What is a technical communicator?
Whenever you talk, write, or make a hand gesture, you’re communicating information. When you write a procedure for safely operating equipment, draw a diagram to show how a machine works, or explain to someone else how to use a computer program, you’re communicating technical information. Technical communication is the literature of science and technology. Have you ever used a help screen in a computer program? Used a CD-ROM to play a game? Surfed the Web by clicking on your favorite links? Used a safety procedure? Assembled a bicycle? Read an article in Scientific American? Used a diagram to help set up your family’s computer? If you have, you’ve used the product developed by a technical communicator. The information developed by science and technology must be recorded. Sometimes it must be written in clear, uncomplicated language for nonspecialists in the subject; sometimes it must be presented in great detail for specialists. Technical communicators produce material that conveys scie
