“Don’t worry” she said. “No one reads this stuff anyway. Just get it done.” Sounds familiar?

These were the words a former Project Manager once told me. I’d written 20,000 words for a banking system – and no-one would read it.

What do you do when your own company has such a poor view of tech docs?

Are you wasting your time?

Does anyone actually read them?

Sure, they must.

Well, how do you know?

The University of Limerick, Ireland offers an excellent online course for those who want to study technical writing at home.

This university has a pretty amazing campus, specializes in the Arts and provides a conveyor belt of freshly-minted technical writers to Microsoft, Google and IBM in Ireland. It’s one of the few universities in Europe with a specialist degree in Technical Communications.

This distance-learning programme was introduced in September 2001 to provide flexible access to technical communication modules for people unable to attend a full-time course.

The Technical Communication modules at the University of Limerick focus on writing for the IT industry, and on Instructional Design for E-learning.

Objectives

• To provide students with a good grounding in the theory and practice of technical communication;
• To provide tuition on the main tools of the profession;
• To equip graduates with a professional qualification in the area of technical communication.

Program

Semester 1
Principles of Professional and Technical Communications and Information Design, Technical Communication Theory.

Semester 2
Workplace Issues in Technical Communication,
Information Management and Content Production.

Careers

Technical writing for telecommunications and software companies, instructional design for e-learning products, Web design, technical journalism, IT training, documentation project management, editing private contracting, abstract writing

Entrance Requirements

Normally a primary degree in any discipline. Industrial and/or computing experience is an advantage (Primary Degree: Level 8 NQAI). Applicants must have a high standard of written English, and good basic knowledge of computing (ECDL or equivalent). Applicants must have access to the Internet from home or work to participate in the course.

Contact

Department: Languages and Cultural Studies.
Course director: Yvonne Cleary
Email : yvonne.cleary@ul.ie

Postgraduate Admissions Office,

Graduate School,

University of Limerick,

Limerick,

Ireland

Tel: +353-61-234377

Fax: +353-61-233287

Email: postgradadmissions@ul.ie

Website: www.graduateschool.ul.ie

You can read more here: http://www2.ul.ie

Let me know if you have any problems contacting Yvonne or the University. Drop them a line if you’re interested.

Technical Writing attracts women. They’re very good at it and make great team leads.

Maybe I’ve been very lucky but I believe women are far better as technical writers than men.

Here are five areas where I think they have the edge of the guys.

1. Communication

When in entered technical writing, I assumed my days would be spent cranking out user guides on Adobe FrameMaker. Little did I know that a large part of my day would be spend chasing developers for specs, calling testers for bug reports, and working with customers (often non-English) to update the release notes.

5 Reasons Why Women Are Better Technical Writers Than Men?

Less than 40% of my time is spent writing.

Where does the rest go?

Talking to customers, business analysts, developers, security, and sys admins.

I’m flagging this upfront as one of the big shocks for junior Technical Writers (i.e. gradates) is how little time they may spend writing. Information comes from multiple sources. You, as the technical writer, have to coordinate this information flow and get to know those who supply it.

This is where I feel female technical writers have an edge over their male counterparts.

Most guys want/expect the documents to fall into their laps. The release notes SHOULD be given to them on-time. The reality is that people can be lazy, inefficient or downright dishonest.

So, you sometimes have to go over and haggle with these guys. Sound familiar?

Blokes get very tetchy in these situations.

“You promised it would be ready.”

“Did you read the status report – you’re on it. Where is MY document?”

It can get really intense.

Girls, on the other hand, seem to be more pro-active in these situations. If things are slipping onto it, they start chasing up. And they’ll let you know.

Why?

I think most women have a built-in BS detector.

When they get fed a porker (lie) by the developers they can feel it straightaway and start making contingencies.

Guys, naively, believe what they’re told.

They’re ‘optimistic’, which is another way of saying deluded.

