It was a cold and cloudy December afternoon. Traffic was thinning out because it was Christmas Eve. Everyone was excited about the joys and surprises that Christmas would bring. Except me.
I was stuck in a cubicle finishing an operations manual. It was hard to concentrate on the task at hand. He wanted to run out of the office and start the celebrations. But he had to finish this manual. Two cubes down, the project engineer, SJ, was patiently waiting for him to hand it over.
Since this was my first technical writing assignment, it took me a little longer to complete. Finally, I approached SJ and handed him two copies of the three hundred page manual.
“Good job Bryan,” he said.
“Thank you. Merry Christmas to you,” I answered halfway through the door.
“Wait,” he added quickly.
My heart sank. “Please…! Not another revision or change”, I thought.
Slowly, I made my way back to his office. “Do you know what you’ve done?” she asked her seriously. I looked back at him, expecting him to point out several errors in the copy.
He looked at the manuals on his desk, opened one of them and began to flip through it. What SJ said next was very profound.
“Two minutes ago, this manual did not exist. Now yes. I’m going to take this to the other side of the world. It will be used by engineers and geologists to carry out very important operations. Operations that will directly impact our company.
“You have created something with your skills and hard work. You should be proud of yourself. Good luck and Merry Christmas,” he said with a smile.
On my way home that day, I thought about what he said. Those kind words were meant to cheer me up. Being an entry level junior technical writer, I was not treated to the same level as an engineer or a programmer. It’s a reality you may have already faced or will experience in your career as a technical writer. Technical writers will always be seen as intellectually inferior to engineers, programmers, doctors, and lawyers.
Without knowing it, SJ had made me realize a very important aspect of technical writing. I call him the tangibility factor .
As a technical writer, you create documents constantly. He may not realize that these documents did not exist before he created them. Using his technical writing skills, he has created something of value. Something that can be touched and felt. Something that is tangible.
Companies will use your creation to generate corporate growth, reduce costs, create customer satisfaction or streamline operations. In our ambition to be successful and make more money, we tend to overlook and even forget the tangibility factor. But if you look back and think of all the documents you created and how they helped your audiences, you should feel immense pride and satisfaction.
Even if you created a simple 10-page manual on how to operate a simple toaster, chances are someone is using that document. The product cannot be shipped without this document. It doesn’t matter if what you created was small or big, the important thing is that you created it using your abilities.
People think writers are starving. Writing, as a profession, is not considered to be on the same level as the practice of medicine or law. But take a minute and look around you. All the products and services you use have contributions from writers.
To illustrate this point, let’s look at the car buying process. Let’s say you’re in the market for a new car. You would start by doing a little research. You can go online and read car specifications and features written by a technical writer. You can order an information brochure written by a business writer or copywriter. Or you can watch a flashy commercial on TV. The commercial was written by a screenwriter.
When you buy the vehicle, you will sign contracts and documents written by legal writers. Finally, you will get the owner’s manual, which was created by a technical writer.
The process I have described is the sales process. Imagine the role writers play in the manufacturing process and customer service. Every document, whether printed or electronic, is written by a writer.
As you can see, writers play a very important role in business and industry. But our contributions will always be ignored by society at large.
My point in writing this article is not to compare technical writing to other occupations. Nor is it yearning for the recognition of our profession. Rather, I hope to instill a sense of pride in technical writers. because what we do does it play a very important role in the lives of our target audience and customers.
Keep this thought in mind the next time you put pen to paper or start typing on your keyboard. You are about to bring something new into this world. A document that never existed. A document that could be referred to for years to come.
