Image gotten from cartoonstock.com
According to the Society for Technical Communication, technical communication is a field that includes any form of communication that exhibits one or more of the following characteristics:
- Communicating about technical or specialized topics, such as computer applications, medical procedures, or environmental regulations.
- Communicating by using technology, such as web pages, help files, or social media sites.
- Providing instructions about how to do something, regardless of how technical the task is or even if technology is used to create or distribute that communication.
For me, technical communication is is a field that focuses on providing information to users who need assistance in order to define a specific goal. It enables them to find specific information on using products, completing tasks, operating equipment, and completing other types of activities.
Technical communication is valuable to everyone because it makes information more useable and accessible to those who need it. For examples, software instructions help users be more successful on their own, improving how easily those products gain acceptance into the marketplace and reducing costs to support them. Medical instructions help patients and care-providers manage a patient’s treatment, improving the health of the patient while reducing costs and risks associated with incorrect care.
This post is a nice, straightforward definition of technical communication. Over the course of this class we’ve had numerous discussions over the merits of plain language, and to see it in action not only makes your post more accessible to a wider audience; it also demonstrates a deep understanding of this theoretical concept.
Too often when someone tries to define technical communication, the actual meaning gets lost in all of the jargon and vernacular: the definitions seem to be written FOR technical communicators, not someone struggling to understand what it is.