Wise Words- What should you look for in a technical author?

		What should you look for in a technical author?

What does a technical author do?

The work of a technical author

The most important person: the reader

What should you look for in a technical author?

When should you call in the technical author?

Why do you need a technical author?

How long does it take?

What does a technical author need?

What if you can't afford a technical author?

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In my personal opinion, the four most important attributes of a technical author should be:

An ability to collect information from diverse sources, and to collaborate with people in technical fields who possess the necessary information
An ability to sift through masses of information, pick out relevant items and organise them
A clear, straightforward and reasonably concise style in writing technical documents. The author should pay attention to detail, including spelling and grammar
Understanding of the requirements of the users of the documentation

Assessing these attributes may be difficult, but samples of the author's previous work should be inspected. You can ask the technical author about the sources of information used in the previous assignments, and the techniques used to analyse them for the documentation. Ask also how the documentation meets the requirements of the intended users.

In the case of the last item, it is very helpful if the technical author gets to meet users of the documentation, for example, through user-group meetings or by involvement in training.

Expertise in the technology that is the subject of the documentation may be important, particularly if the documentation is very technical. On the other hand, using a technical author who is new to the technology may in some cases be an advantage, for example, when creating a user manual for non-technical users.

One of the least important things is the technical author's experience with the writing tools (Word, for example). Most technical authors will have used a number of word processors and/or publishing systems, and it does not take long to pick up speed with a new one. There is certainly no point in insisting on (say) two years of experience with a particular word processor.

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This is version 2, November 2002.