Why technical writing is important

Words matter. They enable you to communicate with your customers, your users. Whether it's the instructions on the packaging, the installation manual, the user guide, the on-line help or the troubleshooting information, sooner or later your customers are going to have to rely on the words you write for them.

Depending on the way those words are organised, written and presented, your customers will either breeze through the tasks they are trying to complete, or they will struggle and become frustrated. There's many a product that fails - not because there's anything wrong with the design or the manufacture, but because the users cannot work out how to operate it properly. And that usually happens when the words have been put together in a hurry, at the last minute, or by someone who isn't an expert in technical writing.

When budgets are tight (and whose aren't these days), there is often pressure to keep costs down by having the product developers write the user instructions or help. Mostly, programmers and engineers don't like writing user documentation. They regard it as a chore, and frankly they usually aren't much good at it. This approach results in a two-fold loss: first, the user documentation becomes the weak link - the one factor that may cause the product to fail, and second, the developers are spending time on the documentation when they could be doing what you pay them for and what they are good at - development work.

The answer to this problem is to use a professional technical author. Not everyone can afford to employ a full-time author, especially when the requirement is often intermittent. That's where suppliers like Wordsworth come in. We can provide top quality technical writing services as and when you need them. We come to visit you to determine exactly what your requirements are. We provide a clear estimate of what needs to be produced, how long it will take and how much it will cost.

Sometimes these costs may surprise you. "That much money for a user guide?" However, when you compare the cost of using your own developers to do the work, you will find that the professional author is quicker, more efficient AND provides a quality end product.
It's all about value for money.