I'd Rather Be Writing » china

Technical Writing in China

Tom Johnson — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 14:20:05 +0000

Ivan Walsh

The following is a guest post by Ivan Walsh.

I didn’t get on a plane until I was 21. I’d grown up in a small town in the west of Ireland with the unfortunate moniker ‘Slash City’. Not the most exotic place in the world. So, when I did start to travel, I moved a lot.

The reason I could do this was mostly due to the mobile nature of technical writing and the opportunities gave me to travel. For most of my twenties I went from one contract to the next. London, Glasgow, Amsterdam, Berlin, San Francisco, Sacramento, New York… and then Taiwan. Well almost…

What brought you to China?

In the 90s, Taiwan was hot. Hard to believe today but it had tons of technical writing work back then. And still does but to a lesser extent. So I decided to go… but changed plans and went to Beijing instead with some friends. It just seemed more ‘exotic’ and in the 90s was still not as explored as today. Since moving there, I’ve worked in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Beijing.

the An Die An Niang Shandong Restaurant in Beijing

Is the IT industry in China growing rapidly?

It’s exploding especially in the area of mobile devices, ecommerce (now that credit cards are available) and gaming. Chinese love gaming.

It is also driven by a new middle class who have the funds to make high-end purchases, e.g. diamond-encrusted mobile phones, and other status symbols. China is very brand conscious, which partly explains the demand for fake items.

One of the misconceptions about China is that it’s a communist country. In reality, there is a very strong class structure and as Deng said, ‘to be rich is glorious.’

Most of the IT development is located in:

Shanghai which has a financial hub and is home to Sohu.com and Sina.com. Both listed in the NYSE.
Dalian where Intel has created the largest ‘fab’ for creating semi-conductors and others devices.
ShenZhen where RenRen (Chinese Facebook) and QQ (huge gaming sites) have their operations.

Shanghai also has satellite towns dedicated to outsourcing with very modern infrastructures.

Beijing is the admin centre like Washington, DC in the US.

What cultural traits work for and against the Chinese technical writer?

You can look at it from different angles:

Language: University graduates with English degrees would be far behind their counterparts in Europe and India. So, quality suffers from this perspective.
Communication: Chinese students are brought up to listen and follow, so having a ‘discussion’ can become difficult as they may withhold opinions rather than share as it’s not seen to be appropriate. It’s the opposite of western kids who’ll sprout all type of nonsense, simply to have an opinion.
Leadership: One downside is that it can be difficult to gauge the true status of a project as project managers may, for example, work over the weekend (with the team) rather than admit they’re behind schedule. The ‘listen and follow’ mentality can also disallow underlings from voicing their opinions, i.e. so the team lead doesn’t lose face.
Innovation: one of the surprises when I moved there was that most everyone could build their own PC. They were disappointed I couldn’t. This stems from having to make do with less, so most have learnt how to find shortcuts and workarounds.

How do Chinese technical writers get training?

Some are English graduates who move into Technical Writing. I don’t know if any universities on the mainland teach tech comms modules. I could be wrong. Most learn from:

Overseas Technical Writers – brought in to build a team and create writing and publishing guidelines. There are some lucrative opportunities for Technical Writers who can lead up these projects and provide the framework for Chinese Technical Writer, especially for US firms who’ve partnered with local IT firms.

Online university courses – while not ideal, these courses give them guidelines on what’s required and where they can improve.

Is there a particular style guide writers follow in China?

Not that I’m aware of, though I’ve seen many copies of the Microsoft Style Guide For Technical Publications in different offices.

Is outsourcing a trend that you see growing or increasing in China?

Manufacturing has taken a hit recently due to increases in salaries and currency exchange rates. Also, countries like Vietnam are positioning themselves as better value, i.e. low cost, alternatives to China.

From an IT perspective, Shenzhen and Shanghai are leading the field.

BusinessWeek believe Shanghai is the No. 2 city for outsourcing specialties, such as business analytics, finance and accounting, product development, research and development, and testing. Service Providers include Accenture, Cognizant, HP, Infosys, Wipro, and Unisys. (See Top Emerging Outsourcing Cities.)

