Joe Welinske, of WritersUA, spoke to the STC West Coast chapter on February 17. We were a good-sized crowd, and we started the meeting by enjoying some sushi and other goodies kindly provided by Liessi Haussler of Cyberscribe Solutions.

Joe discussed how naturally we, as technical communicators, have concerns about the current economic situation. He suggested some possibilities for expanding our domains of expertise, while continuing to write material that helps the user. For example, the Blackberry 8703e ™ simulator at Verizon.net is a slick application that mimics various models of cellular phones. Suppose you want to know how to send an email with your new cell phone. You can use the simulator and be taken through the process step by step.

The simulator has both a descriptive mode, which is like standard help text, and an instructional mode with a working simulator to use for practice. These two modes have overlapping content, and this material had to be written by someone. This is just one example of how mobile applications are becoming increasingly important, and why technical communicators should become familiar with creating embedded help for mobile devices. He provided some statistics about the increased prevalence of the mobile space.

To paraphrase Joe, the era of being an introverted tech writer alone in your cube is over. Technical writers have to engage with the development team. Another example of a rapidly growing area in tech writing, at least before the current economic crisis, is API documentation. The need for technical writers to have a high degree of technical engagement is clear.

Joe gave some insight into why he founded his own company. What he likes doing is the actual documentation, but he found that when working in the corporate world, he was repeatedly being put into managerial roles. The only way out of that situation was to start his own business.

After listening to Joe’s presentation, I, too, was confident that tech writing opportunities still exist, but that tech writers will have to develop additional skills to access these opportunities. Joe is a low-key speaker who is knowledgeable about both general trends in technical writing, as well as specific technical issues.

Joe is once again presenting the annual WritersUA conference in Seattle, from March 29 to April 1, an event which offers 3.5 days crammed with interesting sessions led by diverse speakers. See http://www.writersua.com for more details.