A remote technical writer creates and manages documentation for technical products or services from a non-office location, typically their home. Their responsibilities include writing user manuals, help guides, product descriptions, and other supporting documents to communicate complex and technical information more easily.
They also ensure the content is clear, concise, and accessible to its intended audience. They often collaborate with technical staff, project managers, and other stakeholders to gather information and feedback via digital communication tools. This role requires strong writing skills, an understanding of technical concepts, and the ability to work independently and manage time effectively.
What is a Remote Technical Writer?
Remote technical writers (also known as technical communicators) work outside of their company’s location. They are responsible for making complex technical concepts and information into structured technical documents that are easy to comprehend.
Furthermore, as the job title entails, remote technical writers aren’t hired as full-time in-house employees.
For example, you may be an experienced technical writer living in San Francisco and working for a company located in Seattle.
A content writer and a technical writer differ in their purpose. Content writers create written material to educate, inform, or entertain a brand audience. On the other hand, copywriters write to appeal to the brand audience to sell a product or service. A technical writer bridges the gap between complex technology and its users.
Remote Technical Writer Roles and Responsibilities
Remote technical writers create different industry-specific technical content for an organization.
Therefore, their exact roles and responsibilities may differ based on their industries, their experience level (entry-level/junior technical writer or senior technical writer), and even their job type (part-time or full-time).
However, their typical duties and responsibilities relevant to most organizations are:
- Conduct consistent research on target audience/final users to understand their needs and requirements from a technical document.
- Analyze and interpret all available technical information relevant to its technology, products, and services.
- Plan and create different technical documents, as per company needs to aid its product and software development process.
- Edit, modify and update technical/product documentation after employees and final users provide feedback.
- Manage and organize the company’s database and store all critical technical documents.
- Collaborate with subject matter experts in the entire writing process, from writing samples to final documents.
- Consult other technical writers on progress, get an expert opinion, and garner reviews.
Most importantly, incorporate a visual representation of information (such as illustrations, infographics, and graphs) to make technical content more user-friendly.
Remote Technical Writer Skills and Abilities
Technical writing professionals need to have diverse skills and abilities to synthesize corporate and technical information for a general audience to succeed at their jobs. All technical writers share the following general skills and abilities:
Communication
For effective technical communication and to perform their job functions, remote technical writers know how to understand and communicate with people from all walks of life, depending on their unique requirements.
Writers stick to purpose, clarity, and completeness in their message. They have a positive yet encouraging tone. Confidence and expertise come through the technical documents they deliver, synthesizing the insights of others to help readers understand technical information.
Technical Expertise
Technical writers needs excellent technical skills. Those skills emerge from an interest in and the interests of the company’s product.
Regardless, some popular technical skills that are relevant to most industries include:
- Project Management—time-constrained use of knowledge and skills to complete a company’s specific project.
- Product Development—creating a new product for the company or modifying and improving the already existing one.
- Marketing—the ability to communicate technical knowledge of products and services to the target audience.
- User Experience (UX) Design—the entire process of creating products and services that adds value to the audience’s life.
- Programming Languages and Their Basics—the foundations of programming language such as web layout (HTML and CSS) and applications used for technology and software development such as API (application programming interface) and Python.
If you want to learn more about the skills to succeed in the technical writing role, check out our Technical Writing Certification Course.
Research
All remote technical writers need advanced research skills to create error-free content for their technical audience.
They mainly engage in two types of research: before the technical document is created—audience and requirements analysis—and after the technical document is designed to enhance the user experience.
Audience analysis is the entire writing process that includes back-and-forth feedback from target users to understand their technical knowledge level, needs, and what they’re expecting from technology.
On the other hand, technical writers conduct user experience-based research to assess how final users perceive technical documentation of any technology—if it was helpful or not.
Writing
Technical writers know how to create different types of technical content, so they must follow their specific templates and other writing styles.
The common types of technical documents they create include user manuals, FAQs for online audiences, technical reports for stakeholders, company policies and procedures related to technology, case studies, white paper, and press releases.
Apart from writing technical documents, they must also know how to write them on the specific software used by their company.
At the same time, it is worth noting that a remote technical writer might also be responsible for creating only one type of technical documentation in an organization. For instance, a writer may only carry responsibility for proposal writing, and the job posting specifies it in the title. For that reason, they might be called a “Technical Proposal Writer.”
Editing
A technical writer must be able to critically evaluate their technical documents, edit and format them, and make necessary changes until they become entirely understood by the target audience receiving the technical information.
They make sure that when editing technical samples after feedback, they check on their overall content, omitting anything unnecessary and being careful about the word usage and vocabulary of the audience, the correct spelling and punctuation, and the overall tone.
All in all, they make sure that technical documents follow their specific formats.
Design
To make technical documents interactive and appealing, technical writers are supposed to incorporate the information in text and represent it visually through graphs, videos, infographics, and images.
Therefore, most remote technical writers have basic proficiency in information design, information architecture, graphic designing, typography, etc. They may rely on peer professionals if they don’t possess such skills. For that reason, a writer—despite being in a different location—must have a knack for teamwork.
How Can You Become a Remote Technical Writer?
If you’re planning to become a technical writer working remotely, there are specific prerequisites that you’ll have to meet.
Here’s what most employers demand:
- Education—a bachelor’s degree in a technical field such as Computer Science, Information Technology, or Engineering. However, if you have a degree in a non-technical field such as Journalism, English, or Communications, you must have industry-specific knowledge and experience.
- Training and Certifications—skills-based training through online courses (such as content development, graphic designing, or software), vocational diploma, and technical writing certifications from organizations like Society for Technical Communication.
- Experience—preferably two to four years of experience as a technical writer or editor for engineering, information technology, and other related fields.
These criteria aren’t strict and can be flexible depending on the company employed.
If you are new to technical writing and are looking to break-in, we recommend taking our Technical Writing Certification Course, where you will learn the fundamentals of being a technical writer, how to dominate technical writer interviews, and how to stand out as a technical writing candidate.
