How to Tell if You Have What it Takes to be a Technical Writer

I read an article a long time ago that aptly described the skills every technical writer needs. It was so long ago that I don’t even remember the publication anymore, however, I’ve kept a copy of the article and take it out every once in a while just for kicks. The author, Nancy Twito Morris titles the article “Tech Writers Identifiable by Their Sneakers.”

NOTE: I’ve attempted to locate Ms. Morris, but to this date, have been unsuccessful. I hope that I’ve given her enough credit for her wonderful article. If I can do more, and anyone knows how to contact her, I’d truly appreciate the help.

Have a Sense of Humor
She starts out the article by indicating that to be a good technical writer it requires many skills. Then she lists those skills by explaining that to be a good technical writer one must be able to:
* Determine what documentation is desired or required (She relates this skill to playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey.)

* Quickly answer, “What does a technical writer do?”

* Carry justification for your existence.

* Maintain buckets of patience to work with people whose highest praise is “You might even be a good programmer someday.”

* Generate high levels of adrenaline to keep yourself awake while writing operating procedures.

* Maintain the gentle touch of a June breeze and the effect of a monsoon while editing analysts’ work.

* Humbly acknowledge your role as an uneducated orphan in a data processing environment.

* Chuckle unbelievable when hearing “Every shop needs documentation to keep the janitors in work” for the 23rd time.

* Match Lord Peter Wimsey’s tenacity to translate programming “genius” into English.

* Be as ruthless as a New York City cop while asking questions.

* Willingly sacrifice your intellect, your integrity, and your soul in arbitrating the writing of business requirement specifications.

Ms. Morris ends the article by indicating that technical writers are more outgoing than the programmers and analysts that they work with. She relates that as technical writers, “we’ve been given the task – albeit by default – of carrying the banner of human manners into the house of high technology. Tech writers are easily recognized in a large data center by their sneakers – they match.”

I enjoyed her article the first time I read it and I’ve enjoyed it over a hundred times since. Probably because when I started out technical writing I was in a similar situation. I worked in a large mainframe processing center with about fifty programmers, computer operators, and systems engineers. I didn’t fit in with the help desk.

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