Why do I need a technical writer?

Most educated people write reasonably well, but writing technical materials, such as software user manuals and reports on scientific research, requires a specialized set of skills. It takes time to master the theory and learn the "best practices" of the technical writing profession. Hiring a skilled technical writer (me, for instance) offers you the following benefits:

• Clearer communication
• Reduced support costs
• Reduced documentation costs

Clearer communication

• Most product developers are experts in their field, but are only comfortable writing for an audience of their peers. They rarely have that luxury. A product's user manual must usually meet the needs of an entirely different audience: the users of the product, who generally know far less about the product than the developers.
• A good technical writer translates between the developer's jargon and the simpler language that the product's users require. This is equally true for unconventional products, such as information itself (for example, technology transfer materials).
• Sometimes words aren't the best medium to communicate a concept, and a judiciously chosen mixture of words and graphics communicates more effectively. For that matter, technical writers can help you redesign the product's interface so as to reduce the need for documentation—sometimes by enough to repay the cost of the writer.

Reduced support costs

• Good manuals reduce calls to your technical-support department. Because technical writers think of the task from the user's perspective rather than the designer's perspective, they can explain the task better. Customers who learn how to complete their tasks by reading the documentation won't have to call your support staff.
• Nobody reads manuals, right? Perhaps not, but most people at least consult the index or table of contents so they can skip to the section of the manual that will answer their questions. Technical writers are skilled at improving access to the information, thereby reducing support calls that arise purely because readers can't find the information they need.
• While documenting a product, technical writers test the product to see how it really works. In doing so, they often discover bugs or usability problems. Fixing those problems before you release the product ensures that your customers will never encounter the problems.
• Technical writers develop expertise in effective interface design, something that most product developers never formally study. By proposing a streamlined, more effective interface, the technical writer frees the developers to work on the more time-consuming task of making the underlying code work correctly.

Reduced documentation costs

• Hiring a technical writer can significantly reduce your documentation costs. A technical writer's ability to write concisely lets you produce shorter manuals without sacrificing quality, thereby lowering your printing costs.
• Whether you will print your documentation or publish it online, shorter texts reduce the time requirement for reviews, thereby reducing the cost of the reviews. Because it's also easier to focus on a shorter document, the quality of the reviews will also improve.
• The primary job of a technical writer is to write, and professional writers write documentation faster than the product's developers. Even if a developer could write as quickly and effectively as a technical writer, senior product developers can easily cost twice as much per hour as senior writers—and won't be producing anything you can sell while they're writing. Thus, hiring a technical writer will dramatically reduce writing costs, while freeing your developers to do their own jobs—product development.

©2004–2008 Geoffrey Hart. All rights reserved