Multi-Faceted Technical Writing - Our Milieu and Perspective

Text Engineer is the brainchild of a veteran technical writer in the nuclear power industry. Over years of learning, the founder successfully generated documentation in nuclear plant design along with every ancillary discipline from mechanical engineering to fluid systems and high-pressure piping, to digital instrumentation and control systems. Large proposals and other marketing communications assignments provided a dollars-and-cents counterbalance to the intricate language of engineering. Clearly, here was a broad array of technical and organizational skills that would export beautifully to new clients applying similar technologies, as well as those inventing the future through exciting new ones.

Technology Communications - Conception, Writing, Editing and Production

There is a common theme among seasoned technical writers that the actual writing and editing account for just a small portion of their day. As with these comrades-in-arms, the TE corps has grown accustomed to filling many roles in a given writing project.

• Helping engineering authors source technical reference and standards material.
• Writing assigned document sections while coordinating other writing input from multiple sources.
• Carefully and thoroughly editing all engineering drafts to stringent acceptance criteria of customers and government standards bodies, U.S. and international.
• Applying and maintaining awareness of company quality procedures as they impact every interface in the design documentation process.
• Paying particular attention to the writing precision and clarity of submittals directed at
  ESL clients overseas.
• Overseeing all final production and delivery of customer documents in all media; verifying adherence to trademark, copyright and corporate identity standards.
• Executing sanctioned procedures for author and management document approvals and archiving.
• Internalizing and applying specialized procedures for all documentation types - engineering reports, manuals and user guides, calculation notes, design and functional specs, test reports and others.

TE can replicate all these project functions in our online writing assignments with you and promote quality at every step.

Molded under the unflinching dictates of company quality and safety policies, and steeped in the rigorous language of ASME and IEEE standards, the TE writers and project managers cultivated a technical aptitude and professional acumen that will endear us to the management of any technology-focused organization, including government agencies. In short, all that experience has made us what we are today, bona fide Text Engineers.

The Text Engineer Writing Network - If You Don't See Your Technical Writer, Ask

Text Engineer has deep roots in the Western Pennsylvania technical writing community. The area is one of the nation's technology hotspots and hosts many industry leaders in precision electronics, software development, robotics and advanced medical devices, among other fields.  Not surprisingly, the thriving local chapters of IABC and STC offer a wealth of technical talent, and their membership includes some of our own devoted network of writing associates.  We can find your specialist writer, just as we can find a qualified consulting engineer in a range of disciplines.  Because of our connections, we can also readily field a team of writers for your larger projects.

TE wants to be your technical communications provider for the 21st Century. We are thorough, deliver on time and anticipate your needs before they arise. To win your loyalty, we offer all this on affordable pricing plans that we will be happy to discuss with you. So why wait, that next deadline is approaching.

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  Article - Technical Writing, from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

Technical communications are created and distributed by most employees in service organizations today, especially by professional staff and management. Writing well is difficult and time-consuming, and writing in a technical way and about technical subjects compounds the difficulties. The entire point of communications is to disseminate useful information. To be useful, information must be understood and acted upon. Fortunately, tools and techniques are available to make writing more accessible and easy to understand.

Effective communications require quality content, language, format, and more. The entire point of communications is to disseminate information; this is where written content comes in. To present the appropriate content, it is imperative to understand one’s audience and writing purpose. If a document does not communicate the information that the writer intends and what he or she wants the reader to understand, then the communication is meaningless.

The writer has a self-interest in making the extra effort: Looking credible is as important as being credible and getting results in business. Respect and credibility of the writer/speaker are integral to effective communications. Readers will not trust the information from an author if they do not believe that author is a valuable source of information or the purveyor of worthwhile ideas. Furthermore, being respected is essential to being persuasive, a key ingredient in business.

What is Technical Writing?

A “Technical” Approach to Writing

HOW one writes is as important as WHAT one writes. So, language itself is important to enable readers to understand and believe the written text. Language impacts a reader’s ability to comprehend and assimilate what a writer is presenting. Furthermore, people can, and do, judge things by outward appearances all the time; it is essential to make good impressions when communicating in a business setting. When one communicates (whether writing, giving a speech, or talking on the phone) information must be presented effectively and to a large degree, attractively. These elements strongly affect perceived writer and organizational credibility and professionalism -- highly sought after commodities for individual and organizational success.

Format, organization, and style are important in that they make information available, accessible, and readable. Format and the like are the “how” of a written presentation. Format choices can give a document the highly sought after technical or business “look” organizations hope for. In essence, this is part of “corporate identity” promotion.

Definitions

There are many definitions of technical writing. It is seen as its own species of business writing. Technical writing is a specialized, structured WAY of writing, where information is PRESENTED in a format and manner that best suits the cognitive and psychological needs of the readers, so they can respond to a document as its author intended and achieve the purpose related to that document. Thus, it is writing formatted and shaped to make reading as simple, poignant, unequivocal, and enjoyable as possible (i.e., “user friendly”). It so happens that most technical writing positions are still primarily offered to those who can write effective end-user manuals, system design documents, Web sites, and the like for engineering and IT firms.

A good technical writer can write about a complicated technical subject or task in ways that almost anyone can understand.

Precision in technical writing tends to be critical because if anything is described incorrectly, readers may act improperly on what is said, causing mistakes and problems at work. The Society for Technical Communication is probably the premier technical writing association. STC defines technical communication as “The process of gathering information from experts and presenting it to an audience in a clear, easily understandable form.” I think this is a good, all-purpose definition. “Technical writing and editing is an umbrella term for any sort of professional communication. It’s the interface between your ideas and the rest of the world”.

“Technical writing is the presentation of information that helps the reader solve a particular problem. Technical communicators write, design, and/or edit proposals, manuals, web pages, lab reports, newsletters, and many other kinds of professional documents.”

It is interesting to note that outside the U.S. the definition of technical writing tends to stay very consistent. A U.K.-based firm persists that “technical writing is the presentation of information on any scientific, engineering, or technological topic in the form most suited to its user.”

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