The Role of Motivation and Qualities of a Best Technical Writer
As a technical writer how do I get motivated? What are the ten best qualities of the world’s best technical writer? I was attending an interview (2nd round) for a Fortune 500 company and was taken off-guard, when the interviewer shot these unexpected questions at me—at that time an amateur technical writer yearning a much awaited break-through.

The going had been tough. I was kept waiting for more than three hours before being called in for thorough a rapid-fire questioning. Above that, I was rushed to answer fast; as the interviewer kept reminding me that he had more interviews on his call—which meant more competitors in line!
Like a pre-heated oven I was all tensed-up; owing to the two-hour long unscheduled wait. Worse ever, I was asked the toughest questions. Apart from that, I am not given sufficient time to think and answer. Imagining myself to be under the threat of a looming conspiracy, I just found myself mumble something to the interviewer, which obviously resulted a negative outcome at the end. I really do not blame anyone expect me for the laxity. I expected more of a technical sort of interview, and prepared more in that lines, completely ignoring the kind of questions I had faced.

Even now, when I go back and try to answer those questions, I realize how extremely important they are, not just to me, but to anyone in any profession. How do we get motivated? Do we possess the best qualities required of the profession?
How a Technical Writer is Motivated 

Read-Write-Get Read
I believe that every writer is a voracious reader. Technical writers are no exception—I mean that they should be. Terrific amount of knowledge is just a click away! Internet has brought a whole gamut of subjects of relevance close to the aspiring Technical Writers; they can now learn the finer nuances from other fellow technical writers, get expert opinions and answers to their queries or even be guided online at difficult times.

I personally am overwhelmed by the extent of motivation I get; reading about fellow technical writers; their experiences in making them famous; their debates on professional ethics and updates all over the internet. I further get motivated on getting myself heard over the net; I let my thoughts flow through blogs and networked sites to get them slaughtered by criticism if deserved. I get motivated by positive comments. I get equally motivated to receive criticism and learn from mistakes.
I read extensively; try to write in equal fervor; and also try to get read with enough fever—just to get motivated.
Best Qualities of a Technical Writer

Any amateur to the world of technical writing is sure to refer such qualities like excellent written and oral communication skills or good analytical ability as top qualities of a technical writer. Those are the basic requirements I can say. But I personally have come to realize that the following characteristics go a long way in the making of the world’s best technical writer.
Ability to Decompose Technical Details into Simple Concepts

Though a technical writer is required to deal with a lot of technical information; not every reader or audience is able to understand such complexity when represented in raw form. The best technical writer is the one who can breakdown even complex information into very well articulated steps or concepts for a reader to grasp and remember. That is most important.
Adaptation of Superior Document Design

A document is not just a collection of different chapters or sections. It represents various modules, parts, concepts and analytical segments that are interrelated with one another; yet interspersed at different places across the document to avoid confusion reading it. The brilliance of a technical writer manifests in designing a comprehensive document that can be correlated and easily understood by a reader or even a layperson.
Cemented Consistency 

Consistency is one of the crucial traits every technical writer is required to maintain, but very difficult at that. A document not necessarily is confined always to a couple of pages. It can run into hundreds and thousands of pages or multiple volumes. Many a time concepts of the same kind have to be referred at many places in the entire document(s). No single concept or a unit of information can be referred in a different form unless specified, lest the reader is bound to get confused. A good technical writer represents consistency like cement; that binds readers’ taut attention without distraction.
Ability to Plan One's Workload

Technical writers are always working under pressure. When all the work for others comes to an end; it actually begins for the technical writers! A competent Technical writer should therefore plan ahead of the others—their managers, peers and fellow workers; anticipate deadlines and be prepared for them.

Recognize Tasks and Assign Proper Priority

There shall be lot many things technical writers are supposed to do. They are required to prioritize their works on need basis to see that nothing comes between clearing deadlines.
Look and Feel

Every document that a technical writer prepares shall invariably be approved by the client or the customer. All the rules of usability shall therefore be taken care of by the technical writer to sustain an amicable, flourishing and everlasting relationship with the client or customer.
Expert in the Field 

Every technical writer is expected to gain mastery and control on the tools of documentation. Technical writers shall use illustrations, formatting, styles and preferences brilliantly to make the document appear prominent and different. Profuse use of tools with expert maneuvering is needed in creation of resourceful masterpiece.
I have put some points that crossed my mind, may be in haste. I welcome valuable thoughts from others to complete the discussion.

