As a technical writer, there are processes you adopt in writing. These processes help you come out with a concise and informative write-up. You avoid repetition, over-stretching the topic and boring your readers.
Technical writing isn’t rocket science as it requires basic skills, and highlighted below are some processes you follow in writing.
- Starting With An Outline
Starting with an outline is one of the most crucial steps in writing. It serves as a guide and makes your work concise. You can get it by asking the right questions, and some of these questions include:
•Who are my audience?
•What is my aim of writing?
•What are the tools needed
•When is my deadline?
When you ask these questions, getting an outline becomes easier.
- Research
The importance of research can never be over-emphasized. As a writer, research is one of your main tools. In the process of research, you get to do these;
•Research concerning the topic or subject.
•Come up with possible questions by putting yourself in the reader's perspective.
Where you can research include; Google and Wikipedia, Quora, Blog posts, books, etc.
- Start Writing
The only way a technical writer becomes better is to keep writing.
Practice makes perfect, and there are several topics/areas to write on, some include;
•Write about your learning experience.
•Write about things you’ve learned.
•Write on habits that help you become and better person.
•Pen your thoughts on paper.
•Write about your favorite topic, subject and domain.
The places you can write your work include; Google docs, Notion, Markdown-pad, and default note apps on your laptop and phone.
- Review Your Writing
When you’ve finished writing, don’t just jump to publishing. Give yourself a break after writing to clear your head. Then go back to your work and read it, which helps you dissect your write-up correctly. As a result, you get to edit your work and remove things that are not important, and put in new ideas.
Reviewing your work doesn’t only mean to re-read your work, examine your write-up by using writing tools that help your write-up be up to standard and attain some level of perfection. Some of these writing tools include;
•Grammarly
•Markdown
•Unsplash
•Editor
•Canva
•Fireshot
•Hemingway
•Plagiarism detector
•Quilbot etc.
- Learn A Technical Skill
As much as there are technical writers without technical skills, it is also important to note that having technical skills can put you at an advantage.
Many technical writers today were birthed from tech people wanting to document their tech process, making them become technical writers.
Having technical skills helps you narrow your niche and makes you a specialist in your domain. Listed below are some skills you can have/learn as a technical writer, either as a beginner or an advance technical writer.
•HTML
•CSS
•JavaScript
•Python
•Front-end developer
•UI/Ux
•Software engineering
- Publish Your Work
The final process of your writing is publishing your work. It is the essence of writing.
Publish your work so other people can see and learn from it.
Publish your work to make you more confident and become better. Publish your work to pass your knowledge and help people looking for accurate information.
Some places you can publish your work include;
•Hashnode
•Medium
•Personal blog
•Contributing blogs such as; Microsoft, Section engineering, and Free code camp.
•Personal websites
•Community blogs.
Note that these writing processes can be more advanced as your dive deeper into the writing space. Remember that ‘’Rome was not built in a day’’, and good things take time.
Trust in the process, believe in yourself, and watch the world become your footstool.