: Re: Does a technical writer need a technical background? Does a technical writer need a technical background?

@Eichhorn147

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I have done quite a bit of technical writing for healthcare information systems. There are two major categories that I can identify and each has different requirements. There are plenty of projects between these two categories with different requirements.

General End User Docs:

Documents that non-technical people must use to understand a minimally complex technical system. An example of this might be the user manual for a medical billing system. When writing this type of material, very little technical knowledge is needed.

API Docs

Documents that programmers use to understand a programming interface for a piece of software. Poorly written API docs can be fatal to integration efforts. This does require some technical knowledge, especially an understanding of programming. You don't need to be a full time programmer, but you should at least understand the basics of programming and anything specifically important to the API you are documenting. You should be provided a programmer, or someone who understands the API very well, as a resource on this type of project.

My company provides a human technical resource when we hire a writer without a technical background in the required area. If you can work well with a human technical resource, or even a non-human technical resource, it can drastically reduce your need for a technical background.

So in summary, it depends on how technical what you are writing is and the resources provided by the hiring entity.

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