Top Trends in Technical Communication
In a recent email to me, Jake from California (not his real name or location) writes,
I’ve spent most of today exploring the world of technical writing, and I find that you’re very central and visible. I’ve read, listened to, and watched a good deal of content you’ve produced, plus viewed snippets of threads on the STC listserv where you either weighed in or were referenced.
If I can prevail on you for just a few minutes of your time, I’d like to ask some advice. To summarize quickly, I decided on a writing project in the mid-80s that got me into PCs and DTP software. That led to steady work in software documentation for the next ten years with much of it overlapping the development of the web. I learned several tools for that, as well. My most recent job has taken me off in another direction, and I’ve lost my familiarity with this industry for a few years.
I’d really like to return to what I know and like best, and I know I have a pretty steep learning curve ahead. The nearest STC chapter is more than three hours away from me, and I don’t know how active they are. I was disappointed to see that the STC is having difficulties. I read David Farbey’s and your posts on it. Most of my time today was spent in gathering names of software applications currently in use to begin an investigation. And I looked on a few jobs sites, too. It’s been a busy day.
Could you advise me where to spend my time and energy? Besides your blogs and others I like it that I find, the TECHWR list, and possibly joining STC to gain access to their resources, how would I inform myself on current trends in documentation? When I entered the field in 1991, I did so because I had learned one software application and joined a local software user group through which a recruiter found me. I couldn’t be that lucky a second time! At the moment, I feel like I could spin my wheels for quite some time without getting anywhere.
Thanks for any nudge you might be able to give me.
Jake
I am always flattered to read comments like this. I don’t know what the experience is like searching for trends in technical writing, but it’s neat to think that I’m “very central and visible.”
I often respond to reader questions on my blog because other readers have the same question. What are the trends in the technical writing, what tools do you need to know, and how do you position yourself as a strong technical writing candidate in a competitive job market?
The technical writing tools question is always the hot button. I’ve learned to avoid tool discussions as much as possible. Even in my recent STC Screencasting webinar, I completely omitted tools, and someone still asked, What are you using to capture the screen? I said Camtasia Studio. Then I mentioned some other video capture tools for Macs and PCs, and within a minute, someone piped in to say that Captivate is far better than Camtasia … and so on.
Tools are an inevitable part of the job application process. HR departments perpetuate the need to know specific tools in part because IT jobs often require specific programming language skill sets. Nevertheless, the tools issue can be deflected or minimized as you start talking about the core issues and trends in the field. So without further ado, here are the top ten trends in technical communication that you need to be familiar with.
Top Trends in Technical Communication
I loosely ranked the top ten trends according to how I see their importance.
Trend #1: Collaborative authoring. Authoring projects are no longer written by a single author working from a single perspective. Robust projects require input from multiple subject matter experts, often based in various locations/departments describing different business processes that only a person immersed in that environment can know. You need to know how to harness and integrate information from multiple authors and pull them into one searchable source. For more information, see this post on Collaborative Authoring.
Trend #2: Social media. Twitter, blogs, podcasts, Facebook, Ning, LinkedIn, and the other social networks on the web are where conversations are probably taking place about products you document. Successful companies participate in social media because it allows them to interact with their customers, gather feedback, and strengthen relationships. For more information on social media and documentation, listen to this podcast with Anne Gentle about conversation and community.
Trend #3: Hybrid technical writers. Just knowing how to write won’t make you competitive. You have to wear multiple hats and become a hybrid. You’re not just a writer, but a writer/web designer, a writer/content strategist. You’re a writer/multimedia producer. You’re a writer/information architect/business process analyst. You’re a poet/programmer/QA tester/motivational speaker. 
For more on being a hybrid, listen to this podcast with Jack Molisani. Also listen to Bogo Vatovec explain that if writing is your only skill, you’ll soon be fired.
Trend #4: Globalization. You may work with a team distributed globally. But your products are often globally distributed as well. This means you have to simplify your language and write in a way that can be translated. You should be thinking of different cultures and how they might [mis]interpret your instructions or need more information in different areas. For more information, listen to Kirsty Taylor’s 2009 STC Summit session, Collaborating Around the World.
Trend #5: Multimedia. Screencasts are short video tutorials often streamed on YouTube or other video sharing sites (or simply played locally) that show users how to do tasks. Screencasts are part of the multimedia explosion of the web. They’re intended especially for visual learners and are usually narrated. For more on screencasting, you can see my slide deck from a recent webinar I gave on screencasting.