2. Doing Interviews

Interviewing is one of the cornerstones of technical writing. You might not think it at first, but the more my career advanced, the more time was spent with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) such as IT Architects, discussing how the application worked.

For many writers this can be an issue.

While the writing may be easy for them, going out and meeting people may not. I know many technical writers who dread workshops, sessions, and group meetings. They don’t like the spotlight and prefer to type away – talking to people isn’t for them.

Maybe that’s why they’re writers. It’s a solitary type of activity.

Most women writers I know don’t have this problem. Not that they are all chatty types, but somehow the interactions, the discussion of ideas, is more suited to them.

Important!

Also, men can often get into defensive mode with each other quite quickly. Developers can be quick to offend, especially if another (male) points out some flaw in the design.

For whatever reason, the same observations when made by a women, don’t upset them so much.

Maybe they don’t see women as a direct threat or (my feeling) they are brought up stand their ground with other men but to accommodate the views of women.

I’ve seen many a shouting match between guys in the workplace but I’ve yet to see it with a female colleague. Maybe they scream when they get home…

3. Coping with Stress

Men don’t do well under stress. What happens when things get difficult? When you’re behind schedule or are about to miss a deadline?

You’re holding up the show! Whatta gonna do?

Guys worker harder, faster and more aggressively to get it out. It’s all about speed. Quicker, faster is the mantra. This may work in the short term but it leads to burn-out and, more than likely, breakdown in relations with other team members.

With the girls it tends to be different.

It’s not that they’re not upset or concerned with the looming deadline but the attitude (and plan of action) is different.

Whereas guys will run to the safety of their cubicle, girls will bring the team together and see if (as a team) they can reach the deadline.

Why is this?

I think for men, missing a deadline is an admission of failure.

“You couldn’t do it, could you?”

“You failed!”

It’s peer pressure like this that drives them (literally) insane and pushes them to make these kinds of efforts.

Women, in contrast, try to come together.

“How can we fix this?”

There is tension but it rarely deteriorates into slanging matches.

4. Emotional Intelligence & Multi-tasking

I’m grouping these together as they are equally important.

Which do I cut out?

Not sure, so I’m leaving them both in.

Emotional Intelligence relates to the previous points in that to be a successful writer you need writing skills, knowledge of the tools, but also the ability to get others to open up.

There is an element of detective work to technical writing. You’re always trying to dig out information and figure out why other won’t give you certain pieces of information or when they do, it’s late.

The finely-tuned antenna of female technical writers gives them an edge over the boys.

My week as a technical writer involves a range of activities. Writing is only one of my activities.

And, the more my career advances, the less writing I do.

5. Team Spirit & Morale

I’ve been in this game 18 years and, with only one exception, the best technical writers I worked with have been women. I guess I’m referring to team leads here. One of the small things I’ve also noticed is that technical writing depts tended to be a close group.

You didn’t always get that with the developers as they can be an element of completion – who can create the smartest app or write the best code. Lots of jockeying for position and, in an indirect way, looking for peer recognition.

Women read the emotional landscape better than men.

What your take on this?

Have I missed something screamingly obvious?

Do women make better technical writers than men?

PS - By the way, why don’t women go into programming? What’s the attraction of in writing tech docs?

Do you have a degree in technical writing or technical communications? Was it worth the money? If you had a second chance, would you have chosen this or opted for another career path?

One of my younger cousins has started her degree in university in Limerick, Ireland. Not the place most of us think of as the heart of technical writing. But, for Microsoft, Google and IBM this university has provides a conveyor belt, producing freshly minted technical writers every four years. It’s one of the few universities in Europe with a specialist degree in Technical Communications.

But, here’s the problem.

Ireland Plc is dead. So, is most of Europe.

Students taking a degree in technical writing / tech comms now read about layouts in the IT industry most every week. Actually, you don’t notice it any more.

The recession has become background noise.

