Skills required to be a Technical Writer

There are special skills needed to become an effective technical writer that go beyond basic writing ability. These skills include the ability to write lucidly and concisely, familiarity with the writing tools of the trade, and understanding the technical subject matter or product line.

Questions you may have are:

What sort of writing ability is necessary?
What tools do I need to know?
How much product knowledge is required?

Writing ability
Other technical writers come from engineering, marketing and education fields. They usually gravitate to technical writing because they enjoy the writing process.
The main talent needed in being able to explain or describe processes in a concise and professional manner.

Writing tools
Being skilled-or at least familiar-with the standard writing tools is very important in getting a job or being successful in technical writing. Microsoft Word is the standard word processor used by most companies, although there are exceptions. Skill in Word is useful, but since most word processors are so similar, it is not that difficult to migrate from one to another.

Desktop publishing
The industry standard desktop publishing application right now is Adobe FrameMaker. Companies that use the MAC may require Quark.
The main reason for moving to desktop publishing programs is to create large documents that include pictures and graphics considered too cumbersome with a word processor.

Distribution
An additional part of desktop publishing concerns distribution. Adobe Acrobat is the standard means of distributing documents on disk or online. On line help can be provided with RoboHelp is the most popular Windows Help authoring tool, with Doc-to-Help a distant second. Both require knowledge of Word.
Online help requires different writing skills than needed to write a user manual. The material must be much more concise, with short sentences. Procedures should have a maximum of 5 steps. Indexing is also very important in online help, since the index is the way most people find their help information. Many technical writing jobs now require the ability to also do graphical design. There does not seem to be a real standard in this area, although many use Corel Draw or Adobe PhotoShop. Companies that are heavy into graphics usually are MAC shops.Web pages
Many companies are now requiring technical writers to develop web pages. The most common tool is Macromedia Dreamweaver. Ability to use graphical tools is useful, as is coding in HTML.

Product knowledge
You have to write about a product or a process, so it is helpful to have knowledge in that field. In many cases, you interview subject matter experts for details, so at least you should be able to understand the material to ask the right questions and to relay that information into your document. It also helps if you like what you are writing about.

In conclusion
Ability to write concisely, knowledge of writing tools and understanding of the product are necessary skills for becoming a technical writer.