Last week a blog post by fellow technical writer Colum McAndrew (who I was delighted to meet in person at the London Tech Writers Social) raised a lot of responses on Twitter. Colum’s topic was Top 10 technical writer annoyances. Some of the items on Colum’s list resonated with me and with other professional technical writers, as many of us think that what we can contribute, particularly to a software development team, is not fully appreciated. Australian technical writer Rhonda Bracey pointed out that she published a similar list on her blog quite some time ago.
These contributions on Twitter (all marked with the #hashtag #topTWannoy) came from a range of writers, all on the same theme: technical writers are often expected to create documents instantaneously, to understand new product features by telepathy, and to meet deadlines that they were never told about. They are sometimes kept away from engineers and developers (for a software developer to speak to a tech writer would be “wasting time”) and they are kept even further away from the customers who need to actually use the products that the tech writer is trying to write explanations for. They are looked down upon by software development teams, and deliberately given tasks regarded as menial (like being asked to take meeting minutes because surely that’s all that a “writer” knows how to do).
I was one of the people who contributed to this Twitter thread, and I’m amongst the first to see the funny side of the way we tech writers are sometimes mistreated and misunderstood. But I do have two serious comments on this subject.
First of all, not every company treats its technical writing with disrespect. Some companies, particularly larger organisations, take technical communication very seriously and value their technical documentation teams. Take for example IBM, whose senior technical writers contributed to Developing Quality Technical Information: A Handbook for Writers and Editors
My second thought is about professionalism. Enhancing the professional profile of technical communications practitioners is quite rightly high on the agenda of technical writing associations such as the ISTC and the STC, but that’s not enough. It’s also the responsibility of every technical writer to act professionally, whatever anyone may say to us.
Certainly one of the most interesting talents the best of us bring to a place of work is the ability (and the patience) to behave graciously in the face of ignorance about what we do.
Related to this, I consider educating my employer and colleagues (hopefully so that they cannot actually feel me doing it) is part of my job description, and consider that I am doing that part of my job very well when I am respected, and my work is respected, when with the same people previously it was not.
For some technical writers and editors, this is a requirement too far. But I believe that the best of us do it naturally and well.
The above comment about educating the employer is so true. We teach our employers about what we do and how it’s meaningful to the organization, in the same way we also teach the users how our product works and how it is meaningful to them. You’re educating everybody.
I totally agree with you, Peter! An important part of our job is to secure the transfer of knowledge on the products for all the company. It is also the opportunity to advertise the TW’s job.