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Work Patterns of Technical
Audience Analysis
Careers Communication
Careers in
Technical Writing
Technical
Writing: Threats Contents
to Future
Employment 1 Overview
Work Patterns 2 Origins
of Technical 2.1 Writing career paths
Communication 3 Information design
Collaboration 3.1 Textual coordination
Comics 3.2 Multimodality
Component Content 4 User advocacy
Management 4.1 User experience and user-centered
Ethics design methods
Genres 4.2 Risk communication
Grant Writing 5 Content and community management
History of PTW 5.1 Single-sourcing
Human-computer 5.2 Writing stewardship
interaction 6 See Also
Information Design 7 References
Instructional Design
Intercultural

Technical
Communication
International
Technical
Overview
Communication
Interviewing Subject
Matter Experts The work patterns of technical communication are practices,
skills, and
Plain Language responsibilities that shape modern technical communication work.[1] Technical
Writing
communication scholars identify three major work trends: information design, user
Public Policy
advocacy, and content and community management. These work patterns are
Readability
Formulas associated with fields that overlap with technical communication, such as
user-
Rhetorical Theory experience (UX) design. Technical communication workplaces overwhelmingly
Risk Communication require knowledge of these work patterns in addition to writing skills
Science
Communication
Social Justice Origins
Style
Technical Editing
Theory

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Usability Testing Present work patterns of technical communication emerged

during the late 20th-
User Manuals for
century shift toward an “information economy.”[2] This term describes an economy
Software
UX Design in which information is the most valuable commodity. Systemic changes in work
Guidance for Authors settings caused this shift, most notably the rise of telecommunications: phones,
Collaboration faxes, and Internet. Workers now communicate across boundaries of
Sitemap organizations, settings, activities, trades, and publics.

Under the information economy, networks rather than hierarchies structure most
organizations. Networks rely on distributed work: a knowledge-based unification of
work practices traditionally “separated by time, space, organizations, and
objectives.”

 Traditional product-based work  Knowledge-intensive distributed work

 Workers hold long-term or lifetime  Workers practice “lifelong learning,”
employment and professional constantly adapting to changes in work
relationships. settings and activities. Professional
relationships are networks of customers
and businesses.
 Work is spatially restricted to  Work takes place in workplace and home
workplaces and temporally restricted spheres alike. Telecommunications
to workdays. distribute work activities across the globe.
 Workers specialize in clearly-defined  Workers cross boundaries of their
roles limited to their industries, fields, industries, fields, trades in their work
and trades. activities. They specialize in adaptability to
new roles.
 Businesses have select long-term  Businesses increasingly rely on networks
relationships with other businesses. of business-to-business relationships.
 Information has a one-way flow from  Information flows in multiple directions
businesses to customers. between businesses and customers,
blurring distinctions between them.

Technical communication emerged as a specialized field under the information

economy. Previously, organizations wrote memos, manuals, and other technical
documents to supplement products, services, and work. Technical communication
degrees and proliferation of information technology distinguished the field.
Rhetorical expertise helps technical communicators negotiate with stakeholders:
networks of actors that their information products influence (e.g. customers,
employees, shareholders, communities). Rhetoric also enables technical
communicators to navigate dynamic work patterns.

Writing career paths

Technical communicators no longer exclusively write.[3] Previously, writers

individually crafted self-contained texts. Distributed work has transformed writing
work so that texts are constantly-changing assemblages of existing texts.
Additionally, project management systems reconcile differences between individual

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writing styles. Technical communicators now specialize in rhetoric and decision-

making rather than mutable tools and technologies.

Career paths reflect and recreate technical communicators’ specialization shift

from writing to cross-disciplinary work patterns. In most organizations, junior
technical communicators write and design information products. Senior technical
communicators determine information products’ needs by designing systems,
coordinating with clients, and performing analysis.

