It will be devoted to issues, skills, career paths, and resources available to the technical writer. This article is a general introduction to the field. Mary Anne Donovan is a veteran technical writer with 15 years experience in the field, and three years experience teaching technical writing at the college level.
Technical writing is an art and a science.
It's an art because it takes information and conveys it to the reader in a way that enables either understanding or action. And it's a science because it deals with methods, systems, design, theory, and repeatable outcomes. Technical writing has been around a long time. A Treatise in the Astrolabe , a work that details the purpose and operation of a navigational device. And the U.S. claims Benjamin Franklin as its first technical writer, thanks to his Spector series.