Once they graduate, they’ll have to:

• Leave for the US to find work – is this smart?
• Up-skill and go for a Masters — makes sense but expensive and no guarantee of employment
• Move sideways into another field — possible but defeats the purpose of taking the degree in the first place
• Move to India or Asia — setup a technical writing firm there and/or work as a liaison between the US and Asian offices.
• Dropout?

This is what’s happening now. Why study for 4 years when there is no end goal?

I think this is a mistake, but it’s easy for me to say. Their careers are already at a premature crossroads.

Next week, I’m back in Ireland.

What advice would you suggest I give these students?

Stay the course or find something else?

PS - The University of Limerick courses are listed here.

Gordon McLean asks: do you plan to review your plan?

This is in relation to the Documentation Plan (aka Information Development Plan) that most technical writers prepare in advance of starting a major project. Granted, on smaller projects you can get away with this if you know the product, have the resources and the deliverables are nailed down.

But, his point is that the plan itself should be reviewed/updated during the project lifecycle. Or, at least, that’s how I read it.

Why create a Documentation Plan?

Gordon outlines some valid reasons:

1. Planning drives a discussion about the content, audience and deliverables.
2. Not reviewing your progress to the plan throughout is a waste, but I guess you could get away with it.
3. Planning can provide more than just a set of deadlines.
4. Set the direction and make sure everyone knows what they need to do to get there.
5. Drive discussion around the deliverables and the audience of the information.
6. Revisiting your plan throughout the project will help keep you from losing sight of the woods for all those trees.

More at: http://www.onemanwrites.co.uk/2009/10/07/do-you-plan-to-review-your-plan/

I have a slightly different take on this.

Hope I’m not splitting hairs here but, once the plan is published, I use it in the same way I use my Project Plans. For example, I send out status reports to the project stakeholders and flag issues as they arise.

But, I don’t review the plan once it has been signed off.

I would only do this if the deliverables changed. And, at that point, re-issue an updated Documentation Plan, asking for sign-offs etc.

Likewise, if someone left the team, it would be updated and circulated to the team, highlighting where this may impact the schedule and/or other risks.

I started to use Documentation Plans (in a more intentional way) when working in the US, partly as the PM demanded more visibility on deliverables and budgets.

At first, it was a pain. But, once I saw the value, it made sense and we (the technical writer team) scheduled meetings twice a week. It was project within a project, so to speak. They gave me their status reports, I collated them, and then passed it to the PM.

Resource Requirements:  Documentation Plan Template

How to use a Documentation Plan

Klariti has some tips on using a documentation plan / information development plan:

1. Assign an individual for every data repository. Identify roles and responsibilities.
2. Create procedures for creating, updating and revising documents.
3. Create a Master Document Plan List. Capture each technical document your team writes, updates and archives.
4. Identify the software requirements for the project success; this includes specialized authoring software for creating online help or content for mobile devices.
5. Identify security issues such as access to building, swipe cards, access to secure data resources, and travel requirements for international projects.
6. Create procedures for identifying and removing invalid and/or obsolete documents; define procedures for transferring archived documents to storage facilities. 10 Things Your Documentation Plan Should Know
7. Establish procedures for reviewing and approving documents prior to issue.
8. Identify and retain documents for legal and/or contractual purposes, for example, to comply with Sarbanes Oxley requirements.
9. Maintains master documents in a secure environment.
10. Establish the writer’s requirements, which in addition to the hardware, software, and technical requirements, includes access to reviewers to provide feedback and commentary on the actual documents.

You also need to ensure that you have covered licensing costs and established access controls to networks, software, and offices locations where necessary.

http://www.klariti.com/documentation-plan-template/10-Things-Your-Documentation-Plan-Should-Know.shtml

Documentation Plan Template

You can download a Documentation Plan template here:

http://www.klariti.com/documentation-plan-template/index.shtml

Some questions for you!

Do you use a Documentation Plan for your tech writing projects?

If not, how do you manage timelines, budgets, and deliverables?

If you do use them, what is the most important part to focus on?