 Junior technical communication  Senior technical communication

work work

Writing text Defining text components and

Transferring material from paper
to online
Quality-assurance testing
products (e.g. checking links)
Writing software maintenance
changes
Analyzing effects of system
changes on existing texts
Designing and manipulating
graphics
relationships
Outlining high-level documents
Analyzing audiences and tasks
Setting design standards (e.g.
style guides)
Teaching standard writing
techniques
Developing user personas or
profiles
Defining customer/user needs
Designing metadata
Planning software maintenance
changes

Information design

Information design is a field dedicated to visually

displaying texts, graphics, and
other information. The subfield of document
design has traditionally been a
component of technical writing. Since distributed
work changed the form of
technical documents, practitioners have broadened
their applications of
information design. Technical communicators now assemble
dynamic texts from
disparate sources, displaying them in multiple formats for
multiple audiences.[1]

Textual coordination

Writing in technical
communication now
involves transforming
multiple texts, images,
and other information
into new texts.
[4] Textual
coordination

requires technical
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communicators to
gather information
from
subject matter
experts (SMEs). They
transform information
through reuse or
pastiche of an
organization’s
preexisting texts,
based on work
objectives. Information
technologies store,
display, and generate
texts used in textual
coordination. In
single-
sourcing

environments, writers

may consult hundreds Fig. 1: Word clouds are an example of multimodal text.
of texts in a
database
within a single
workday. Technical communicators require rhetorical
expertise to seamlessly
weave reused texts into new documents.

Multimodality

Technical communicators produce information easily

transferable to new genres
and media.[1] Multimodal texts combine modes of communication such as
language, visuals, audio, motion, and space.

Multimodal composition relies on textual

coordination and user-centered design to
determine combinations of information and
formats that meet user needs.
Technical communicators require knowledge of how
and when to create media
such as videos, websites, and diagrams.

User advocacy

User advocacy is a UX design practice with applications in

technical
communication.[1] User advocacy is a UX design practice with applications in
technical communication. It is the representation of user interests in writing,
design, and other decisions. User advocates test and redesign information
products in response to user needs, wants, and goals. Effective information
products meet the following ideals:

Usable: Designs facilitate safe, easy, intuitive use

Useful: Designs fill user needs invented through user profiles and usability
testing

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Compelling: Designs persuade users to engage with products

User experience and user-centered design methods

User
advocacy
allows
stakeholders
to understand
the value of
technical

Fig. 2: User advocacy cycles through three main UX design practices.

communication work.[5] User-experience and user-centered design methods allow

them to promote continuous improvements of products.

Profiles and personas of user identities drive user advocacy. They determine user
wants, needs, behaviors, and values based on qualitative and quantitative
information. Measuring user behavior, interacting with them, and rhetorically
analyzing needs all provide data for user personas. Web 2.0 allows user
advocates to analyze an abundance of user-generated content such as reviews,
forums, and social media. They may survey and interface with users directly
through information technologies.

Usability testing provides data to refine user personas and support user-centered
design. It involves observing or measuring users’ interactions with products to
determine ease of use. Usability testing for information products focuses on users’
pathways and work processes: where and how easily they can find information.
Resulting data helps stakeholders align user needs with organizational goals.

User-centered design is the end goal of user advocacy. It reconciles design

choices with user needs as determined by profiles and usability testing. Traditional
product-based design focuses on established formats at the possible expense of
user experience. By communicating user needs, user advocates help stakeholders
identify problems before implementing solutions.

User advocacy implements basic UX and user-centered design

practices.
Technical communicators build user identities using data on user
behavior and
direct feedback on user needs. They gather data from usability
testing and
qualitative assessments of user-generated content. Technical
communicators align
user needs with organizational goals by asking subject
matter experts how users
would access their information. Identifying problems
before solutions is a guiding
principle of user advocacy

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Risk communication

Risk communication is a user advocacy subfield concerned

with mitigating product
or environmental risks.[6] Under the product-based economy,
it has been distinct
from risk assessment: scientific quantification of risks.
Risk assessment has
traditionally involved hierarchical, one-way communication
between subject matter
experts and publics or users.

Under the information economy, risk communication is an

information network.
User advocates mediate between experts and publics by
representing user
perceptions of risks. Publics and product users have access
to information not
immediately apparent to risk assessors. Measuring this
information, technical
communicators help experts refine generalized user
profiles with data.

Content and community management

Senior technical communicators often act as content and community

managers.
[1] They oversee and assess writing produced within an organization to determine

the needs of information products. Content and community management requires

collaboration with teams through information technology.

