A technical writer is a professional information communicator whose task is to transfer information between two or more parties, through any medium that best facilitates the transfer and comprehension of the information.
Technical writers research and create information through a variety of delivery media (electronic, printed, audio-visual, and even touch). Example types of information include online help, manuals, white papers, design specifications, project plans, and software test plans.
Government/Military technical writers focus on specified contract deliverables, based on very specific templates using computer software from MS Word to Arbortext Editor and Adobe Framemaker.
With the evolving use of of e-learning, technical writers are team members involved with creating online training material.
According to the Society for Technical Communication (STC):
Technical writing is sometimes defined as simplifying the complex. Inherent in such a concise and deceptively simple definition is a whole range of skills and characteristics that address nearly every field of human endeavor at some level. A significant subset of the broader field of technical communication, technical writing involves communicating complex information to those who need it to accomplish some task or goal.
