Let me tell you about Dana Ford. Dana, or as he’s known by his Twitter handle “techrat_77”, is one of those people who appears one day and before you know it, he’s your friend.
I’m talking a real friend. When my dad’s health took a turn for the worse, Dana was right there on Twitter, talking me through it. He asked about my dad’s progress, checked in, let me talk it through on paper. He offered his own experiences and really made me feel like no matter what comes, one can get through it.
So this year when I thought about who I could reach out to for a guest post, Dana was one of those people. Dana has an interesting background, and he speaks to another segment of freelance writer than is typically written about. I’m talking the technical writers. Truly technical, as in manuals and instructions.
Writers, please welcome Dana Ford to the blog.
The Writing Worth of a Technical Writer
(And Other Horror Stories)
I was both honored and humbled when asked to be a part of Writer’s Worth Month. There’s just something about this thing that all of us who earn a living putting words out there for others have to love and identify with. I think the common thread that holds all of us together is being on the inside looking out and realizing just how much skill and talent is involved in our oft under-appreciated career of writing. Seems that everyone who has ever taken an English class thinks they are a writer or know enough to be an authority in critiquing someone else who is a bona fide writer. Such is the life we’ve chosen to live. (In a salute to our most excellent blog host, I’ll steal a trick from the blog. What’s playing on the ear buds: Astronomy, Imaginos version, by Blue Oyster Cult.)
Although I’ve got a bit of journalism and fiction in my background, I primarily belong to a specific misunderstood classification of writer; that of technical writer. When I first started in the field, it was pretty straightforward, we all covered mechanical and electronic equipment, but then the title got muddied when it was applied to medical writers, IT writers, pharmaceutical writers, travel writers, and several other types that escape me at the moment. Just do a job search using the term “technical writer” and see how varied the jobs associated with the title are today.
Usually when I tell people I’m a technical writer, I get a blank stare or a reply of “what’s that?” I find it always helps to put it out there on a basis that most people can relate to at that point. I tell them it is a technical writer who put together that little manual in the glove box of their car. That’s when I get the knowing nod from them. I can always see it in their eyes as they think, “oh yes, that little book that’s always in the way when I’m trying to find something, I wonder what’s in that thing, anyway?”
The sad reality of my trade is no one reads our work for enjoyment or entertainment, but of necessity. Even the companies that employ the technical writer, look upon their work as a necessary evil at best and quite often try to have the work done as cheaply as possible. In this modern business age of “everything must be quantified by numbers and spreadsheets” bean-counters, many of those in the tech writing world have taken a big hit with regards to their worth. Our plight is having a direct connection to the end-user that defies the logic of dollars and cents business. We don’t count towards product sales and in most cases our work is given away with the product, so no cash is generated there either. It puts us in the tenuous position of having no dollar value to the bean-counters who run the show and in many cases are held to the same level of esteem.
There was a day when customer satisfaction was figured into the value equation of technical writing. Consider the case of the owner of a new gadget who just can’t figure out how to do a simple function with it. Of course, the new owner tossed the user’s manual aside with the packaging, but now it is frantically pulled from the trash with bits of pepperoni and cheese from last night’s leftover Stromboli dripping off of it. Will that last function of the gadget be easily found and explained in the user’s manual?
What a lot of the bean counters don’t realize is the customer satisfaction the technical writer brings to the equation. The gadget owner will soon forget the trauma of sorting through the garbage can if the information he’s after is easily found and understood and the gadget does exactly what the owner wants and then some after actually following the included instructions. The flip side of that is an already frantic gadget owner covered with the remnants of yesterday’s supper looking at user instructions that were obviously created by the low bidder with little or no actual knowledge of the product. If the owner’s trash can diving experience ends in more frustration than it started with, how much do you want to bet the next time the owner is in the market for purchasing their next new gadget, they buy it from Brand X instead of where the last one came from? This can be true from a five-dollar gadget up to a million-dollar piece of equipment.
The proper use of a skilled technical writer can be a big boost to a company’s bottom line or an ignored footnote when company leaders wonder what went wrong with their profits. We’re just another one of those long forgotten secrets of a successful company. It’s love of the ever-changing challenge of the craft that keeps most of us engaged these days. But then, isn’t that the same with writers of all genres? Isn’t that why we’re still pressing onward, the whole point of the posts here?
