When we read about core competencies for technical communicators, the most common items that show up on the laundry list are sound writing skills and the ability to easily learn and use technologies. Google “technical communicator” and “core competencies” and you’ll find overlapping lists that generally include communication, research, project management, people skills, and an intuitive ability to learn technical information and new authoring tools.
The competencies are general enough and can apply to writers expected to write technical documentation, user documentation, online help, marketing communications, and just about every other type of writing done by technical communicators. The profile rang as true in 1996 as it does today in 2006, but we know that the way we wrote ten years ago would be terribly outdated in today’s market. The definition of sound writing skills has progressed to include writing for the Web and for content management systems. The new technologies that writers are expected to learn have become more sophisticated and change at a far more rapid rate.
The interpretation of core skills, then, is contextual. Being secure in one’s core competencies is not a license to stop honing those skills. Today’s development and marketing environments are more sophisticated than ever, and the core competencies of all professionals have had to grow along with their particular industries. Here, then, are some contextual definitions of today’s core competencies for technical communicators.
Superior writing skills This means not only writing to the 4Cs of clear, correct, concise, and complete, but also to write to genre. Know the appropriate structure for your information product well enough to be able to explain and defend it, and put it into practice when developing content. The study of cognitive psychology, for example, can help improve writing skills as it increases the understanding of how users carry out tasks.
Strong research skills Writers continue to interview SMEs and users, but the techniques have become more sophisticated: non-directed, talk-aloud protocol, thin-slicing, personas, task sorting…the list goes on. Stay conversant about interviewing techniques and know when to use which ones.
Project management skills The nature of project management has developed from schedule and resource management. It means aligning the project to corporate goals, weighing project activities against return on investment, and qualitative decision making around scope creep.
Good people skillsHaving people skills no longer means not dissing engineers to their faces or pleasantly following SME orders to change copy. Today’s writers may be on cross-functional teams, run usability tests, and participate in all sorts of tasks requiring social intercourse. Learn about personality typing and team role theory and where your team style fits in the mix.
Intuitive learning Whether it means learning a new authoring tool or a technology to be documented, intuition can be honed through repeated experience. Interact with enough e-commerce sites and you’ll soon be able to feel when a site “doesn’t work right.” In a pressure cooker work environment, it’s hard to resist the temptation to ignore the incremental changes in the ways that applications work. Stay on top of trends, as it is an important aspect of a writer’s effectiveness to be able to discern the differences.
A personal commitment to career development seems harder each decade, as corporate funding for skills development shrinks and the “best before” date on skills shortens. On the other hand, it’s never been more important to make that commitment to lifelong learning. Having forward-thinking core competencies often becomes the distinguishing factor in an interview with prospective employers or clients.
