Exploring Dependency and Professional Identity: The Role of Technical Writers in the Age of AI

CHEN Carine, DERAOUI Zahra, PINTO Geoffrey

Paris Cité University, July 2024

Abstract

Generative artificial intelligence has had such an impact on us in recent years that it can now be integrated into our occupations. In this research article, we have decided to focus on the role of technical writers and see how generative AI is already impacting them, and what they think about it, particularly for their future in this field. This paper is based on a survey carried out among 30 professionals, including 55% of jobs related to technical writing. The respondents were asked about their knowledge and their use of AI text generators.
The results of our research have shown that the majority of technical writers are not worried about their role and are not dependent on generative AI. If they do use it, it is mainly to help themselves, save time, improve and reformulate their content. Generative AI still has a lot to prove, and there are several limitations and constraints.

Read the full article in PDF : Exploring Dependency and Professional Identity: The Role of Technical Writers in the Age of AI

Decentralized technical communication: A digital utopia?

Janaïna GEOFFRAY, Messaouda BEN MESSAOUD

Paris Cité University, July 2024

Abstract

The rapid shift to hybrid and remote work models has significantly impacted technical communication, raising questions about the effectiveness and sustainability of decentralized technical writing. This research examines whether remote technical communication can be considered a digital utopia or if it faces substantial challenges that diminish its effectiveness. Through qualitative interviews with technical communicators and project managers, the study explores the influence of remote work on productivity, team cohesion, and documentation quality.
The findings reveal a complex landscape where the benefits of remote technical communication—such as increased flexibility and enhanced digital collaboration—are balanced against significant obstacles, including communication difficulties and inequitable access to resources. This study provides a nuanced understanding of the practical realities of decentralized technical communication, contributing to the ongoing discourse on the future of the field in a digital era. It offers insights into the viability of decentralized work models and their implications for the profession’s future.

Read the full article in PDF : Decentralized technical communication: A digital utopia?

The transversality of a technical communicator

Lyticia KADJITE, Camille KUI, Céline NGUYEN

M2 CTM, Université Paris Cité, July 2023

Abstract

Technical communicators are at the heart of product development. They take on many different roles, but first and foremost they are the instructors, the link between the engineer and the user. For the general public, they transform technical documentation into a language that is structured, clear, precise, and, above all, intelligible to the target audience. But what are the other facets and responsibilities that qualify them as technical communicators?

From word processing to design, from website development to information architecture, technical communicators must be able to handle it all. But how transversal is a technical communicator? Do they take on the job of another profession? Or from other departments? What are the limits of technical communicators and the challenges they may face in their career? How diverse are the tools that a technical communicator must master to help in the design of product documentation? This leads us to the central inquiry of our research: to what extent does the transversality of a technical communicator impact the evolution of the job?

Through the lens of transversality, we aim to provide valuable insights on the advancement of technical communication practices and help professionals thrive. We will also take a look at technical communication as a profession, from its origins to its future, and finish off with some end thoughts about the current professional landscape based on our survey.

Read the full article in PDF: The transversality of a technical communicator

The impact of a technical writer shortage within an organization

Camille Bouillard, Kenza Benhassine, Georgina Gilmore

Paris Cité University, July 2023

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to verify that well-written documentation
has an impact on the success of a brand and has an impact on customer
service costs. The methods and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that can
analyze performance will be identified and analyzed using a survey and
through research.
To examine the impact of technical writers on company performance, we
explored whether companies don’t hire technical writers when they need
them. To do this we conducted a survey.
According to our research, technical writers seem to perceive a clear link
between their work and company performance. Documentation impacts
product usage by end users and costs for companies to operate and produce.
Cost is particularly impacted through user demand for customer service.
Experts and professionals have identified ways to measure company
performance, although their application does not appear straightforward for
all. This was demonstrated when we interviewed a group of technical writers
on how to measure the impact of technical writers on company performance
in practice. In this scenario, respondents were more skeptical about the
methods mentioned by respondents of the questionnaire.

