You sometimes hear the comment that technical writing is not only “boring” but also “unnecessary.” Nothing can be further from the truth than that.
Good technical writing at its finest is INVISIBLE. You don’t even know it’s there and that dozens of people have benefited from it. And in its most extreme form, yes, good technical documentation saves lives.
Poor technical writing, on the other hand, can be, at the very least, a frustrating and maddening experience for the consumer. And in the worst case, bad technical documentation can kill people.
So I think the “unnecessary” charge is actually a COMPLIANCE, as it denotes excellent documentation that manages to stay under the radar, so to speak.
Here’s an example… When Captain Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III and his crew managed to land US Air Flight 1549 safely in the Hudson River in January 2009, the whole world applauded the captain, as was due. It was a spectacular achievement worthy of the highest praise.
You may also remember that the Airbus 320 used its Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) made by Honeywell Corporation after losing both of its engines. This is how Captain Sully was able to direct his Airbus 320 to a safe landing.
Now here are two questions.
1) How do you think Captain Sully was trained so well, with that spectacular level of experience?
2) How was the APU system installed and configured correctly to ensure it would spring into action smoothly when the “moment of truth” arrived?
Excellent technical communication is part of the answer to both questions.
Think of all the technical papers Captain Sully has read, studied, and memorized to learn how to fly military jets and airliners both in a simulator and in actual training flights. Guess who wrote all those manuals and guides?
Again, think of all the installation and configuration guides used to successfully install the APU system on a high-tech flying marvel like the Airbus 320. Do you think technicians would know how to do it if it weren’t for the countless hours of work they put into it? unknown technical writers poured into those documents? Would you agree that no documentation EQUALS no APU installed and working properly?
The opposite is equally true. Poor documentation almost always leads to one disaster or another.
Do you remember what happened in March September 1999? NASA’s $125 million Mars Orbiter crashed into the surface of Mars and burned up, instead of landing softly as planned, because… one team of engineers used the metric system while another used English units! for a crucial space maneuver! That really happened. And who do you think forgot to pay attention to that simple unit conversion between two different sets of documents? Why, a technical writer of course…
That’s why I shake my head in disbelief every time I hear someone talk about the “insignificance” of technical documentation; that as technical writing “doesn’t matter” and is “unnecessary”…
I pray inwardly that those same people never fly in an armed plane with poor or “unnecessary” documentation, as their lives may depend on it and they may not even know it.
