Posted by Lora Boiago on Jun 26, 2013 5:52:00 PM

6 Reasons to Hire a Contract Technical Writer

Tips from your Instructional Design Consulting Company

TECHNICAL WRITER - You have spent the last 5 months creating a product that perfectly speaks to a market that you have carefully crafted.  You now realize a need for a well-written and understood manual outlining the functionality and instructions of this new product, but you are debating between having it written by your in-house developer or an external contract technical writer.  You may be quick to assume this talent can be easily found within your workplace.  The truth , however, is that writing technical materials, including installation guides, operator manuals and procedure manuals, require a specialized set of skills.  It is a difficult form of writing and often requires someone with varying backgrounds, experience, knowledge and ability.  The challenge lies in the ability of the writer to explain the facts about technology and science in the most simplistic and understandable manner.

Download this free step by step checklist to ensuring smooth implementation of your next technology roll-out.

Download

The key to a successful high-tech product and/or service is a high-quality technical documentation, so don’t risks sacrificing its quality to save a few dollars which will be spend alternately in the future.

Hiring a superior contract technical writer to portray complex information in a manner that is easy to understand for the end-user yields invaluable benefits.  We’ve compiled a list of the main benefits to expect when hiring a contract technical writer.

Benefits

1. Clearer Communication

  • A high-quality, well versed documentation and manuals reflect well on your organization.  Readers will translate the level of competency revealed through the documentation onto your brand.  Contract technical writers help clarify complicated concepts through translating developer jargon into simpler language, helping your organization meet the needs of your target audience.

2. Awareness

  • Technical writers consider content from the user’s perspective.  Technical writers are aware and know how to connect to your audience, and they have the special talent of understanding complex content from both the viewpoint of industry-experts and the average consumer.  They are capable of understanding the unique needs of your audience, which will allow them to create effective technical communications that will resonate well.

3. Reduced Costs

  • Professional technical writers have the skill and knowledge necessary to complete a coherent end-product faster with the specific needs of the product market in mind.  Eventually, well written and understood manuals will result into a reduction of service calls to your technical-support department.

4. Impartial

  • Having the final product manual written by an in-house developer may result in superfluous descriptions or overstated benefits.  While maintaining a high level of detail is important, professional technical writing is to be concise, impartial and state the facts clearly.  Hiring a contract writer to do the job eliminates the probability of the manual being altered by personal interest, allowing the end-user to read exactly what they get.

5. Professional Formatting & Presentation 

  • From the document layout and font to the appropriate size for charts, a technical writer is able to make your content look professional.  Your documentation is one element of many that complete your company brand.  It is just as much part of your product as its other features and should complement it accordingly.  Colours, styles, and logos can go a long way to making the documentation look like your documentation.

6. Scalability

  • An advantage of hiring contract technical writers is that they are …well – contract!  Your organization has the ability to hire or downsize the number of writers on a specific project, depending on the market demand and current workload.  Even better, the headaches and paperwork associated with the travel, payment and administrative duties of the project are arranged by the training consultant company.  This leaves you to focus on your core responsibilities.  How about that for a benefit!

Contact Us

Topics: training consultant company, training consultant companies, technical writer, technical writers, contract technical writer, contract technical writers, technical communication

Read More