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Technical Documentation has been around in some shape or form since recorded history. With the Egyptians recording technical information with ink and papyrus to the Mesopotamian civilization that would use sharp instruments on clay that would be baked into clay tablets. Whenever man needs to have something explained to someone else, he has always found a way to record it so that others can use the information for themselves.

What sets the documentation of today apart from ancient cultures is the fact that we have far more technologically advanced products than they had in ancient times. With all the technology that continues to come at us, technical writers are probably even more important today. They have the task of compiling instructional or informational documents for specific groups that have a need for them.

Many technological documents are still printed on paper and in book format; it is now becoming quite popular to store such information on computers, laptops and even on PDAs.

Some technical documents are used in material evidence in a crime or it can be used in civil type proceedings. These types of documents can and are usually examined by trained forensic analysts.

For any type of technological documentation to be believed by those who are reading to it or listening to it, it must be believable. The person who comprised it or who is delivering the information needs to be not just reliable but trustworthy. Otherwise it will be hard to convince those who need to be convinced about something. Technical writers that come with a respectable, reliable and trustworthy background will have a far easier time of swaying someone to believe what they are presenting.

Basically technical documentation is information presented in a way that whoever is reading it can solve a particular problem or learn how to do something correctly. Those who are considered to be technical writers present their information in manuals, on websites, newsletters, proposals, lab reports and many more different types of informational documentation.

This type of documentation in the United States has a variety of meanings and uses, however; in Great Britain for instance this type of documentation relates only to scientific and technological topics only.

In the United States documentation is available to the public as well as more specialized documentation that can be found for sales people, installation personnel, service techs, waste disposal and a variety of other technical personnel are targets for informational documentation.

Those who write documentation for a variety of products that are sold to the general public are quite often considered as mediators between the company and those who have purchased their products.

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