Commercial, academic and governmental organizations employ technical communicators as writers, editors, public relations experts, information designers, documentation and project managers, and as mixed media creators. The technical communicator is first, and foremost, an accomplished writer who produces clear, precise, timely, and effective prose. However, technical communicators also are adept at integrating texts and images into cohesive creations that exist equally well on paper and on the computer screen.

Technical communicators write online and print computer documentation, create and manage complex sets of technical specifications, write overviews of scientific and technical processes, and produce a diverse range of documents that are used both by the expert and by the layperson. Technical communicators often serve as translators, interpreting the continually changing language of advanced technology into a language we can all easily understand.