“Anyone Can Write”: Emerging Roles for Technical Writers

1. “Anyone Can Write”: Emerging Roles for Technical Writers Missouri State University Technical Writing Conference April 23-24, 2010 Tom Johnson • idratherbewriting.com • @tomjohnson

2. “Anyone can write.” Project Manager Business Analyst Hybrid Roles Secretary QA Engineer Intern Your cousin

3. Is it true?

4. A Literacy Revolution “I think we're in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven't seen since Greek civilization.” — Andrea Lunsford Image 1

5. Must do something more… “Doing what you're told to do and what you're expected to do is nowadays simply not enough anymore. You always have to do something more than what you're basically supposed to be doing." —BogoVatovec

6. Become a Hybrid “To be successful over the next 10-15 years, tech comm people are going to have to become hyphenated. You can't just be a technical writer. You have to be a technical writer-usability expert. Or a technical writer-accessibility expert. Or a technical writer-project manager.” —Jack Molisani

7. Hybrid Possibilities • Usability • Quality assurance • Audiovisual • Marketing • Web design • Instructional design • Training / e-learning • Business analysis • Social media, such as blogging or podcasting • Corporate communications • Information architecture • Content management • Graphic design • Content strategy

8. Not just a tech writer

9. Doc Guy and his XML class

10. Double Major? Minor? Secondary domain Image 2

11. Knowledge Domain Expertise “I started my accounting Master's degree in January 2008, having never had an accounting class before but having had work experience in accounting, and I have found that I really enjoy the classes. I will finish up in June 2009 and then take review classes and then sit for the CPA exam.”

12. Tech Writer to Project Manager “I'd say the thing that got me the PM job was my heavy commenting on functional specs.” Technical writer Role: wiki manager Project manager

13. I can help you with both “It's up to the technical communicator to market him or herself to the other individuals, the project managers, the appropriate departments within the company, saying hey, wait a minute, why do we have this separate entity of business analyst and technical communicator. I can help you with both. And we can provide deliverables that are faster, better, cheaper. And here's why. And then you go on to explain to them what you can bring to the table.” —Mark Hanigan

14. UML Diagrams Image 3

15. This UI is really bad "I was doing the technical writing.... I had been telling these guys, this UI is really bad. I don't even know how you could have thought of this. Of course I said it nicer than that. Like, this is a good first attempt, but if you really want to do it well this is how you can do it. So when they wanted to go prolog with requirements and usability, they didn't have anybody to do it, and I will do it. Because that's something I’m interested in. And since it was a small team, they said that's great. And I got along with everybody. So that's how I started doing the usability stuff. Started designing the UI and writing the specs for it. And then also doing the technical writing at the end.” —Theresa Putkey

16. I stepped out of my rolemany times “My chance came prior to an annual software industry conference….I designed an auto-running PowerPoint presentation… The presentation was a hit. After that time, I became their primary source for marketing copy and was included in marketing strategy meetings. …They found that my in-depth understanding of the software helped me write more convincingly than the consultant.” —Wendy Cunningham

17. Keypointe.ca

18. Content Strategy Image 4

20. Image 5

21. Not “just a writer” Technical “writer”

22. It turns out we really did need that technical writer

23. The 90 Percent Rule Studying the specs Time you actually spend writing Meeting with users Understanding requirements Exploring the application Testing the app Attending your writer meetings Attending project meetings Attending prototype reviews Writing Tracking down SMEs for review

24. A Twitter model for videos “Most [users] don’t have the tools or narrative capabilities to hold the attention of an audience for any real span of time. This is especially true in the screencasting realm which is why I’d like to propose the notion of TweetCasts–120 seconds or less of webcam or screen video. That’s all the time you get to make your point. If you need more time, break your content into chunks, give viewers a rest between segments and try engaging them through a different medium. — Brooks Andrus Image 6 120 seconds

25. The Traditional Process AV specialist produces it Voiceover talent records audio Review and approve the script Write a script or outline Project manager wants changes

26. Focus on Technique, Not Tools

27. Contact Information Tom Johnson Idratherbewriting.com tom@idratherbewriting.com @tomjohnson (Twitter)

28. Image Sources image 1 http://www.flickr.com/photos/_lovenothing/3772984885/sizes/l/ by zwezome image 2 http://www.flickr.com/photos/skywhisperer/2462141919/sizes/m/ by skywisperer image 3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Modeling_Language from wikipedia image 4 http://www.flickr.com/photos/7819129@N07/4029599309/sizes/o/ by Richard Ingram image 4 http://www.flickr.com/photos/baggis/225007470/sizes/l/ by travis s. image 5 http://mashstream.com/mashups/the-docmashup/ by mike hiatt image 6 http://www.flickr.com/photos/loopsta/2083172764/sizes/o/ by loopsta