Read the full article in PDF: Impact of technical writers on company performance

Technical Writers and Visual Perception Principles: Skills, Ability and Training

Megan CASEY, Marielle PESCHET, Anaïs TANZÉ

Paris Cité University, July 15, 2022

Abstract

As technology evolves, so does technical writing. New media is used to
convey information more efficiently and yet, technical documentation is not
always very clear. As technical writers, we have general knowledge on what
structures are expected to be the easiest to recognize and follow. We want
our documentation to be read and understood and with that in mind, we are
constantly searching for the best layout to contain our pieces of information.
These elements tie in to cognitive psychology and more specifically visual
perception. But do technical writers study cognitive psychology? And if they
do, do they apply its principles in their work?
This research article examines the relationship between technical writers
and visual perception principles of cognitive psychology.
With the use of a survey and a practical test on applied knowledge of
Gestalt principles, this study analyzes and assesses whether or not technical
writers have studied visual perception and if so, what differences there are in
identifying the principles of visual perception between technical writers who
have studied visual perception and those that have not.
The results gathered show that most technical writers have no knowledge
of visual perception principles. Nonetheless it does not prevent them from
being able to recognize when an element of a layout needs improvement for
clarity, legibility, understanding and overall ease of use. They are able to
justify their answers almost as well as trained technical writers.

Read the full article in PDF: Technical Writers and Visual Perception

What have they become? Career evolutions after graduating in technical communication at Université de Paris

As part of the theme for the 9th International Conference on Technical Communication: Evolutions of the Discipline, we have ctarried out a short study to find out what technical communication graduates had become. Here are the insights we gathered from this study.

The study

A survey was sent to alumni of Master and License Pro alumni at Université de Paris. We received:

  • 15 responses from License alumni
  • 60 responses from Master alumni

We received more responses from alumni who had recently graduated:

  • 38 graduated between 2020 and 2015 (within 5 years)
  • 23 graduated between 2014 and 2007 (within 10 years)
  • 14 graduated in or before 2006 (within 15 years)

The survey ran throughout January 2021 and was communicated to Université de Paris alumni through the alumni association ATCDIL, and through LinkedIn groups.

What have they become?

We have grouped job titles into 6 categories:

  • Data: Business analyst
  • Direction: Manager, Director, Product manager, Product owner, VP, CEO
  • Design: Technical architect, Learning Experience designer, Curriculum architect, Content designer, UX writer, Instructional designer
  • Development: Copywriter, Scientific writer, Technical writer, Translator, Proposal writer
  • Delivery: Content manager, Documentation engineer, Project manager
  • Dialogue: Consultant, Knowledge manager, Support engineer

The categories apply across business functions, such as documentation, training and digital learning, change management, operations, technical support, or marketing.

The following chart shows the percentage of respondants for each job title within 5, 10, and 15 years or more after graduation.

Only 2 respondants took a job outside of the technical communication field after graduation, and were not included in this chart.

Evolution of tech comm job titles

We can see that within 10 years, jobs become more diverse, and then consolidate into leadership roles within 15 years and more. A quarter of alumi still hold Development roles after 15 years.

Initial skills applied in current position

We asked participants to list the skills that they had acquired during their training at Université de Paris, which they were still applying in their current position.

Within 5 years, top initial skills are:

  • Writing
  • Website development
  • Information architecture

Within 10 years:

  • Writing is by far the top skill that prevails above all others.

Within 15 years:

  • Writing
  • Website development

Initial skills

Skills acquired since initial position

We asked survey participants to list any additional training they followed after landing their first job.

Added skills

It seems like people currently in Direction roles are the ones who have acquired most skills since their initial training, followed by people in Development roles.

New skills to acquire in current position

We asked survey participants to list any new skills they thought they needed to acquire in their current position.

Within 5 years:

  • Programming languages
  • Video production
  • Domain knowledge

Within 10 years:

  • Domain knowledge
  • Project management
  • Business management, customer relations
  • UX Design

Within 15 years:

  • Content management (XML, CMS, LMS)
  • Management
  • Change management

New skills

Evolutions of the discipline

We asked survey participants to share their thoughts about the future of technical communication as a discipline. They listed the following points:

More varied media formats, more tools

Only evolution possible is to move to a management position

Responsibilities become more varied (jack-of-all trades)

APIs and docs as code, Git

Data analysis, to elaborate a strategy based on facts

Agile methodologies (Scrum) and Design Thinking

Evolution towards roles in quality testing, editing, or project management

More user centricity : UX design and content strategy

AI-generated text involves a move towards domains where human interaction remains crucial (education, health, Human Resources, crafts…)

Better recognition of the profession, improvements in tools for user research and information architecture

Process automation coupled with content management

More online training

 

 

Why do technical writers have to justify their existence?

