Some people wonder what’s the difference between technical writers and content writers since they all write content. In this post, I will tell you about the differences between these two professions.

Whi is Technical Writer

“A professional writer who creates various types of technical documentation, helping people understand how to use a product or a service… documentation can be delivered to the end-user both as a printed version or as an electronic version. In many organizations, the role of a technical writer is delegated to software developers, support engineers, quality assurance engineers.” ~ClickHelp: Who is Technical Writer?

As you can see, a technical writer is actually a content contributor but this content has a wide range of specifics, first of all, technical writing content is…technical. It requires a special skillset, background, knowledge of different tools, and the like.

Let’s have a look at technical writers’ responsibilities and skillset to learn the difference between the two professions.

What Technical Writers Actually Do

Technical writers are professionals who create:

• API documentation
• Instructions
• User manuals
• Descriptions of production systems
• Articles and documents on legal topics
• Product specifications
• Memos
• FAQs
• Datasheet
• Etc.

Documentation is not only about IT products since tech writers desired in different spheres from engineering to medicine. It requires a broad knowledge of a certain field, technical writers should often have higher education in a specific area of writing.

Technical Writer Skillset

• Strong grammar and writing skills.
• Research skills. Technical writing is about delivering complex information in a more precise way. Technical writers will often need to read a vast amount of data in order to understand and restructure the information so users can understand it easily.
• Communication skills since tech writers don’t only write but also communicate with members of other teams to get the necessary information about a product.
• Basic knowledge of coding. Some types of technical documentation, for example, API documentation, require knowledge of coding languages.
• Planning and time management skills.

Of course, it’s not a full list, but these ones are key.

Who is Content Writer

A content writer creates content covering a range of topics; this can be anything like content for website pages, blogs, reviews, social media posts, and the like. A content writer always pays attention to search engine optimization and keywords to reach a target audience and attract new readers to websites.

What Content Writers Actually Do

So, content writers are professionals who create:

• Blog posts
• Product descriptions
• Web pages
• E-books
• Social media posts
• Category pages
• Etc.

As you can see, the content can be on different topics.

Content Writer Skillset

• Strong grammar and writing skills.
• Research skills to provide high-quality content.
• Planning and time management skills.
• Excellent communication is necessary to interview a manager or client about specific task details.

What are the Differences

As you can see, technical writers and content writers have something in common, for example, skills like strong grammar and writing skills, research skills and the like. However, these two professions are different. In spite, technical writers and content writers create content the types are very different. Technical writing content requires more specific knowledge than content writing. For example, if technical writers create documentation for medical equipment, of course, they should have a strong medical background to provide effective writing since people’s lives depend on this documentation.

Also, technical writing must be objective and independent to make difficult content as clear as possible. Content writing can contain an author’s opinion, figures of style and so on.

Plus, technical writers use professional help authoring tools for writing while Google Docs may be enough for content writing.

There are many diffences between these two positions but the above ones are key.