Technical Authorship

Technical authors design, write and publish information, technical leaflets, safety manuals and other information used in today’s commercial, industrial and defence markets, including internal publications. By using their knowledge and experience they are able to present information in a form that is easily understood by the end user. Many come from a technician engineering background and can be found working throughout manufacturing industry, financial institutions, software companies and government agencies.

Readers will be familiar with the handbooks supplied with items they buy, and the very wide range of documentation in the commercial world, ranging from financial institutions to hospitals and from machine operators to anyone driving a car. Some authorship involves updates and rewrites, while other projects require the production of new information, with the necessary research.

The designer of a machine or process should involve a technical author early, so that documentation can proceed alongside design. Documentation is expensive, so every document has a reader specification. For example, operators only need to know how to operate the machine, so they are not told how to dismantle it; while routine maintenance is quite different to a planned overhaul. A technical author should expect to work alongside subject matter experts, graphic designers, training developers, printers and publishers, development engineers and designers, and users.

In the more technical fields, technical publications have moved from hard copy to CD-ROM and now to the internet, with sites that can be constantly updated and accessed from all over the world. Increasingly, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are assuming responsibility for whole-life maintenance, so constantly updated information is provided to all parties to a contract. Increasingly, too, documentation on globally released products needs translation into different languages, interpretation into different cultures, and to be customised for menus and functions.

WHAT SHOULD USER DOCUMENTS DO?

Accurately target the intended readership
Develop the material at the right depth and pace
Maintain consistent terminology
Use an easily understood writing style
Support the supplier’s corporate image
Describe complexity and detail
Enable topics to be found easily
Provide instructions that are complete and work in practice.

Technical authorship in the Services
Military equipment also requires documentation at various levels – from the operator to the person carrying out maintenance. However, there are also manuals on tactics and training, doctrine and policy, and all manner of educational literature that also require technical authorship. So there are a number of people practised in the art of explaining complex ideas in a simple form. Speaking other languages and having lived in other countries and cultures may also be advantages that are not necessarily apparent at first glance. A number of people will have worked with equipment that is the same as or similar to that requiring manuals and other documentation.

Electronic information
Technical authoring is going through a rapid transition where the demand for greater control of information and the delivery of electronic information is increasing daily. Greater emphasis is placed on the control of source engineering data, particularly on defence contracts, where many companies now operate within an integrated logistic support environment.

The emphasis is on reducing costs by controlling and reusing data, and having easy access to user information. There is a move away from paper-based documents to interactive electronic technical manuals, which are capable of being viewed using standard web technology.

To achieve this, technical authors leaving the Services will find themselves working in a highly technological environment using applications that create opportunities for computer-literate people to apply their technology skills; some even move into development rather than just writing the information.

In many large companies, information is held in a document management system (DMS). In essence, this is a large database where data and supporting graphics are stored. It provides control of source information, document workflow, version configuration, language variants, and so on. This means, for example, that an item that is common in many variants of a vehicle or aircraft is written once and used many times.

In today’s global markets there is increasing demand for information to be published in native languages. ‘Smart’ technical authoring companies now originate their source information through a technique called controlled authoring, managing such things as terminology, grammar, spelling and style, using a tool to control the way it is written. This adds consistency to the publications and brings cost benefits to the translation process, particularly when using a computer-assisted translation tool. The use of hypertext is also increasing. Advantages include:

documentation staying with the product throughout its life
support documents available at a distance on a laptop
maintenance ensures that the latest version is always used
applications where documents can be updated by downloading.

Qualifications and training
The Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators (ISTC) has historically divided the routes to obtaining formal qualifications into college and university courses and those offered by commercial providers. Its national occupational standards (NOS) cover all aspects of preparing technical publications, from start to finish and on an ongoing, developmental basis. To view the NOS, visit the ISTC’s website (see ‘Key contacts’, below). A professional institute, the ISTC provides information on training courses and providers to assist its members (and prospective members) in maintaining and developing their skill sets. In particular, there are a number of providers who offer formal training in technical communication techniques at all levels, from basic training to a full MA and other postgraduate-level courses. The ISTC itself offers an open learning course in Technical Communication training (again, please contact the ISTC direct to find out more).

There are opportunities to gain both master’s and undergraduate degrees in this field, in the same way as in any other qualification at these levels. Training courses, generally with commercial providers, are also available for subjects like copywriting, designing information for the web and technical authorship. Most training can be taken through distance learning, during which the same material that is in a four-week resettlement course could be covered in 18 months or less. A resettlement attachment could include work in a technical authoring company to gain experience of the job and the environment.

TRANSLATE YOUR SKILLS
Some useful personal characteristics include:

a feel for words
a concern for verbal consistency
an appreciation of tone and style
an awareness of logical development and assumptions
a command of grammar and vocabulary
an enquiring mind
attention to detail
the ability to grasp and structure large amounts of information
clear thinking
imagination
a feel for the learning process
ability to anticipate readers’ knowledge gaps
awareness of the conceptual framework into which the knowledge must fit
skill at explaining things on paper
interpersonal skills
editorial judgement.

Careers
Technical authors may be employed directly by manufacturers or by specialist technical publications companies. The work may be full-time, part-time or operating as a contractor, while some agencies provide staff to work on a client’s premises on a contract basis. Some people work freelance, so they are entirely responsible for finding the work and take all the rewards, but anyone going down this route is advised to obtain several years’ employed experience first.

A key requirement is an ability to understand the product and convey the information in simple, unambiguous English. There will usually be someone in the team who will guide newcomers through the early days as they become familiar with document specifications and software.

Industries that are heavy users of technical authors include IT, aviation and engineering. They will often employ people who have specific background knowledge in that industry and have added formal technical authorship training to it. No one, however, should be deterred from a career in technical authoring just because they lack formal qualifications.

WHO ARE THE TECHNICAL AUTHORS?
Some job titles that might incorporate aspects of technical authorship include:

information designers
publication managers
documentation managers
technical authors
illustrators
translators
quality managers
desktop publishers
editors
lecturers
instructors
professors
engineers
graphic designers
technical communicators
indexers
multimedia designers
scientists
software designers
trainers
webmasters.

Salaries
As a very rough guide, starting salaries can be around £18,000 a year, while experienced technical authors can earn over £40,000. However, there are no standard pay scales and salaries vary widely according to experience, qualifications and type of employer. Freelance authors charge by the hour or on a project-by-project basis.

KEY CONTACTS

Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators (ISTC), Airport House, Purley Way, Croydon, Surrey CR0 0XZ Tel: 020 8253 4506 Website: www.istc.org.uk

e-skills UK, 1 Castle Lane, London SW1E 6DR Tel: 0207 963 8920 Website: www.e-skills.com/careers

Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies Alliance (SEMTA), 14 Upton Road, Watford WD18 0JT Tel: 0845 643 9001 Website: www.semta.org.uk

EngineeringUK, Weston House, 246 High Holborn, London WC1V 7EX Tel: 020 3206 0400 Website: www.engineeringuk.com

Engineering Council (industry and careers information), 246 High Holborn,  London  WC1V 7EX   Tel: 020 3206 0500 Website: www.engc.org.uk