Likewise, ‘…the offshore service outsourcing business that Shenzhen enterprises undertake has exceeded 5 billion U.S. dollars for the first time; the contract value has amounted to a record of 5.08 billion U.S. dollars, which ranks No.1 in the country… other services outsourcing enterprises such as IBM, Evans, Da Zhan, Peng Kai, Freeborders, and CS&S are accelerating the expansion of business in Shenzhen’ (Shenzhen Becomes China’s Largest IT Service Outsourcing Base).

What cultural obstacles do you struggle with in working with the Chinese in a tech comm setting?

The perceived value of Technical Writing is very low in China.

What this means is that most local firms will not invest in Technical Writers and use developers instead. Or get a graduate with an English degree to write the guides but the end result is less than satisfactory.

Another factor is that in Asia it’s not uncommon for technical documents to be more focused on diagrams, i.e. images rather than text.

In Japan, I saw some wonderful documents — like the Google Chrome User Guide — that were mostly illustrations and helped you see what needed to be done more quickly. So, there may be cultural issues here as well.

Cost is also an issue.

Most Chinese IT firms are very spartan and cost-conscious, looking for ways to reduce costs at all times. So, paying for tech docs can be hard to justify with local firms.

Personally, I worked mostly with US firms that were short of trained writers on the ground or (occasionally) did bespoke consultancy for a few Chinese firms, but that was mostly to return favors rather than for financial reasons.

How long do you plan to stay in China?

We moved back recently so junior can go to high school in Ireland. He learned to read and write mandarin while we there, so it’s time for a different adventure now.

My suggestion to any Technical Writers thinking of going there is to link up with US firms, e.g. Intel, Microsoft, and IBM, and try to get a contract. Stay in the larger cities as you’ll be able to get creature comforts that ease the transition and also find it easier to navigate.

An alternative is to contact Chinese firms that have floated on the Nasdaq/NYSE and see if they need writers in their local offices. Sina and Sohu are two of the most prestigious – both based in Shanghai.

Finally, before you move… visit for a few weeks especially off-season and see if you like the vibe. It’s a great place but you have to take it on it’s own terms.

Ivan Walsh shares technical writing tips, tricks and tactics on http://www.ihearttechnicalwriting.com.

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“Could you please tell me what the job of a technical writer is like?”

Tom Johnson — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 05:24:30 +0000

I recently received an email from a reader who asked to know what the job of a technical writer is like. Anoop writes,

I am a computer science Master’s student at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. I am in my second year and I am on the lookout for jobs. Other than the system software engineer posts, I am considering applying for a job as a technical writer too. I do love witing as much or maybe more than I love coding and understanding operating systems. I do have experience in system software but not in technical writing, though I do blog occasionally and I also have written a few technical how-tos.

Could you please tell me what the job of a technical writer is like? How different is it from that of a software engineer? I know it pays less, but I guess you might get more satisfaction especially if you like writing? Could you, if you have the time, tell me how a day at work goes like? Do you think with my limited experience, I have a shot as a technical writer and in the area that I’m interested in?

I love getting questions like this. Of course technical writing isn’t creative writing, but it does require a lot of writing skills. If you can organize complex topics and communicate concepts clearly and concisely, conforming to a specific style, you probably have most of the writing skills you need.

As far as the salary and economic outlook, technical writing was listed as the 13th best job in America, according to Money Magazine. Technical writers earn an average salary of $57k per year. Software engineers, in contrast, appear at the top of the list and have an average salary of $80k. The job growth for engineers is projected at 46%, while that of technical writers is 23%.

In short, the economic outlook for the field of technical writing is good. As long as the tech industry is hot, the demand for technical writers will be there. Almost every software project needs a technical writer.

A lot of your job as a technical writer involves figuring out what the engineer is building. If you have an engineering background, you’re often a step ahead of other technical writers. If you can read programming code, your potential for higher income increases significantly.

