Though the changed approach of the software industry brings much limelight for the technical writers, but, still now, they are deprived from their desired niche. Some corporate houses are still not ready to consider the technical writer group as a billable entity; some doesn’t even want this group to be associated with. But, if you think deeply, you can get several strong areas of their importance..

Content matters the most: Often a good documentation makes a complicated application easily accessible. Technical Writers are the wordsmith, who has the power to explain the complicated technology in a very simple language. They function as a bridge between the developer (coder of the application) and the end user (who is going to use the application).They collect the technical information from the developers, process it and deliver it into a comprehensive way to the end user, who may or may not be as techie as developers.

They are the communicator of information: The Society of Technical Communicators (STC), a professional organization of technical writers, is involved in the movement of re-classifying the Technical Writers as Technical Communicators. Yes, that is it, because in this era of dot com, technical writers not only write manuals for print publication, but they communicate with the reader with the aid of the n-number of tools and mediums. In recent time, audio-video-graphics are replacing the raw text largely.

They do Audience Analysis: Audience Analysis is one of the most important aspects of user documentation. If you do not know your audience very well, all your efforts may go in vain. Technical Writers spend a considerable amount of time in knowing the readers’ knowledge base and then they plan their work accordingly.

They take care of Accessibility: Keeping the information at the reader’s finger tip is another criterion of good user documentation. Technical Writers take care of the accessibility of the manuals. They present the information in such a way that the user can locate it very easily. They use different traits to make a manual easy to navigate.

They make the Manuals vibrant: Though content matters the most in a user manual, yet its look and fill may prove important in drawing user’s attention. Technical Writers also take care of it. Being a good presenter, they also prepare the templates and styles of the manuals keeping it in synch with the application.