Useful skills for a technical writer¶
Develop your capabilities with these professional skills and tools.
Skills and Knowledge:
Be bold. Own what you do. This does not specifically have to be a techwriting skill, but in this field we often need to prove the importance of our work.
Be a team worker. You definitely need to communicate with others to get the information required to perform your job. Experts usually have strong personalities; you’ll need to find a path to their hearts and minds.
Be curious. Don’t hesitate to ask questions even if you think they are “stupid”. These questions may lead to unexpected and useful answers.
Be open to new technologies. The more you know, the more your marketability increases.
Tools and Environments:
Git or GUI for Git (such as SourceTree)
DITA and Markdown
Madcap Flare, Adobe Technical Communications Suite, or AuthorIt
HTML and CSS
Command line skills. CLI is very useful for working with Git (can be easier than GUI), when writing Linux or Unix-related documentation, and as a common language with developers and QA engineers.
