End of the Cold War

The Technical Writing Process

Technology increases on a day to day basis, it gets harder to understand as we encounter new products. The need for user friendly instruction is a must if we want a clear and accurate understanding on how a piece of technology works. The technical writing process does that for us, a technical writer acts as a translator of these difficult set of instructions. The writer simplifies these sets of instructions to where they are easily understood by the user.

The steps necessary for technical writing are simple but very important. The first step deals with gathering all the information you need about what the writer wants to write about. The writer needs to be very clear in the message that he or she wants to get across. This step also deals with the audience, the writer needs to identify the type of people that will be using the deliverables-these are the final products you turn over to the client or release to users at the end of the project (Pringle and O'Keefe 37). These means or sets of instruction can be delivered via books, websites, videos, and many more. Once the writer has gathered all the information and has identified the audience, the writer moves on to project planning or “planning phase”.

The planning phase deals with the writer’s ability to plan for who the audience will be, what the audience will be able to do, what the scope and detail of the product will be, and how this method will be delivered. Once all these have been taken into consideration and the planning phase is completed, a table of contents will be written. The table of contents is the structure of the delivery system; it will help the user find a certain topic in a much faster pace. After the first three steps have been completed, the writer is now ready to put words into pen. The writing process begin culminating with a review and making corrections before delivery.

Many tools are provided before a technical writer writes a set of instructions or...