Single-sourcing

Single-sourcing is a
system of publishing
the same source
texts
in multiple formats and
locations.[7] Technical
communicators create
“evergreen” content
(e.g. mission

statements) for easy

reuse and editing

Fig. 3: WordPress is a popular open-source CMS.
according to materials’
genres and audiences.
Editing single-source content changes it across materials. Content management
systems (CMS) display, store, and format content to facilitate single-sourcing.

Scholarly debates within technical communication have regarded CMS automation

as a threat to employment. William Hart-Davidson provides a contrary perspective,
citing rhetorical expertise:

From today’s academic programs, most technical communicators do

receive training, not in “how to write,” but rather in how to perceive writing
as a social and cultural practice and in how to take an inquiry-based,
problem-solving approach to understand this practice in particular contexts.

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But managers do need to recognize the following: that writing needs to

assume a high status in corporate work, and be viewed as a critical means
to just about every organizational end.

Single-sourcing has expanded technical communicators’ roles from creation to

management of content. Based on roles, technical communicators may make
texts, manage information, or design and manage workflows. 

 Text creation  Information management  Workflow management

 Workdays of writers,  Workdays of information  Workdays of managers,
document designers, and architects, editors, team leaders, training
information designers interaction designers, and consultants, field
involve: architect curators involve: researchers, and client
liaisons involve:
Analyzing rhetoric Auditing content
Analyzing Managing Performing
audiences information contextual inquiry
Implementing user- Developing Analyzing work
centered design semantic markup processes
Testing usability Designing user Modeling tasks
Developing design environments Visualizing
genres workflow

Writing stewardship

Technical communicators facilitate writing within organizations.[8] Under an

information economy, all fields involve writing. Writing specialists coordinate with
subject-matter experts through “boundary-crossing”: cross-disciplinary
communication in team projects.

Boundary-crossing relies on effective display, representation, and assembly of

information across communities. Teams make work accessible, express work
legibly, and reuse, revise, and recombine work into unified contributions.

 Display practices  Representation  Assembly practices

practices

Email team Display work Perform textual

members on processes through coordination (reuse
project updates common genres and pastiche)
Publish status (e.g. memos, Notify teams of
information on slides, diagrams) simple edits and
project Share notes from communicate about
management team meetings complicated edits
systems Maintain role Review and revise
Maintain project descriptions for information
logs projects contributions

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Mark completed Compose and store

and upcoming templates of shared
milestones on genres
calendars

Boundaries between communities may still limit communication

between them.
Technical communicators may sacrifice individual authorship in
collaborative work.
Unlike translation of complex information for end-users, legibility
may compromise
nuance for teams uneducated on each other’s fields. Effective
boundary-crossing
balances communication with individual teams’ needs.

See Also

Information Design
UX Design

References

[1] Hart-Davidson, W. (2013). "What Are the Work

Patterns of Technical
Communication?" In J. Johnson-Eilola & S. Selber, Solving
Problems in Technical
Communication (pp. 50-74). Chicago and London: The
University of Chicago
Press.
[2] Spinuzzi, C. (2007). "Guest Editor's Introduction:
Technical Communication in
the Age of Distributed Work." Technical
communication quarterly, 265-277.
[3] Albers, M. J. (2003). "Single sourcing and the technical communication career
path." Technical Communication, 335+.
[4] Slattery, S. (2007). "Undistributing Work Through Writing: How Technical
Writers Manage Texts in Complex Information Environments." Technical
Communication Quarterly, 311-325.
[5] Martin, S., Carrington, N., & Muncie, N. (2017). "Promoting User Advocacy to
Shift Technical Communication Identity and Value." Technical Communication,
328-344.
[6] Grabill, J. T. & Simmons, W. M. (1998). "Toward a critical rhetoric of risk
communication: Producing citizens and the role of technical communicators."
Technical communication quarterly, 415-441.
[7] Hart-Davidson, W. (2010). "Content management: Beyond single-sourcing." In
R. Spilka, Digital Literacy for Technical Communication: 21st Century Theory and
Practice (pp. 128-144). New York: Routledge.
[8] Kellog, K., Orlikowski, W., & Yates, J. (2006). "Life in the trading zone:
Structuring coordination across boundaries in postbureaucratic
organizations." Organization Science, 22-44.

Last updated by Anna Diehl on 11/8/2020

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