing for English speakers but also for non-English speakers. When incorrect English is entered into translation tools, the meaning might change altogether.
Write simple
You are writing to help users understand the product and not showcase your vocabulary. If you can use simple English to convey, use simple words. The only exception would be to use an industry-wide technical term to explain a product.
Learn the product
Use the product to understand what it does and how it works. If you do not understand the product, you will most likely just write what the developer is saying. If the developer were able to explain the product, why would we need writers to break it down into simple language? The developers are technical experts and know what they are talking about but our users might not have the same technical skills or be well-versed with the technical language that the developers use. Therefore, learn the product to use, and then write about it.
Technical writers are responsible for producing a variety of technical documents. Few of them are listed here: