Peek into the Technical Writing and Technical Translation Event

Peek into the Technical Writing and Technical Translation Event

On 27th December 2018, an interesting event on “What’s Technical Writing and Technical Translation” was organized by Language Services Bureau, Pune at PES Modern College of Engineering, Pune with following speakers:

• Ms. Mukta Kirloskar (Technical Writer – BMC Pune, Editor)
• Mr. Swapnil Ogale (Technical Writer, Speaker, Conference Wrangler, Initiator: Write the Docs Australia)
• Ms. Devaki Kunte (Head of Operations – Language Services Bureau, Pune)

The target audience for this event was mostly engineering and technology students and graduates since it was conducted in association with a renowned College of Engineering.

This event gave a glimpse into technical writing, technical translation, processes involved, challenges faced in the respective fields, career prospects and the skills required.

Mukta and Swapnil who are both Technical Writers shared their experiences and they emphasized on improving grammar and written language skills in the language. They also mentioned how a keen interest in technology and good communication skills were important for a tech writer!

The domains in which technical writing is regularly required according to them

• Information technology
• Aviation
• Medicine
• Finance
• Defence
• Energy
• Telecommunications
• Security

The major takeaway from the event was ways in which students can try their hand in Technical Writing:

• Freelance opportunities available on the internet – freelancer.com, upwork.com, etc.
• Open source projects on the internet
• Some companies that offer internship
• Information about technical writing courses available online
• Information about technical writing available online – blogs, grammar helplines, etc.

In the Technical Translation section, importance of correct translations with funny examples, processes, challenges and importance of Indian languages with the reasons for the growing demand were covered by Devaki. She mentioned speaking, reading and writing regularly in a language as key to improving it – whether it is a foreign language or a vernacular one!

The event concluded with a Q&A session and a vote of thanks. All in all, it was a very informative session for the attendees as it gave a peek into these two career options which requires both language skills and technical skills!