The questions you asked can be answered in a lot of different ways, so I’ll give you a sample of my typical day. Below is more like a composite of different tasks all done within several weeks.

Tom’s Typical Day as a Technical Writer

Ride metro to work — listen to podcasts on technology topics. (Tech Writer Vocies and DMN Communications are great podcasts to listen to for technical communication.)
Attend morning scrum meeting, where each team member reports on what they did the day before. Try to figure out what has changed in the app., what new features or functionality have been added or are planned.
Return to desk and explore the application. With development environment access, the app is only partly-functional. Have to fill in the gaps of how it could work. Experiment, test, click here and there. Guess, test out hypotheses, isolate, observe, try, etc.
Visit software engineers to ask questions about application functionality. Inquire about workflow and other procedures.
Visit business analyst to ask about user characteristics and tasks. What tasks will users want to perform? Try to determine who users are, clarify the different roles and their familiarity with the concepts.
Return to desk and validate online help file by meticulously going over the steps to confirm the accuracy.
Create screencasts using Camtasia Studio that provide audiovisual tutorials for the most confusing tasks. Getting the timing right for the slides is painstaking, but the end product is appealing.
Create Visio diagrams representing workflows and other processes in the application. Submit to project manager for review.
Create one-page quick reference guides in Adobe Indesign for each user role. Meticulously confirm accuracy of the steps.
Discover new functionality in software app that wasn’t told to me. Have to return to the documentation and update it.
Attend meeting about project, listen to engineers and project managers and business analysts talk for a while. Ask when they’re going to code the help button. Realize that the project is going to be delayed several weeks.
Tackle bug with online help output. Display in IE needs a style adjustment. Tweak css for a while.
Access project sites to see if any technical documentation is relevant to my needs (and up-to-date). Skim through requirements. Find discrepancies between requirements and development environment. Ask project manager which is right.
Add more topics to online help based on new features and functionality discovered in the app.
Suggest to engineers that they change some of the on-screen text and make the buttons behave more predictably.
Print out documentation for the business analyst to review, and set up a meeting to encourage her to review it.
Write article on new features for release notes and corporate newsletter. Pitch idea of a product blog.
Return to metro for home — put on headphones and listen to podcasts.

That’s sort of a typical day/week/month/life of a technical writer.

You mentioned you’re in Vancouver. Vancouver happens to be a hub of tech writing. Last year I gave a presentation titled “20 Usability Tips for Blogging” at Doc Train West (held in downtown Vancouver). This year I’m going to be on a blogging panel with several noteworthy bloggers. If you can make it, (May 6-9), I highly recommend that you attend the Doc Train West 2008 conference.

Is technical writing satisfying? In a way, yes. I previously worked as a marketing copywriter. Sometimes I had a hard time feeling good about what I was writing, because I myself didn’t buy the products. I know technical writing helps people. Today I received an email from someone who mentioned they used the help and now they understand a difficult concept in the app. That felt good. With all the people out there who are confused by technology, who feel frustrated and try to find answers online or in help files, it feels satisfying to know I’m engaged in a good cause.

Through my examples above, I tried to show that technical writers do a lot more than writing. Very little time in the day is taken up by pure writing. There’s a lot of design, discovery, visuals and other tasks that writers do. My blog is actually what cures my itch to write.

You’ve probably wondered if technical writing is boring. I wrote a post on this a while back and received some great feedback. I think the key is to keep yourself engaged in the field. Writing a blog and creating podcasts make me enthusiastic about technical communication more than anything else.

Specifically, listening to podcasts can give you ideas, help you see how others have approached problems, and expand your knowledge in numerous ways. Unlike blog posts, you can often feel people’s excitement and energy through their voices.

If any readers have any advice or reflections for Anoop, please share them in the comments. You can also describe your typical day. I’d be interested to read that myself.

March 29 update: Definitely check out this Shanghai tech writer’s description of her typical day. A lot of parallels, despite being on the other side of the globe.