Technical writing is changing fast. Job postings look different from what they did five years ago. Skills that used to sit in the background are now front and center in hiring decisions. The technical writing skills employers want today have shifted, and paying attention to that gap matters.
This post is not about feeling behind. It is about recognizing what the market is signaling and leaning into the skills that make you hard to replace. Three of them have moved from background qualifications to headline requirements in a short period of time.
Why the Technical Writing Skills Employers Want Are Shifting
Technical writing has always evolved alongside the industries it serves. Software growth, cloud services, and complex consumer technology have all pushed documentation into a more central role on product teams. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment for technical writers is projected to grow 7 percent through 2032, faster than the average across all occupations (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023).
That growth is not happening in a vacuum. Writing tools that generate draft content automatically are now common in workplaces of all sizes. Content also needs to work across more surfaces than before. Furthermore, users have grown less patient with poorly written documentation. These pressures have pushed certain skills up the priority list in a way that feels permanent.
Plain Language Writing
Plain language writing gets underestimated because it sounds simple. It is the ability to take something dense and present it so the reader understands on the first pass. No unnecessary jargon, no sentences that require re-reading, no structure that buries the main point.
Research from the Plain Language Action and Information Network shows that clear writing reduces the need for follow-up support, lowers user error rates, and improves product satisfaction (Plain Language Action and Information Network, 2011). Companies hiring technical writers care deeply about those outcomes.
As more organizations bring writers into the product process earlier, plain language has shifted from a finishing touch to a core competency. Writers strong in this area contribute beyond documentation, covering interface text, error messages, and onboarding content. The market is rewarding that kind of reach.
Structuring Content for Multiple Destinations
Structured content means organizing information so it can appear in more than one place without being rewritten. A single source might feed a PDF guide, a help website, a chatbot response, and a product tooltip simultaneously.
Companies are managing more content across more platforms than before. Doing that without a consistent structure gets expensive fast (Rockley & Cooper, 2012). Writers who build content with reuse in mind become multipliers for the team. That distinction matters when budgets are tight.
Even smaller teams without formal structured authoring systems benefit from this thinking. Writers who separate content from formatting and write in self-contained chunks are already practicing the foundations. That preparation pays off as structured approaches become more common across the industry.
Editing with Technical Judgment
Automated draft tools are now standard in many technical environments. Teams use them for documentation, release notes, and support articles. As a result, the editing side of technical writing has become considerably more strategic.
Editing for accuracy is not proofreading. It means verifying that the information is correct, that the steps work as described, that the terminology matches the product, and that nothing could mislead a user. That judgment requires real subject matter knowledge and experience with how users interact with content.
Research has found that human review remains essential for accuracy in technical content, especially when drafts are generated by automated tools (Swarts, 2021). Writers who are strong editors with genuine technical depth are filling a gap that is unlikely to close anytime soon. Moreover, that skill compounds with experience, making seasoned technical editors difficult to replace.
How These Three Skills Reinforce Each Other
These three skills do not operate in isolation. Plain language writing supports structured content because concise writing is easier to reuse. Structured content needs strong editing because accuracy matters even more when content appears across many surfaces. Strong editing sharpens plain language because a trained eye catches complexity that crept in during drafting.
Together, they form a triangle in which each skill strengthens the other two. Most working writers already have some foundation in all three areas. The shift is simply about being deliberate and treating these as investments rather than assumed competencies that take care of themselves.
Building the Technical Writing Skills Employers Want
These three areas offer a strong return on development time. Plain language can be practiced on any current project without waiting for a new role or training program. Content structure is worth exploring through introductory resources on topic-based writing, even if your current workplace does not yet use formal systems. Editorial judgment grows sharper with every review process you take full ownership of.
The technical writing skills employers want are moving toward depth rather than novelty. The writers who stand out are not the ones with the most tools. They are the ones who bring judgment that no template can supply on its own. Plain language, structural thinking, and editorial accuracy are where the real value sits right now.
If this post hit home, you’ll probably like my short book Technical Writing in the AI Era: Strategies for Survival and Success in 2026 by Scott McMahan (McMahan Writing and Editing).
It’s written for working technical writers who don’t just want to “learn some AI tools,” but want a clear plan for how the role is changing—and what to do about it. You’ll learn:
- What AI handles well vs. where it still fails in real documentation work—so you know where to focus your human advantage.
- How to move from execution to strategy (so you’re not competing with “faster drafting”).
- Eight practical, repeatable strategies for job survival and career growth in an AI-heavy workplace.
- A simple learning framework (weekly/monthly/quarterly/annual) you can actually stick with.
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References
Plain Language Action and Information Network. (2011). Federal plain language guidelines. https://www.plainlanguage.gov/guidelines/
Rockley, A., & Cooper, C. (2012). Managing enterprise content: A unified content strategy (2nd ed.). New Riders.
Swarts, J. (2021). Editing in the age of automated writing assistance. Technical Communication Quarterly, 30(3), 1–15.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2023). Occupational outlook handbook: Technical writers. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/media-and-communication/technical-writers.htm