Here are a few tips to being the kind of technical writer that is part of the solution and not part of the problem. There are a lot more things that can be said, but these are the basics. With a little modification, these are also applicable to other forms of writing!
Dig – Bring a big shovel. To be a successful technical writer, you have to know the subject matter at hand better than the SME that presented it to you. Not that the SME is a dummy, no, far from it. You just have to know it as well as they do to understand how to present the product to the end user who may not know anything about it (something most SMEs aren’t good at) and you also need in-depth knowledge of how the end user will be using the product. All of this usually makes you more knowledgeable on the product than anyone.
Love Images – That’s right. Pictures. People will refer to a picture quicker than words. I know this causes all wordsmiths pain to admit such a thing, but face it, a well-placed graphic will suck the end user right into your web of information. Back up that picture with dynamic content, and they’re hooked for good.
Write Well – Yeah, I know this should go without saying, but it’s easy to slack off in this area if we’re too underappreciated or are faced with end users with limited vocabularies. It doesn’t have to be an art form, but it should be good enough to be proud of.
Learn – No matter what level of education you have, it’s not enough. There’s always more and this field and technology is always changing. Ride the train or get off at the next stop. There is no in between.
Dana Ford is a technical writer specializing in Automotive Systems and Mechanical Design. He also works as an Editor, Journalist, and writes fiction novels.
9 responses to “Writers Worth: What Technical Writers Are Worth”
Dana, this:
"The sad reality of my trade is no one reads our work for enjoyment or entertainment, but of necessity. Even the companies that employ the technical writer, look upon their work as a necessary evil at best and quite often try to have the work done as cheaply as possible."
And isn't that true of all writing? What I love about this post is how you go into the ways we writers (not just technical writers, either) can build in value that clients can see and appreciate.
Nice to see you here, Dana – I'm more accustomed to seeing you on LinkedIn and Twitter. Excellent post.
One other thing a good technical writer can do for the client? Limit the likelihood of being sued.
When I was a kid, my dad was a technical artist who hand-rendered exploded view drawings for owners manuals. (His company made farm systems – our favorite was the "liquid manure spreader," because it made us laugh.) This was way before computers were used for this kind of thing, so he also did the layout. One time he had to rework the layout because the technical writer wanted to add a common sense safety instruction. Something about making sure the ladder was secured before climbing it. When my dad complained that it would throw off the layout on several pages, the writer told him about a company that was sued by someone who'd been inured because the operator's manual didn't remind them to follow basic safety procedures. While you can't prove that the writer saved the company from any future lawsuits, including that step greatly reduced the odds of a lawsuit. (Or as Lori might say, he mitigated the risk.)
He sure did mitigate the risk! Neat story, Paula.
Hi, Dana! Nice to cyber-meet you!
Whenever I try to put something together and the directions actually work — I am grateful for good technical writing. Diagrams with no words do nothing for me.
Seriously — "write well" and "learn" are so important, both in your specialty and in general. Too many people think writing is "easy" and the quality doesn't matter. But good writing can change perception, and that's what we're hired to do.
Thanks for all the kind words, folks! All the comments about the value of a technical writer makes me recall an incident from many years ago. At the time, the HR department of the company I worked for at the time decided salary should be based on $ value to the company. Me, still young and not having much of a clue, asked the company litigator if he could put a value on my worth. I figured he would have the best angle on that since we worked closely together on many projects. I was astounded when he placed my personal value to the company at over $50 million a year from lawsuit savings. I confidently placed that figure in front of HR, who of course replied, "that's not what we meant."
This is a great post. You mention technical writers seem to be finding it more difficult to get paid what they're worth. How do you go about marketing yourself to highlight the value you bring to people who see you as a necessary evil?
Dana, that's great! LOL I bet there was a lot of sweating in that encounter!
That story underscores the reason why I do this every year. We writers have value. Our skills serve a need, and we add much to the client's business or image.
I believe there is a special place in hell for companies that don't put a priority on hiring great tech writers. And in that place, they have to forever stare at the blinking clocks on all the DVD players, VCRs, Beta Maxes, microwaves, alarm clocks, and other devices that consumers couldn't figure out how to set.
Yo, I love how you think. 🙂