The importance of effective technical writing
It is nearly impossible to overstate the benefits of being able to write well.
In my experience it is more important to be able to write well than to speak well, at least until you reach very senior levels of your organization or are interacting regularly with the public directly as a representative of your company. Written communication has a central role in the success of an organization and the ability to express yourself only adequately is simply not, well, adequate.
Your core products are ideas
Your core products as a scientist or engineer are ideas, and ideas have to be communicated to have any value. The default mode of this communication will be written products (email, white papers, proposals, etc. …). By far you’ll spend the lion’s share of your efforts communicating ideas communicating them in writing. And this is true in all fields of science, engineering, and technology.
First impressions are often written
With the importance of e-mail in all professions, but especially in technology professions, writing has also become the foundation of that all-important interaction: the first impression. Many times the first interaction—perhaps the first of several interactions you have with a client, a peer, or a boss—will be via e-mail.
Writing well and clearly communicating your message will shape a positive first impression of you and the kind of person you are, and also of your technical competence. Creating a poor first impression in writing is something that you can recover from when you actually meet the person, but you will have a hard time recovering from the poor impression your e-mail recipient will form of your technical abilities.
They shouldn’t be related, but they are (this is because you are actually selling a service; more about this when we talk about branding).
Poor writing skills will stall your career early
And if you cannot communicate well in writing you’re going to have a very tough time making a successful career from your first job. Even if this handicap doesn’t inhibit you in an entry-level position, you will run into a wall on your first promotion.
Team leaders have to maintain a variety of written documents, including project progress reports and plans, which many people will review. If you cannot create these written documents effectively, you will quickly stagnate. You might say to yourself, “Well, that’s fine for those money-grubbing prep-school folks, but I want to be an engineer the rest of my life. I don’t care about getting promoted, so my writing doesn’t matter.” Wrong!
Yes, even YOU care about writing well
If you want to spend your life head down in the trenches, it is probably because you care passionately about what you are doing. In order for your designs and ideas to be implemented you’re going to have to be able to communicate them to others in…guess what?…writing!
