The Career Growth of a Technical Writer
The growth pattern of a technical writer is not standardised and it is strongly depended upon the individual professional and firm. They have bright chances to move up the corporate ladder in a radical manner which may begin with an associate or documentation expert to being a senior technical writer and then heading to documentation head leading a team of tech writers. A better profile may be a editor and a documentation manager. This largely depends on the size of organization and the capabilities of the tech writer.
Tech writers can eventually acquire expertise in a specific technical domain and then lead to become heads in software quality analysis or business analysis.
Senior writers in several software documentation departments are largely called as Individual Contributor or ICs. In API/software documentation, IC’s typically work with a team of developers or testers work across many geographical locations. In such software development in software research organizations, an IC plays a very crucial role in the delivery of API/Software documentation.
Technical Writer Responsibilities
A technical writer is a person who maintains, writes, creates designs and from time to time updates the technical documentation which may be in varied forms like white papers, system manuals, user guides, online help, design specifications and other documents.
Various professionals like Engineers, scientists may also be involved in technical writing, which is finally handed over to the qualified tech writer who then converts the draft into a well formatted and written document. A technical writer has the responsibility to articulate the various stuff written in the document in a language which is both understandable and appreciated by the user.
There are a lot of technical documents which are in raw format and handed over to the tech writer for proof reading and correction. So the sole ownership of the effectiveness of the technical document lie with the tech writer however the technical information and facts should be supplied in the correct manner. A professional tech writer is hired for proofreading, editing, and formatting.
A technical writer thus gives the documentation for technical, business, and consumer audiences.