Trend #6: Single sourcing. Maybe single sourcing isn’t a new trend. Maybe it’s a holy grail that was never fully achieved. But knowing how to single source content within a project is essential. You have to know how to reuse content from online help into printable guides, at theleast. If you can single source more than that, more power to you. For more information on single sourcing, listen to a few perspectives on single sourcing from Michael Hiatt, Sarah O’Keefe, and Neil Perlin.
Trend #7: DITA. Darwin Information Typing Architecture is the latest XML standard that allows reuse on a robust scale. More and more tools are supporting the DITA standard. If you’re gearing up to do single sourcing and content repurposing in the big leagues (for example, the airline or pharmaceutical industries), DITA is a standard you may want to learn. For more information, listen to this podcast on DITA. Also, Sarah O’Keefe recently published a study about the rising trend of structured authoring that you may want to check out. (DITA is one way of doing structured authoring.)
Trend #8: Content strategy. Content strategy looks at content as a whole in every format (web, social media, product descriptions, instructions, forums, etc) and asks what the message is. Do we need it all? Are we diluting our branding and core message? For more on content strategy, listen to this podcast with Rahel Bailie and also check out Kristen Halverson’s book on Content Strategy.
Trend #9: The Cloud. More and more applications are becoming accessible from an Internet browser rather than requiring a local install. As an application in the cloud, help is also in the cloud, which means you should be able to update your materials in real-time. Your help can be web-like. You can also start taking advantage of all the web tools that can make your content sexy, such as jQuery. For more information, see Ben Minson’s post Time for Help to Get a New Wardrobe.
Trend #10: User-generated content. Rather than treating your users as passive consumers, you can empower them to add comments, become forum moderators, and contribute articles on a wiki. Users are your secret weapon, as long as you can find and foster the communities where they thrive.
If I could add one more topic, it would be intelligent content, but I already hit 10.
More Resources
Not enough for you? A couple of years ago Mark Lewis gave a presentation at the STC Summit called 10 Skills to Advance Your Career. He also included a nice handout. (And gave me permission to include both the PowerPoint and handout in this post.) His presentation is relevant here, since each of the skills he covers will make you a stronger candidate.
That’s a lot to focus on, I know. But more than learning Framemaker or Flare or some other help authoring tool (which one company may use while another rejects), I recommend becoming familiar with the core trends in the field and how you can help a company move forward in each of these areas.
Hi Tom,
I thought I’d chip in, as your correspondent mentioned my name. I’d agree with your list of current trends, and just add one thing. You said “just knowing how to write won’t make you competitive”, and that’s certainly true, but some people are tempted to think that, because technical writers need to know so many different things these days, writing skills aren’t important any more. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Audiences are as critical as ever, and are demanding quality information that is easy to comprehend, and immediately accessible. That goes beyond making the page with the right information available at the click of a mouse. It means making the words we write unambiguous, accurate, clear, and friendly, and written in terms that our readers understand. Sloppy prose and boring geek-speak won’t cut it. Don’t skimp on editing time either – I’ve just corrected three typos in this comment!
If you want to work in technical writing then you need to make a conscious effort to write well every day, in everything you do. Good luck!
David
David, thanks for your comment. I agree with you about the importance of writing. Sometimes I forget that I actually have this skill, since I so frequently see it marginalized. It’s not until I see writing by someone who is clearly not a writer that I think, whoa, writing is a skill and a talent. You’re right that writing is a core skill that a tech writer *must* have to be successful and competitive in this field.
I was going to weigh in on the importance of knowing how to write, but David, you beat me to the punch!
Tom, I agree with all you’ve listed here, including the names you suggested as experts in their own right (I’ve read Anne Gentle’s book – it’s currently my Bible).
As someone who’s worked in the tech comm field as both a manager and an individual contributor, I believe knowing how to write is the most important thing in our skill set. A close second, for me, is understanding the subject matter we’re documenting. Whether that’s technology, law, medicine, some degree of familiarity with that field is important for researching the various topics you’ll be asked to document.
As for tools, I agree completely that they are the hot button. The only thing I believe is important is a thorough understanding of basic computers – email, internet browsers, word processing, etc. As long as new hires know how to use a mouse, how to create folders, how to print, I can teach them anything more he or she needs to use. (Don’t laugh; this came up once – a new hire had never used a computer before.)
Foundational skills, such as writing and computer knowledge, transfer easily and can be extended to suit any need. I’ve used Word, FrameMaker, AuthorIT, Captivate, Publisher, and even PowerPoint to document certain projects. They’re trends, to a certain extent. Managers decide to standardize on one or two of them for various reasons and that’s the decree by which we must abide. Tomorrow, that tool will be replaced with the ‘next best thing’. Knowing these tools has not made me a better writer but being able to quickly learn to use them has made me a more marketable one.
