Chapter Summary

While careers for technical communicators vary greatly, there are several assets that all technical communicators should possess. Technical communicators should be efficient organizers, accurate, detail-oriented, and empathetic professionals. Additionally, they should able to challenge content and make necessary revisions to documentation. To determine your strengths and weaknesses as a technical communicator, determine your technical communication habits and talents. In addition, identify both short-term and long-term goals.

It is the technical communicator's responsibility to effectively communicate with technical experts to ensure the authenticity of the document being created. This requires technical communicators to have excellent interpersonal communication skills. It is also to responsibility of the technical communicator to develop documents that are designed with the users' needs in mind so that the material is user-friendly and understandable.

It is important for technical communicators to behave ethically when creating documentation. Behavior such as failing to commit to responsibilities, tolerating inaccuracies, taking underserved credit, and participating in gossip should be avoided.

Online Links

The Virtual Chase—Legal Research on the Internet (Page 60)
www.virtualchase.com/quality

Why Spam Is Bad! (Page 64)
http://www.whyspamisbad.com/

Search Engine Web sites (Page 76)
www.altavista.com
www.askjeeves.com
www.google.com
www.webcrawler.com

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