The Many Faces of Technical Writing

By Diana Combs

A year ago, a 10-year-old girl asked me what I do. When I told her that I’m a writer, she asked me what I write. It’s hard to explain to an adult, let alone a 10 year old! Un-phased, she tried to guess. “Do you write books? Do you write articles? Do you write for TV?” After a short struggle, she asked, “Do you write things that not a lot of people know about?” She finally hit the nail on the head.

Many STC members fall neatly into a recognized category of writers, like financial services or computer software. I’m going to tell you about a different category, whose name is something of a misnomer: “technical writing” for the government.

Why is this a misnomer? Because it is not IT-related. It isn’t scientific, and it isn’t about writing manuals. There is no good name for what I and my colleagues do. For one thing, we work for a company that holds a contract with the Coast Guard and other agencies. So we’re not really government writers. For another, no one ever made up a name for what we do. This is the only part of the country where “technical writer” could mean anything related to what we do.

Our company’s home base and headquarters is in Alaska, although I’ve never been to that office (I have been to Alaska!) We’re legally “an Alaska native corporation.” The company holds many government contracts, but my job is to work with the Coast Guard. You remember the Coast Guard, right? The heroes of Katrina? Yeah, I work with those guys. I work with engineers who specialize in any field that the Coast Guard specializes in: protection of human life, property, and the environment. So in one project, I’m working on fire extinguishing systems, and in another, the amount of drinking water inspected vessels have on board. By “inspected vessels”, I mean what most of us would call “boats” that the Coast Guard inspects (to ensure it meets Coast Guard safety and environmental standards.) But be warned! If you ever use the word “boat”, it is a technical term to the Coast Guard, describing mostly smaller vessels.

We don’t do just one thing in our job. We don’t just draft, or just copy-edit. We do everything that involves writing in the regulatory process, from start to finish. We draft a description of the regulatory project so that the Coast Guard Commandant will permit the engineers to carry through the regulatory project, and we edit it at least once. We draft public notices of upcoming rulemakings, and edit them at least once. We also use code language to direct the Federal Register to change rules, and we create whole new rules. We go to meetings; we give style and grammar advice to engineers, and smile at the Coast Guard. Should the Coast Guard ask us to create an Excel table, or mine data, we might do that too. Maybe we have to follow the narrow military protocol when we do any of these things. We just don’t know -- but most of the time we’re in the Coast Guard headquarters building, in downtown Washington, D.C.

The background of each writer varies, including one with a legal background, another a secretarial background, a recently published writer, and a school teacher. The main prerequisite is demonstrated writing ability.

The main point is: no one is familiar with this unique but large group of writers. We are here for the government and because of the government. Yet even in the Washington DC area, we are unheard of and unseen outside the office. There is not a single professional association designed for us. Even the STC SIG group that most people would refer me to includes people from completely different job descriptions that have no relation to the government!

At my first STC meeting, I was stunned to realize that most writers at the meeting had no idea what my job was. They’d never heard of such a thing. So I’m here to remind you that there are many, many kinds of writers. Some of us fit into neat categories that have been around since the beginning of time. And some of us fit into something different. However, we are all writers, and we share an appreciation for good communication.

Diana Combs is a Technical Writer II for Sage Systems Technologies that is nationally based in Alaska and regionally based in Manassas. Diana works in the District of Columbia, and lives in Alexandria, Virginia. You can contact her by email:Diana Combs.