---
title: "Tech comm trends: Providing value as a generalist in a sea of specialists (Part VII)"
date: 2018-10-02
description: "Summing it up Your reactions and input? References   Tech comm trends: Providing value..."
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/2018/10/02/providing-value-as-generalists-in-specialist-contexts-part-7/
---
# Tech comm trends: Providing value as a generalist in a sea of specialists (Part VII)
- Technology is becoming increasingly specialized, particularly with developer documentation.

 - Since tech writers are generalists, the task of documenting specialized technology often becomes daunting.

 - Because the information is so specialized, many developers participate and collaborate in the authoring process.

 - To provide value in specialist contexts, tech writers can focus on (1) authoring/publishing processes and tools, (2) knowledge of the user experience, and (3) information usability.

Within the topic of information usability, I covered 7 principles:

 - Principle 1: Let users switch between macro and micro views

 - Principle 2: Make information discoverable as the user needs it

 - Principle 3: Ensure information harmony in the larger landscape

 - Principle 4: Reduce and distill vast information down to its essence

 - Principle 5: Conform to the patterns and expectations of the genre and schemas

 - Principle 6: Reduce the complexity of technical language

 - Principle 7: Iterate and increment on content following an agile approach

I list some additional information usability principles on my site, [idratherbewriting.com/simplifying-copmlexity](/simplifying-copmlexity), and I’ll continue to add to them in the future.

I also included a number of surveys throughout this essay to gather your feedback and input about whether you agree/disagree, and to what extent. I highly value the insights from readers and think that the perspectives shared as a whole can often provide guidance in lack of more rigorous studies or data.

Overall, by focusing on these three areas, we can hopefully move past some of the second-class feelings that we sometimes get when surrounded by specialists who seem to possess deep knowledge and value to organizations. If you do all of these things, you’ll contribute in significant, valuable ways to your organization. But will your company recognize it and value your role and contributions? Proving that value is not easy, but at least with the right focus, you can be confident that you’re moving in a productive direction.

## Your reactions and input?

You can [see the responses (so far) here](https://www.questionpro.com/t/PESbCZc1tY).