Technical Communication
26/6/2019 Knowledge Base
Technical communication is the way of sharing engineering, scientific, or technical information. Technical communication is extremely important in our everyday lives. We live in what’s called the information age, and as technology continues to advance, it’s great to have people who can take complex information most people wouldn’t understand and translate it for the average layperson. Technical communication is the means by which technical writers take information and document it in a variety of ways.
What you see when you get online is technical communication as you receive information by surfing the web, listening to music, reading text, watching videos, and any other means by which you receive information. Essentially, someone is communicating to you through a process using technical communication.
FREE USER MANUAL TEMPLATE
Download and read how you can use the User Manual Template to create your own compliant, user-friendly and appealing user manual.
Definition of Technical Communication
Technical communication is the way in which one shares engineering, scientific, or technical information. There’s a variety of different jobs that require the use of technical communication that involve research and documentation. To relay that information to a colleague or other professional is done through technical communication.
When you have a variety of technical information that you need to make available the people, whether they are students, employees, or customers, is the job of the writer to relay the information needed by means of technical communication. They are transferring information usually through training manuals, guides, packets, videos, interactive training, data sheets, textbooks, and all other forms of documents in a manner that is understandable to the reader.
Scope of Technical Communication
Since we live in what is considered the information age, technical communicators are highly sought after in a variety of important industries. Everything from entertainment to workplace regulations for all shared by means of technical communication. As we become more technologically advanced, we will find ourselves relying even more on this form.
This Guide to Write Impressive Manuals contains a good overview of what the technical communication is about.
Technical Writing or Technical Communication
It can be fairly easy to mix up technical writing with technical communication. There can be technical writing as part of technical communication with the two terms are not necessarily the same, as technical communication refers to a much broader form of communicating than just technical writing.
Technical communication is essentially any type of communication that takes place in a professional manner. For example, when to colleagues send emails to one another, that’s a form of technical communication. So, while all technical writers can be considered as a technical communicator, there are other ways to do.
If you have a group meeting with your colleagues in an office setting where you exchange ideas, that too is considered a technical communication. One employee your hands an employee handbook to a new worker, that’s technical information is he sharing with work exactly the information he wants them to know.
Jobs within Technical Communication
As noted in the point above, technical communication can be done by almost any means as to professionals communicate with each other. But if speaking about the technical domain specifically, then you would most assuredly find jobs in the electronic world heavily revolving around technical writing and other forms of highly complex technical communication.
Usually work revolving around science, information, economy, marketing, consumers, and technology all involve technical communication, but the subject matter in each field may differ depending on the career of the individual. A lot of technical communication also is displayed from the manufacturer to customer or from employer to employee relating to specific information in the context of teaching or informing.
Useful Technical Communication Resources
If you’re searching for a few resources on technical communication, there are a variety of websites you can visit which show you exactly how technical communication is used in a variety of different industries. For example, The Society for Technical Communication is a great site. You can find it here: https://stc.org
Sites like that one will teach you how to determine the type of technical writing you will be doing. You might be writing about technical applications, give directions through a guidebook, communicate through technology, or archiving data. Each field that utilizes technical communication is different.
Also, feel free to visit the Wikipedia page for additional information and resources on technical communication: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_communication
 |
Ferry Vermeulen is a technical communication expert and director at INSTRKTIV. It's Ferry’s mission to create digital user instructions for all products in the world. Listen to the INSTRKTIV podcast on Spotify or read one of his latest blog articles. Linkedin I Spotify I YouTube I Facebook I Twitter |
DO YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW YOU CAN CREATE A COMPLIANT USER MANUAL FOR THE EU?
A step-by-step approach to developing compliant user instructions and avoid legal pitfalls.