>"The most important thing to remember about technical writing is that the goal is not necessarily to be understood, but rather to avoid misunderstanding. That

>"The most important thing to remember about technical writing is that the goal is not necessarily to be understood, but rather to avoid misunderstanding. That quote is fantastic. Having worked as a Technical Writer, the problem I most often run into is what I term the "forest for the trees" issue. Oftentimes, I work or did work with engineers who knew a language, framework or low-level system inside and out. Sometimes they even spent their entire adult lives learning it. When it came time to communicate the essentials of said technology or language, it was almost like they froze, unable to go back to basics or build concepts from the ground up. If it wasn't high-level or advanced, they stumbled. I was often brought into situations like these with little knowledge of what I might be asked to write about. I was usually given the option of starting a project by interviewing engineers, but often delayed that and did a bit of my own research first. Once I had the most basic of concepts and understanding locked down, I would guide the engineer toward those areas, and have them start remembering their earliest introduction to whatever their area of expertise was. I found that was oftentimes the best way to avoid being misunderstood — not for me to understand everything 100 percent, but to get those who did to break things down into the simplest terms and build things up.