Right now, I am extending my skills to include social networking, multimedia, the cloud and user-generated content. Over the past six months, I’d say the single most important ‘skill’ I possess is my ability to embrace the changes in our field. Delivering a user guide is a far different animal than developing a blog or a screencast even though ‘writing’ is involved in each of these efforts.
What you’ve listed here is printing right now and will be posted over my monitor so that I am constantly reminded. Great list, Tom.
Patty, thanks for your comment. You make some additional good points worth noting. It’s interesting what you say about just having basic computer familiarity. I think that feeling comfortable and at home on a computer is important, as well as having the ability to troubleshoot problems, figure out new software, and persistently piece together concepts and tasks from an interface conundrum. Thanks again for joining in the discussion here.
Aw, Patty, thanks for the compliment on my book! It’s a bundle of trends in itself.
Nice post, Tom – couldn’t agree more that the classics are what count. I think the web just amplifies the noise. Let’s strive to be part of the signal even when it’s outside of the familiar.
Tom, this is a great list, especially for someone like your correspondent who’s looking to return to the profession.
Your list aligns pretty well with the list that I recently posted on my company’s site (http://bit.ly/72qYpG). Your item #3 hints at something that I see as a big trend: the increasing need for technical communicators to demonstrate their value. Ever the optimist, I think we’ll succeed in finding ways to demonstrate our value — but only by hybridizing in the way that you describe.
Finally, I agree with David and Patty that good writing is still vital.
Larry, thanks for pointing me to your post on trends. I missed that or I would have quoted it and added it as a resource in my original post. I agree with all your points. Re the certification, though, hasn’t the STC already come out with a certification course? You can read it here. Or am I misinterpreting what that’s about?
I was thinking of professional certification, in which an organization confers credentials on an individual — usually after the individual passes a certification exam. Think of Certified Public Accountants or Project Management Professionals.
The certificate courses that STC offers today are quite different. You simply get a certificate that says you’ve received a certain kind of training, much like a certificate that says you’ve been trained on a specific software product.
STC has pondered the idea of creating a professional certification program for a long time. One of the sticking points has been the argument that our profession is so diverse, it’d be too hard to come up with a single yardstick with which to measure applicants. The ongoing effort to develop a Body of Knowledge for the profession (http://stcbok.editme.com/) could provide the needed yardstick. And, even if STC never undertakes a certification program, the BoK will help us articulate the value that we bring to the table.
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This is a very comprehensive list and provides a great blueprint for practioners to find their way in our profession. The list also represents a very progressive look at what is important in technical communication. The interesting thing to me is that only three of the items are relatively new.
Social media and cloud computing have come to us through the ubiquitous internet access that has developed over the last two or three years. DITA has been around for quite awhile but is finally achieving critical mass that makes it attractive to tool developers and smaller pubs departments.
The rest of the list consists of elements that have been the hallmark of effective design and implementation going back ten to fifteen years. Collaborating with as wide a variety of team members as possible and wearing multiple hats is something that many of us have enjoyed about our profession for a long time. Multimedia has been around through numerous incarnations (interactive video disks, CBT.) User-generated content through support forums has been a staple of the software industry. The need for an over-arching content strategy has always been important.
The problem is that not enough practitioners have embraced this comprehensive approach to technical communication. It is still more the case than not that a documentation project consists of hundreds of topics presented solely in traditional mediums like a print/PDF manual or browser-based equivalent. The success of a project is too often based on the development of a large volume of content rather than crafting excellent solutions to our customer pain-points. Tom’s list is extremely accurate in terms of what should be at the forefront of our attention. The difficulty is in getting more members of our profession to break away from safe and familiar methods of technical communication.
Joe, thanks for commenting on the trends here. I hadn’t thought about the idea that many of the trends aren’t new, especially user-generated content, content strategy, and an emphasis on multimedia. Maybe as you say, they’re not so much trends as emphases that should be on the forefront of our attention.
I see that you’re presenting on this topic at an upcoming STC Austin chapter. You should get someone to record your talk so that we can all listen to it.
Regarding going global: There’s still a great deal of value from having the technical authors close to the developers. If the development team moves location, then it’s worth considering moving the writers. If the subject matter experts aren’t moving, then the writers shouldn’t move either.
Being a blog writer myself, I really appreciate the time you took in wriitng this article. I am currently reading it on my Blackberry and will scan it once I get home.
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