This article is primarily targeted at those who intend to know what technical communication is all about … and all those wannabe technical communicators.

Just about every gizmo that you come across ships with a user guide, an operations manual, a reference manual or at a minimum, a quick reference guide . Ever wondered who creates all such supporting material or what amount of efforts/money invested in developing, structuring and formatting these documents? You will be startled to know that there is a huge bunch of befittingly qualified people, called “Technical Communicators” behind the scenes, who constantly contribute to making technical products successful in the global markets.

Technical Writing, as this particularly flourishing branch of the software industry is widely called, has witnessed a phenomenal growth, especially since the last decade. With globalization spreading its wings and breaking the international barriers, various multinational IT giants seem to have realized that standardizing the entire flow of technical documentation process based on universally accepted strategies is vital to attaining a competitive edge. As part of this exercise, more effective documentation workflows are formulated with the help of contemporary content management systems (CMS) and publishing technologies.

The key responsibilities of a technical communicator include transforming complex ideas into much simpler chunks of data and present them to technical and non-technical audiences in a specially laid out format. Well, it is not quite easy as it might sound! Starting from analyzing the audience, the technical communicator is involved in every phase of the process, which proceeds through multiple stringent reviews before the work is finally accepted for publication.

By and large, the primary challenge that is faced by any “wannabe” technical communicator is that hardly any reputed university or institute (especially in India) offers courses in technical communication. Most of the aspiring technical communicators master the intricacies of the art on their own.

There is also an ever growing demand for translating technical documents into diverse languages to address the product users from all walks of life spanning the globe. Apart from having writing and translation skills, if the technical communicator has particularly specialized in the subject matter of the document, it is certainly an added advantage.

You will, in a very few years from now, hear more and more aspirants say “I earn my living as a technical communicator”. It is decidedly a remarkable accomplishment.

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