Louise AGERON, Tanguy CACHIN, Marina FERREOL

Paris Diderot, July 15th, 2019

Abstract

With the way new technologies are evolving nowadays, technical writers appear to play an important role. Their mission is to help users understand and use a new product or software. They create content that is easy to understand to all and adapt their discourses depending on whom they are addressing their message. We noticed that technical writers, however, still struggled to justify and explain their existence. We wondered whether the profession was widely known, and realized that it was not. We then retracted a brief overview of the profession and realized that being a technical writer had many definitions to it, and the job associated with the terms were broad and different, which reinforces the identity and existence crisis. We also wondered how technical writers were seen by their colleagues, and we found out that they were not seen as a priority by many, probably because of the influence of the old workflow system where technical writers were placed last.

Read the full article in PDF: Why do technical writers have to justify their existence?

Are technical communicators the secret asset of a healthy enterprise culture?

Alexandra ATES, Eléonore CASSAGNE, Richard DEBRABANT

Université de Paris, 2019-2020

Abstract

You spend one third of your life at work. You see your colleagues much more often than you see your friends or family, which is one of the reasons why it is important to be part of a team where you feel happy and motivated enough to carry out projects throughout your professional career. Several elements lead you to nurture —intentionally or unintentionally— these relationships within your own firm either in a positive or negative way, and greatly affect your productivity.

Technical writers are employees who communicate with customers or people in their firm. They collect as much information as possible to document projects and be aware of the modifications to be made in case of plan changes. Thus, with experience, they have learned how to behave so that professional conversations go smoothly, contacts last for a long time and they make progress in their work.

This position might suggest that they have a fairly important role in their company’s activity in addition to their daily tasks… But to what extent?

Read the full article in PDF: Are technical communicators the secret asset of a healthy enterprise culture?

What are the Stakes and Difficulties of Working with Experts?

Olympe Lebon, Althéa Geneix, Johan Lefebvre

Paris Diderot University, September 15th 2020

Abstract

A technical writer has a key role within a company. He works with people with various functions. He’s asking developers for advice and feedback to build the user guide of their product. He’s connected and dealing with every part of the team: developers, testers, managers, product experts, etc. to produce documentation that is as clear as possible for the user, and depending on the product, the user’s life can depend on his work. Most of the time, this interaction is a very rich and fulfilling experience.
But how to find the right place between the different services of a company? Communicating with developers is not always easy: they often don’t have time to spend with a technical writer. Receiving feedback from testers can be troublesome, sometimes you don’t get information unless asking clearly for it. Many uninformed people think that being a technical writer is just writing sentences and that anyone can do it. It happens sometimes that even people in their own team don’t recognize the work and the importance of the technical writer. This article explores the difficulties a technical writer can encounter when working with experts.

Read the full article in PDF: What are the Stakes and Difficulties of Working with Experts?

Creativity in Technical Communication: How to combine creativity with technical communication standards ?

Isis AGBLEVON, Anissa GNABA, Mathilde THIEFFINE

Paris Diderot University, July 2020

Abstract

Is technical communication a creative job? Technical communication remains a domain that is often unknown or misunderstood. People tend to think that technical communicators only write procedures and follow guidelines. As technical communicators, we wanted to combine our experience and vision of our work to discuss the vast subject of creativity.

This matter came to us after several discussions about our respective jobs, and tasks. We realized that even though we study the same principles of technical communication, the work we do in our companies can be very different from one another. All of us are confronted to norms and standards that we need to follow, but does it really mean that we cannot be creative?

Read the full article in PDF: Creativity in Technical Communication

9th International Conference on Technical Communication: Evolutions of the Discipline

Evolution of the technical communication discipline

From device documentation to digital training, from UX writing to video tutorials, technical communication is a discipline that covers varied activities. It seems like a single job title will never cover every facet of the profession.
During the next 9th International Conference on technical communication, we will explore the job market, training curricula and evolutions of the trade:

  • The place taken by technical communication within a organisation with the typically associated business: Product, support, marketing, HR…
  • The evolution of skills, methods and tools.
  • The challenge of technical communication training curricula to cover varied needs.
  • The possible career paths in technical communications.

Friday 29 January 2021, from 10.00 – 17.00 Paris Time (UTC+1)

Program

10.00 – 10.10

Introduction

Patricia Minacori and Marie Girard

10.10 – 10.40

Presentation of research projects [PDF]

Master’s Students In Technical Communication, Université de Paris

10.40 – 11.10

Evolution of the profession [PDF]

Elisabeth Closs, Karlsruhe University,  Yvonne Cleary, Limerick University

  • For anyone who would like to join the university network, please email Yvonne Cleary (yvonne.cleary (at) ul.ie) who will add you to the mailing list.
11.10 – 11.40
DITA Molière: A community to support the growing adoption of DITA standard in France [PDF]

Dominique Trouche, WhP

Companies Using DITA

11.40 – 12.30

Networking breakout sessions: What brings technical communicators together?