Musings on Technical Writing

Musings on Technical Writing

A Technical writer assumes lucidity and simplicity to mask sophistication and intricacy.

What is technical writing? This question is bound to irritate many a professional technical writers. But it could as well be considered the most encountered of questions by every technical writer. I have been in the field of technical writing for quite a few years now; yet I have seen blank expressions on faces of quite a few acquaintances, whenever I took reference to my profession. I am neither surprised nor bothered as I myself was an amateur in the field of technical writing.

It really threw me off-balance the day when I was presented with an option to accept technical writing as my career; and that too at an age when I should not be thinking of options. I took up technical writing at the age of 42; previously I was in an entirely different profession.
So what exactly is Technical Writing? This question crossed my mind too, when I was about to take a dive into the realm of technical writing. The answer to this, I want to keep a little longer coming.
Till the time I could join as a technical writer, I sweltered in air-tight cubicles of the net centers around every nook and corner (I did not have an internet connection that time) trying to amass as much information about technical writing, as I could. If I were to say that I might have literally taken every CPU into my hands and shook them violently till all the content relevant to technical writing fell before me, it would not be an exaggeration. There was a determination, a burning desire and a cherishing ambition to pursue a career that suited my line of interest—writing.
It did not take me long to realize from the days’ of hard work, that technical writing is not that technical after all! I realized that it requires one to peruse entirety of an entity in a single instance through close scrutiny and remember to use it at an appropriate place and instance. I have come to realize that a shrewd outlook, impeccable observation, terrific analyzing capability and good learning ability are some of the traits that help in the making of a good technical writer.
To focus on how essentially technical writing is relevant to a layperson, I could say that the labor of a technical writer could as well be found in the cozy comforts of their home itself.
A free booklet in the form of an instructional manual, packaged along with an electronic or electric item is sure to lie unused in any home today. Probably, people may have just left them unopened; disposed them or kept them along with the empty cartons up in their attics. What they have missed out is a point in question—these booklets have definitely been prepared by professional technical writers. The Help Guides that accompany any software, for instance the world’s most famous Microsoft® Windows operating system, (either in electronic or printed form) is the outcome of painstaking efforts of the technical writers. Every one who uses the Microsoft® Office, one time or the other would have clicked on the Help menu, that opens in a new window a specific instructional guide on how to use a sought after functionality. These online help guides therefore go after a maze of efforts involving a brilliant team of technical writers. As one can determine now, one of the basic functions of a technical writer is to write standard operating procedures on how to use a product or service.
A company that sales an electronic or electrical product distributes a free booklet along with every product to its consumers—a product manual, installation manual or a user manual that provides details about the product’s technical and functional specifications. The contribution of a technical writer therefore comes in to play here. A technical writer has a major role in preparation of a detailed step-by-step instructional guide or a how-to guide that explains every single operation pertaining to a product or service: from switching it on, using it properly to switching it off. Technical writers also provide remedial measures for trouble shooting, the implications of error notifications and the decisions required to be taken on expected errors, during the operation of equipment or software. A technical writer is the one who is supposed to know how to operate equipment before hand and write clear and concise instructional guide on how to operate the equipment through comprehensive operating procedures and through self-explanatory illustrations where ever required. Besides, a technical writer is required to gather technical specifications of the product and represent them in easy understandable format. Above that a technical writer is required to find a remedy for trouble shooting and write procedures on how to avoid or come out of such troubling times.
While every process follows a life cycle from beginning to the end, software development is monitored for perfection using a Software Development Life Cycle. Parallel to the Software Life Cycle Development, technical writing involves the Document Development Life Cycle, that ensures proper utilization of the services of a technical writer for documenting the involved procedures and process. The contribution of a technical writer is therefore of unmatched magnitude in the development of a superior software product or service.
Last but not the least, technical writers are required to maintain easy language flow, consistency, syntax, style, correctness and continuity throughout the entire document they write. They should always avoid being gender specific. Besides being fluent and adept in the language of communication, technical writers are required to learn and become masters of documentation tools like the MS Office, MS Visio, RoboHelp, PhotoShop, SnagIT, HTML, XML Scripting etc.

Technicality and complexity is veiled by simplicity as guided to perfection by a crafted Technical Writer.