The Career Growth of a Technical Writer
The growth pattern of a technical writer is not standardized and largely depends on the individual professional and the company. They have great potential to move up the corporate ladder in a radical way, which can start with an associate or documentation expert to become a senior technical writer and then move on to a documentation manager who leads a team of technical writers. A better profile may be a documentation editor and administrator. This largely depends on the size of the organization and the capabilities of the technical writer.
Technology writers may eventually gain expertise in a specific technical domain and then become leaders in software quality analysis or business analysis.
Senior writers in various software documentation departments are largely referred to as Individual Contributors or ICs. In API/software documentation, CIs typically work with a team of developers or testers who work across many geographic locations. In such software development in software research organizations, a CI plays a very important role in delivering API/Software documentation.
Technical Writer Responsibilities
A technical writer is a person who maintains, writes, creates designs, and from time to time updates technical documentation, which can take various forms such as white papers, system manuals, user guides, online help, design specifications and other documents.
Various professionals like engineers, scientists can also be involved in the technical writing, which is finally handed over to the qualified technical writer who then converts the draft into a well-formatted written document. A technical writer has a responsibility to articulate the various things written in the document in a language that is understandable and appreciated by the user.
There are a lot of technical documents that are in raw format and are given to the technical writer for review and correction. Therefore, exclusive ownership of the effectiveness of the technical document rests with the technical writer; however, technical information and facts must be provided correctly. A professional technical writer is hired to proofread, edit, and format.
Therefore, a technical writer provides the documentation for technical, business, and consumer audiences.