The Crystal Ball

Technical communication in India could be an analytical topic today to talk about as to where the caravan is moving in terms of its past beginning, present strength and the future prospect. It is hard to collate the information about the beginning of this skilled profession on the yardsticks of its maturity and prevalence in terms of numbers of years in India. Subsequently, tracking the information about the industry which had the privilege to employ the technical communicator first into its fold, is another tough job.

However, notably the present scenario entails a lot about where the large chunks of technical communicators are employed today. They are mostly part of the documentation division of Information Technology industry in India. The seer number is quite difficult to arrive at because the employment ratio of software developer, tester and technical writer is not computed. In absence of that varying data, approximation helps, which gauge the range in between 4000 to 5000. Looking at the size of the industry, the future suggests that the number is bound to grow. Specifically Indian technical writers proving their metal that they can do exactly the same what developers and tester have done so far in terms of producing cost effective quality work. But it is not as easy as writing the piece of code, or testing the functionality of an application, that too in a foreign language. It is really a very difficult proposition and technical communication in India by far is in nascent stage to analyze correctly.

But if we look at the crowd, the substantial increase in the number of technical communicator hired and employed today, this profession looks very promising. As per my personal assessment goes, the technical documentation especially in India have been the complementary shoot of its parent company abroad which houses native English language technical writers. The obvious option as choice for Indian technical communicator is not yet ascertain.

Although, how do Indian technical writers fare on the parameter of quality of writing, is still in the phase of black box testing. The IT industry presently faces the dearth of technical writers and aspirant from writing or non-writing background are trying their luck to break into this profession. Experience in technical writing is another question, about which many falter, boast and try to override others. Many who boast more number of years spent in technical communication can not truly claim to be a better technical writer. Similarly less experienced communicator can not be under rated in terms of quality of writing. Technical communication is more of personal skilled area than a trained profession. The reason is, you can teach a person how to write codes in java in a year or two but writing good English takes years of toil. And, probably, writers can neither be created, nor be made, they just happened to be writers.

The crux is, technical communication in India would definitely have edge if true writers are willing to make it their career. Today, many sinners are in the garb of seers and separating them from the real seer would take some time as the profession grows and matures.

Above all, at the time when IT is facing the challenge of speculating faults from other industry and trying to contain, it’s testing time even for technical communication in India, which is directly proportional to the growth of the IT industry. How you look at the crystal ball today is the perspective defined and the brightness of ball would be the reflection of the light it receives

Thought: Catch if you can

When I read books I really wonder about the good ideas and thought produced by the author and can not really understand why all of us can not write like them. Why is that few individuals are bestowed with so much of brilliant ideas and artistic skills of writing to make it fascinating for the readers that once they hold the book in hand like to complete in one stretch provided there are no other hindrances bothering them. Why is that the beautiful language is theirs property only and not ours too? Can it be imbibed? Can it be copied?

If the ideas alone are the great gift of the writers, which comes pouring in terms of thought, I bet, even I will have hundreds of ideas to share which could be as creative and as brilliant as any of the published writers. My minds also runs millions of races everyday and goes dipper down the thought of human emancipation, societal differences, crosses political and geographical boundaries and feels as much as any other writer’s mind could do. Some times my beautiful thoughts could be better than some of the write-up produced and published by others which are at times looks boring and heavy to go ahead. I sometimes also feel more than any writer could feel. Yet, I am not able to produce a small write-up of extraordinary interest.

From within, as I feel good about myself to write about the things what I perceive, certainly I feel uncomfortable setting my dates and times to decide and put down my thoughts on the paper, may be in forms of small articles, story, poetry and essays or travel diaries. I fumble; say excuses, postponed for tomorrow. And that tomorrow never comes. Still hopefully wait for the other days for this to happen. But it does not happen on its own. Slowly the urge and feeling of writing dies down.

Then once gain, I feel I could have written what I thought to write about, but the idea is now faint. I force my mind to recall what I had thought of writing but even a small fraction of that does not come to my mind. I repent and feel sad and say to me myself, “had I written the same day, I could have made it good”. Several times I try the same thing but hardly have I had few to count on my credit to say that I have written some thing. Are these worthwhile to share with readers? Is the publisher willing to publish it for the public consumption? I do not know and I do not have answer for all these. Of course these can be critically assessed comparing the interest of the readers. Some trends are known and some are not, which are unusually new could be a first time trial too. This entirely depends on the judgment of the editors who knows the pulse of the readers better.

Well, I compared myself with the writers who have shown their brilliance in the public, but in reality I am nowhere near to them. This is when I realize that they have something what I do not have. They are better than me and that is why they are able to write what they feel. They are able to speak the human mind as if it could be in real life. Although, those could be merely the imagination of their mind. Some times these thoughts could be much ahead of the time, some times it could be not real at all, and some times it could be fictitious too. Yet they successfully articulate the web of words to catch the attention of the reader.

Yes! Some times I have put down my good ideas and that sounds really brilliant to me but compare to the way the legendary writers put, it is tasteless and it can not be the recipe of readers for good time to enlighten their mind and enjoy. Then I have another question, “What makes them good wordsmith?” Some times even the very known and simple facts what they write also becomes good food for the readers.

The big fact is to catch the flying thought and preserve them in whatever way you can. How can you do is the million dollars question. But you can devise some mechanism of your own for saving it in some format, may be in the form of an outline plot, an outline sketch or some points. So that you can catch them later, to put on the entire embellishment. Even then, I believe you will not be able to completely catch your original thought but at least better than losing them altogether. Writing of course is the work of toil. Try once, twice, thrice and many more times until you feel satisfied. Imagine, if you only are not satisfied, how can you satisfy your editor or for that matter your readers. No one has become good wordsmith overnight. Everyone has undergone the grinding.

So, the buzz word is: Thought. Catch if you can and act as a discovering wordsmith who has passion to see themselves reading through the minds of their readers.