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RoboTechnical Writer

© John L. Hoh, Jr.

Did you ever see the movie RoboCop? Do you remember the prime directives of RoboCop?

1. Serve the Public Trust
2. Protect the Innocent
3. Uphold the Law

As a technical writer, you have prime directives as well.

1. Serve the Reader
2. Protect the Client and Yourself
3. Uphold the Laws of Grammar

Some of you may be thinking to yourselves, well, duh! Those are pretty obvious directives. But, did you ever stop to really think about them? Did you ever consider how you should be upholding these prime directives?

I’ve thought about them a lot. Especially as a business owner and independent contractor. Here are my insights into each directive.

Serve the Reader
I consider this directive to be the technical writer’s number one goal for every project. The readers’ needs must come first. If you’ve been contracted to write a printer user manual, but you produce a manual about creating greeting cards with the printer, you haven’t met your first directive.

Unless every user of that printer would only create greeting cards, you’ve missed your target. Sure, you produced a flashy manual complete with examples and tutorials but if you haven’t met the basic user’s needs, then the manual could have been written in ancient Greek and be just as effective.

Determine your target audience then write for that audience. Gather your facts and then write your manual based on your findings. If you write a manual that gives the reader useful information, you’ve succeeded in your first prime directive.

Protect the Client and Yourself
Just about everyone recalls the spectacular lawsuit of the woman who sued a major fast food restaurant because the coffee was too hot. You know the one I’m talking about. Did you consider the lawsuit frivolous? It may have been. On the other hand, do you remember the wave of “cautions” and “warnings” afterward? They were everywhere. On the coffee cups, on signs, and in their own documentation.

As a technical writer, it’s your responsibility to make sure you’ve covered your bases, so to speak. If you’re writing a manual for dangerous machinery, don’t assume that your reader / user is going to be cautious. Put all warnings in writing! Even if you think it’s commonsense. Read the warnings on your own equipment at home.

Every electrical device I have at home has a warning about using in or near water. Sure, some of us laugh at the warnings. Who in their right mind would use a hair dryer in the shower, right?