FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS           "Precision of communication is important, more important than ever, in our era of hair trigger balances, when a false or misunderstood word may create as much disaster as a sudden thoughtless act."     I have included information here that I hope will be useful to anyone who is considering hiring a technical communicator: What is Technical Communication? What is Graphic Communication? What does a technical communicator do? Why can't my employees do their own documentation? Why do I need a technical writer? What should I look for in a technical writer? I'm not sure what I want or need. Can a technical communicator help?         WHAT IS TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION?           —James Thurber (1894-1961), Humorist & cartoonist     Technical communication occurs daily in just about every industry whenever a message that contains important information is transmitted to an intended recipient. It could be an annual report distributed to shareholders; it could be an equipment manual that a customer will refer to for the operation and maintenance of a six-figure piece of equipment; it could be a brochure that contains information about a company and its products and services; and the list goes on.                                 The field of professional technical communication is based on rhetoric—the oratorical tradition of the art of persuasion; writing—communication through written means; design—communication through visual means; and cognitive science—the study of how people perceive communication and how they actively interpret the message in order to construct meaning.                                 WHAT IS GRAPHIC COMMUNICATION?                 There is an interesting inter-relationship between technical communication and graphic communication. Technical communication emphasizes the written over the visual, where visuals act to support and reinforce text to aid understanding. Graphic communication places first emphasis on the visual over the written, where text plays the supporting role.                                 Graphic communication is design with meaning. The context usually involves a short attention span from the audience so it is important to grab their attention with the visuals, hold it by providing supporting information, and lead the viewer into the desired action, such as reading a brochure, purchasing a product, or searching for more information on a website. Since the emphasis is on the visual, graphic communication may contain very little to no text, therefore any text will have a high overall impact and must be very carefully chosen to support the visual—posters, brochures, packaging, and other elements of marketing tend to be more visually oriented.                     top           WHAT DOES A TECHNICAL COMMUNICATOR DO?               A technical communicator translates complex information and ideas into content that can be easily understood by the intended audience. We create reader-based documents by being skilled at: identifying the purpose of a document identifying the context in which the reader will use the document analyzing the client's needs and ensuring that they are met analyzing the reader's needs and ensuring that they are met working with subject matter experts (SMEs) to research, gather, and develop content identifying and gathering and/or developing any necessary graphic information designing an aesthetically pleasing page layout that effectively organizes information, and aids readability and comprehension                                 WHY CAN'T MY EMPLOYEES DO THEIR OWN DOCUMENTATION?             If you've worked with a technical communicator before, then you already understand the value that we add in supporting your products and services. If you've never hired a technical communicator before it may be that you believe that you can assign any employee to develop your documentation because they know the subject matter and everyone can write, right?                                 Well, you may have staff with excellent writing skills but experience shows that documentation written by untrained writers is usually not as useful as it could be. Staff are very busy doing their job and tend to consider documenting their work to be a distraction from their primary duties. Because writing takes effort and time, staff will probably be more concerned with archiving their knowledge than designing a document that will be easy for the reader to use. This results in documentation that few would want to read.                     top           WHY DO I NEED A TECHNICAL WRITER?                 Remember what I mentioned above—that cognitive science research shows that people actively interpret the message to construct meaning? The act of interpretation is influenced by many life experience variables (such as level of education, level of knowledge about the subject matter, grasp on the language, cultural awareness, and many more) that can interfere with understanding the intended meaning.                                 Documents written by untrained writers are usually not as useful as they could be because the needs and demographics of the intended reader have not been carefully considered. Information may be unconsciously excluded because it is assumed to be common knowledge. Unnecessary information that confuses the reader may be included. The document itself may not be designed as well as it could be, making it difficult to read and understand.                                 A professional communicator brings training and experience in clear writing and logical organization, audience analysis, and visual presentation to every project.                                 WHAT SHOULD I LOOK FOR IN A TECHNICAL WRITER?               Technical communicators come from a broad range of fields and backgrounds. According to the Society for Technical Communication, the most common academic backgrounds are English, Technical Communication, Business Administration, Computer Science, Science, Engineering, and Journalism. Technical communicators may specialize in one or more aspects of technical communication such as writing, editing, web design, illustration, information development, and usability and user-centered design, to name a few.                                 So, what you should look for is someone who can produce the type of document that you need (such as instruction manuals, marketing brochures, or website content) using the tools you have specified (if ongoing access and maintenance is an issue).                                 You might expect that it would be best to hire someone who is familiar with your business, and ideally it might be but it's not absolutely necessary. Familiarity with an industry may reduce the learning curve a bit but there will still be an initial learning curve while the communicator becomes familiar with the aspects of your particular business that are relevant to the project at hand. All professional communicators are capable of working in unfamiliar arenas and interacting with a wide range of employees to obtain and synthesize necessary information into a final product that satisfies the client and their customer’s needs.                               I'M NOT SURE WHAT I WANT OR NEED. CAN A TECHNICAL COMMUNICATOR HELP?           Absolutely! A technical communicator can evaluate what you have, survey your clients/employees, and determine what is working as is, what needs to be improved, and what is missing.                                 Whether you are or are not sure about what the end product should be, a technical communicator can assist with making sure that the right message is delivered to the right audience.                     top                                 Copyright © 2006-2008 Yvonne Esquivel. All rights reserved.           Home | Services | Portfolio | FAQs | About | Contact | Site Map