The purpose of technical writing is to link you and your boss, you and clients, you and vendors, and you and coworkers. Technical writing creates action. When you write successful technical correspondence, someone on the other end responds. — Sharon J. Gerson, Steven M. Gerson, “An Introduction to Technical Writing,” Technical Writing: Process and Product, 4th edition.
Teamwork
Teamwork is a significant part of our process at Scriptorium, whether working within our own team or with clients. Each team member offers a host of new perspectives based on their education, experiences, and values.
Between writers and editors, and writers and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), teamwork creates the groundwork for technical documentation. Initial drafts require information from all angles, helping move documentation forward through collaboration and understanding. Working collaboratively enhances the project’s productivity and fosters communication, resulting in better documentation. This is especially important in technical writing, where the goal is to communicate complex information in a straightforward and accessible way.
Five Areas of Teamwork
In Technical Writing: Process and Product, Sharon J. Gerson and Steven M. Gerson identify five areas in which teamwork is important:
● Diversity of opinion
● Checks and balances
● Broad-based understanding
● Empowerment
● Team building
With the combined experiences and education throughout Scriptorium’s team, we believe in the importance of the five key areas of teamwork and offer further perspectives on how they strengthen technical documentation.
Diversity of Opinion
Diversity of opinion allows team members to see past their own perspectives. Working with a variety of SMEs on documentation allows technical writers to see the bigger picture, helping us address potential gaps in processes and procedures that were not identified earlier on, leading to a more extensive and inclusive document that will meet your audience’s needs.
When our writers are paired with your experts, we create high-quality, well-rounded documents by honouring your SMEs feedback, helping us create documentation based specifically on your business’s needs.
Checks and Balances
Teamwork keeps team members in check by offering insights, suggestions, and corrections. This not only improves accuracy but also ensures a higher standard of quality in all project documentation.
When you have been deeply immersed in a project, whether through content creation, writing, editing, or otherwise, it is absolutely necessary to have a second set of eyes review your document. An individual who is not close to the project is able to have a clear vision of what your document will accomplish, and through their review, you can catch potential contextual or grammatical issues that were missed during the first or second draft. At Scriptorium, it is our standard to have a second set of eyes on all projects.
Broad-Based Understanding
Each team member’s unique expertise leads to a more comprehensive coverage of the subject. This results in documents that are both informative and insightful. Everyone at Scriptorium has a wide array of experiences and education with a focus on business and technical communication, including teaching, instructional design, technical writing, policy writing, researching, and editing. We can use this diversity of skills to match the right writer to each client's project.
Empowerment
Working together on technical documents empowers team members by giving them a sense of ownership and involvement. When individuals contribute their knowledge and ideas, they feel invested in the final outcome and are more motivated to produce high-quality content.
We are focused on establishing a relationship with our clients as we move through the stages of creating their documentation. We encourage feedback and buy-in, as having input from our clients helps us create documentation that is customized to their business, addressing what their business needs by understanding their teams and environment. When our clients receive their final documentation back, we want to ensure they feel their business was well represented and that we captured their voice within all of their documents.
Team Building
Collaborative document creation fosters a sense of camaraderie among team members. As they share insights, solve challenges, and work towards a common goal, bonds are formed. This improved team cohesion can extend beyond the document creation process and positively impact overall team dynamics.
Though Scriptorium is a remote-based business, we never work alone. With our team available right at our fingertips, any questions we have can be addressed in real-time—which is also true for our clients.
At Scriptorium, our team of writers and editors have experience in all sizes of documentation projects. Our expertise can help bring your team’s hard work together by collaborating with them to create high-quality documentation.
Want to make Scriptorium part of your team? Contact us to learn how we can work with your subject matter experts to create technical documents that work for your organization.