TECHNICAL WRITING HINDERS CREATIVITY

By Leon Hua

Technical writing might hinder creativity in people who are learning it.

Because creativity is so important in creating innovation and providing new ideas and help contributing in the advancement of any field of study, whether technical or literal.

Stopping creativity or taming it might be counterproductive and therefore hinder productivity and also profitability.

Technical writing is needed in our current time and the technical writing laws should be followed most of the time if not all the time.

However; creativity might make the tasks more enjoyable for the technical writer, therefore increasing his participation and commitments in the tasks.

And added bonuses may lead to productivity and therefore increase profitability.

A simple definition of technical writing:

Technical writing is a formal kind of writing used in fields as diverse as computer sciences, chemistry, finance, consumer electronics and many more. It is intended as communicating information to a particular audience.

The need for technical writing:

Clearer communications, translate jargon, not SME(Subject Matter Experts), words and graphics

Reduced support costs, reduced call to tech-support if manual is well written

Reduced documentation costs, work can be distributed in a team

The history of technical writing

technical writing could have been born from Ancient Greeks back in the mid-1900.

But it grew quickly after the First World War because of need for documentation for the military, electronics and aerospace industries.

In early 1950, two organizations emerged to try to control the direction of the field, Society of Technical Writers and The Association of Technical Writers.

In 1960, both organizations became one called the Society of Technical Communication (STC). (www.stc.org)

So what do technical writers do? Write technical materials Manuals Appendices Instructions and more… And usually work in conjunction with SME

(subject matter expert). Most of the time they are not SME

So where does it stands?

Technical writing is often subject to parody(imitation)

Because of the poor quality of technical documents (reproduction of something that was not created alone)

Because people have to follow certain set steps, many do not go the extra steps to make documentation better. I have a sample of someone who tried to go the extra step and got punished for it. (It was me!)

The problems

Grade C documentation, you just do what is enough and sometimes not enough

Trend towards applications on the Internet. The internet is the mother of all communication tools, includes all media, text, audio, video, animation, 3D models.

Technical writing is static and one-way, now everything is dynamic and interactive (things happens in parallel)

  Things evolve, creativity is part of evolution and could

and probably will be the only solution to solving the problems

Just a simple conclusion:

There is a great need for technical writers but these technical writers or at least some of them also need to be creative and to promote what is best for not only the company but companies from all industries, this will ultimately lead to productivity and profitability.

The trend in the near future:

There is a need for technical writer not only to produce technical reports, they will soon have to manage those reports and also in the end: gain and build relationships.

No personal touch or creativity, you will not stand out and not gain any relationships

Nearly 1 out of 3 three jobs created in this decade is in an occupation or profession that did not exist pri or to 1990. Things will likely pick up so we don’t even know what requirements will be needed for the future.

Finally some quotes:

STC offers industry leadership and the education, networking, and information required in a world where change is "THE WAY IT IS." (http://www.stc.org/about/history01.asp) (This is the question: but if you have fixed rules, aren’t you restricting changes?)

Also look at http://www.stc.org/about/strategicPlan.asp ( under innovation)

References:

Wikipedia STC websites