Feline Musings

Many people believe that having a technical bent of mind, or college degree, is the key to success in this field. This is only partially true, because the master key of this field is held in the word “writing.” To become a successful technical writer, it is imperative to be a writer, i.e. to have the required dexterity to write and express effectively. With a generous sprinkling of common sense, the power of observation, the desire to experiment and learn, innovate and initiate and ample research and analysis, one can embark upon this career and continue to gain knowledge of the technical bits.

The “schools of thought” expanded and diversified, and we were enmeshed by more ideas and professed more ways of life than we could actually live! Minimalism gave way to lofty ideals and higher ambitions. More and better was demanded and at grandiose scales. The intellectual was churning out ideas for execution, and the social, political, economic, and industrial setup was working overtime to crystallize these ideas. While the human mind was at work, life was improving at a fast pace, but at what cost!

I accept with a gourmet’s delight the weird menu that is served day in and day out in my office cafetaria, even if it means chewing on the little stone in my rice, or having the lentil salad that reeks, or the custard that is yellow colored water.

 I have often mulled upon the career progression for technical communicators. A technical communicator can always choose to write, review and publish through his/her professional life but there is significant risk of stagnation, because of three reasons:  
• In the same project/organization or domain the documentation will soon become robust and the documentation repository will only [...]

Yes, writers have to sell their skills in IT-organizations – not to get the job, but after they land a job in an IT-organization. While most IT-organizations are realizing the need for hiring skilled writers to handle their technical and organizational documentation, they are not fully aware of the potential of the writers they [...]

As a technical writer by profession, with myriad experience in writing for the IT industry, I strongly believe that IT-based documentation is an upcoming domain where more and more people should venture. In this blog post, I intend to share my observations on where and how writers with a technical bent of mind can [...]