12.30 – 13.30

Lunch break

13.30 – 14.00

Examining the value of technical communication graduate degrees in non-academic professions [PDF]

Meghalee Das, Texas Tech University, Samantha Casertano, John McClellan, Texas State University

14.00 – 14.30

Information architecture: which skills, roles, and careers? [PDF]

François Violette, JobTeaser

14.30 – 15.00

Designing our way out of information pollution: how technical communicators are leading the shift toward an ecology of information. [PDF]

Alexandre Dias Da Silva, Consultant

15.00 – 15.30

Networking breakout sessions: How will technical communication careers evolve?

15.30 – 16.00

From tech comm to marketing: a tangled journey [PDF]

Michael Priestley, IBM

  • Beyond Silos : https://www.editions-hermann.fr/livre/9791037002754
16.00 – 16.30

Future tech comm trends – Differing opinions, and why everyone could be right [PDF]

Ellis Pratt, Cherryleaf

  • Sarah O’Keefe – Scriptorium. Scriptorium is a consummate content strategy company.
16.30 – 17.00

Community Engagement in Technical Communication Pedagogy [PDF]

Laura Gonzalez, University of Florida

Recordings will be available shortly.

What are the challenges of implementing accessibility standards for technical writers?

Selly BAL – Adel Yann BENZENATI – Heritiana RATSIMBAZAFY

Paris Diderot University, 2018/2019

Abstract

Living with a disability in our society doesn’t necessarily mean needing constant care. However, it means having to adapt everyday: because the world we live in has not adapted to disabilities yet. This is a comment we can apply to technical communication, an activity in which the purpose is to make information accessible to an audience, but where accessibility guidelines are still rare to be found. We attempted with this paper to inquire about the current situation of accessibility to people with disabilities, focusing on visual and hearing impairment. We conducted a survey on technical communication professionals with different experiences and contacted various technical writers with the objective of presenting the norms that already exist in terms of accessibility and showing what’s still missing – with that, we tried to present an analysis of the reasons for the scarcity of norms in technical writing.

Read the full article

What are the challenges of implementing accessibility standards for technical writers? (PDF)

Knowledge management in business strategy

NOTH Rosalie, RENARD Marion, THIBEAUD Hugo

Paris Diderot University, 09/15/2019

Abstract

In recent years, knowledge has become a factor of production in the same way as traditional land, labor and capital. For some, it is even the main factor of production of today’s companies, which tend to create a knowledge management service or to outsource it. The purpose of this research is to understand the importance of Knowledge Management (KM) in companies nowadays, and how it can serve the business strategy. Thus, this article will explain the definition and evolution of KM, then depict the challenges associated with KM and business strategies, and finally explore the way a management system is implemented. Thanks to all these elements, we will be able to understand how the KM system becomes essential in business strategy, and when.

To stick close to reality, we conducted interviews in two companies: one that has implemented a KM system a few years ago, and another without, which allowed us to show two opposite ways of dealing with knowledge in companies, and therefore show the link between KM and business strategies.

Read the full article

Knowledge management in business strategy (PDF)

 

The impact of global language on technical writing

Typhaine BERTEZ, Céleste WICKER

Paris Diderot University, September 2019

Abstract

Technical writing is a profession which evolves and spreads very quickly. From its beginning to today, it has increasingly been recognized as a necessary profession, and as it continues to spread around the world, new questions about its evolution appear every day. One of these questions is related to the language used for technical communication. Now that globalization is at the heart of many companies, English is increasingly used as an international language, to the point that some companies publish technical documentation in English, even though they are not English or based in an English-speaking country. This evolution obviously has consequences for the writers and the companies, who either adapt or do not. When you start writing in a language that is not your mother tongue, you have to adapt your vocabulary and use a language that everybody can understand. Also, the way you write your documentation must change, as formatting rules differ from one country to another. These changes may not be that complicated if the writer is very familiar with the target language and if the company works mainly in an English-speaker market. But what if a French company, for example, which operates in France and in foreign countries writes all of its documentation in English? Would the budget for translation change? Would training for future writers change too? But, in the case of a national company that cannot adapt very quickly to a world that speaks and trades in English, how is it possible to evolve? And what are the consequences? Are there that many differences between an English-based company and a national company?

Read the full article

The impact of global language on technical writing (PDF)