Producing TC

This section of TCBOK covers all of the facets of publishing technical content--from the inception of a project through to its eventual publication.

What Technical Communicators Produce

Technical communicators produce four general categories of documents:

Documents that explain products, services, and policies. Technical communicators do so through materials such as help, technical support websites, user’s guides, service guides, references and policies and procedures.
Documents that share “basic” scientific and technical information. Technical communicators do so through materials such as technical reports, scientific articles, conference presentations, and book-length projects.
Documents that train users to develop skills. Technical communicators do so through materials such as online tutorials, job aids (quick references), and materials for use in face-to-face classrooms and virtual classrooms.
Documents that market products and services. Technical communicators do so through materials such as proposals, marketing websites, white papers, catalogs, brochures, and newsletters.

Technical communicators produce these documents in a variety of media, including online, print, video, and audio, for use on devices such as computers and mobile devices.
Partly to increase efficiency and partly to reduce the likelihood of errors, technical communicators often produce materials once and use them in a variety of media or for several purposes. Creating one set of materials that can be published in several media is called single-sourcing. Producing materials that can be assembled with a variety of other materials is called reusable content. In addition, technical communicators produce these documents to serve a variety of types of users, from scientists and engineers in specialty areas to end users of products, and from executives to the general public.

Designing and Developing Information

This topic describes how to define a technical communication project, determine how the content will be presented, develop and produce that content, and assess the content's effectivity.

Specific subtopics include:

Creating technical content
Producing technical content
Preparing world-ready content
Assessing technical content

Using Tools and Technology to Produce Technical Content

When creating, editing, and publishing technical content, technical communicators use many publishing technologies.

Using Tools and Technology

Following Technical Communication Standards

Following standards ensures that technical communicators can easily share source files (that is, the computer files containing original content) and information, and present it in various ways.

Following Technical Communication Standards

Collaborating When Preparing Technical Content

Collaboration is all about how we work with others. Use this subtopic to find out more about collaboration strategies, tools, and skills.

Collaborating when Preparing Technical Content

Managing Technical Communication Groups

This subtopic describes the processes of estimating and tracking projects, managing technical communicators, and making decisions affecting an entire technical communication staff.

Managing Technical Communication Groups